Viewer's Choice
OPPORTUNITY ATLAS
By: Aiswarya Baiju
OPPORTUNITY ATLAS
By: Aiswarya Baiju
Purpose: An interactive tool which can be used by the users to find data on children's outcomes in adulthood for every Census tract in U.S. The Opportunity Atlas aims to show which neighborhoods in America will offer the children the best and the worst opportunities to rise out of poverty. This tool lets the user explore a wide selection of data which shows children's adulthood characteristics depending on where they grew up. It is intended this was so these data can be utilized to make more informed decisions in order to address issues related to poverty and to provide opportunities for a better economic upward mobility.
The data for the visualization was used from anonymous data following 20 million Americans from childhood to their mid-30s
Combined three sources of anonymized data and was collected from:
Constructed an analysis sample of those Americans born between 1978-1983 and mapped these individuals back to their Census tracts that they lived in through age 23 and then for each 70k tracts, the children's outcomes across a range of measures are estimated
The data used for the visualization purposes were retrieved from the Census Bureau. The estimates of upward mobility are based on the outcomes of children born between 1978-83.
Any opinions and conclusions expressed are those of the authors and they don't necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Predicted outcomes are displayed based on actual outcomes of kids who grew up in each geographic area and the prediction model used for this visualization accounts for the fact that they do not observe children at every single parental income level in every single tract and demographic subgroup.
They do not publish estimates that rely on fewer than 20 children because there aren't large enough samples to yield reliable estimates.
The data presents estimates for children in three core parental income groups in the standard version of the Atlas:
Look at the table below:
The users have several options to alter the data and see the changes and variations.
The Opportunity Atlas is a phenomenal visualization creation done by the researchers from various places and it goes above and beyond for what is expected for the user's selection. It is the first dataset that provides such longitudinal information at a detailed neighborhood level.
As aforementioned, there are over 50 options from which the users can choose from so there is indeed an immense amount of data since we ere accounting for 20 million people. It could be a little difficult to filter multiple things at once but the initial release of this social data has been organized quite well with different modes so they have even more control of what they are viewing.
Basic Mode: the simplest way to view the data
Advanced Mode: adds the ability to filter the corresponding map regions for specific criteria and allows you to look at two additional parental income levels
Compare Mode: allows you to select any two groups and directly compare their outcomes in each neighborhood
Filters: Very useful way to select which estimates appear on screen based on the children's outcomes or neighborhood characteristics because this lets you hone in on neighborhoods with specified characteristics.
Improvement:
After the users select the location, they have to pick the outcome they want to visualize but it's present twice in the page in different formats and this wastes a lot of space. Having it displayed on two sides in a different way leads to confusion considering the amount of information that's already present. They could have had the second one just for definitions and the first one to show the numbers and percentile of those outcomes
The hovering feature changes value very fast so if someone has it on a border of a county and they accidentally move it even a millimeter, it will change the value so if they implement a click and select feature, it would have been beneficial
Another important improvement, quite an essential one, is having the "Advanced" and "Compare Outcome" mode displayed on the screen so the users know that it exists as well as have it displayed on the initial pop-up that appears so the users are aware of it. Without this, the users won't know that there exists such two features that will enable them to do multitudes of things
This visualization will help those who want to see which neighborhood will give children more and better opportunities to rise out of poverty
This can also be used by those who are trying to find neighborhood that doesn't provide good opportunities to children so they can develop solutions and help them receive better chances on rising out of poverty
The data achieved from tract-level will let these users reach different conclusions in different places
Individuals such as researchers and policymakers who are constantly seeking to improve opportunities in neighborhoods in America can use this customized platform
Users who are keen on visualizing neighborhood characteristics can use this and can manipulate various demographic combinations to focus on factors that affect the future of children