On the data used.
The below maps feature data from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2014 American Community Survey about racial demographic change and current socioeconomic trends by neighborhood in Chicago. While Census data is not readily available at the neighborhood level, I was able to acquire a comprehensive dataset with data compiled at the Chicago Community Area level from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the region’s MPO. The units of analysis are Chicago Community Areas (CCAs), the standard neighborhood-level categorization used by most public and nonprofit agencies in Chicago to understand community level dynamics.
On the maps themselves.
The particular data I mapped highlight racial demographic trends by community area, specifically looking at the cities Black and Latino populations.
Beginning with Latino demographics, Map 1 below shows that Chicago’s Latino community in 2014 was predominantly concentrated along the Southwest and Northwest sides, with a smaller enclave also in East Chicago near the city’s border with Indiana. This map only visually confirms what many people already know about Chicago: that it has a spatially segregated residential pattern.
Map 1: Percent Latino in 2014
Similarly, Map 2 below shows the same data for Chicago’s black population in 2014. As is readily apparent, the city’s black population is most heavily concentrated across the south side neighborhoods, with a significant secondary concentration in the city’s west side and a medium concentration on the far north side.
Map 2: Percent Black in 2014
The last 2 maps I created still track racial demographics but instead look at relative change between 2010 and 2014. Map 3 focuses on absolute Latino population change and Map 4 focuses on Black population change. These tell two slightly different stories. In Map 3, you can see a trend of Latino population growth in communities adjacent to those with significant Latino population loss (which suggests a possible pattern of displacement). In Map 4, you can see the continued outmigration of Chicago’s black community across most south side neighborhoods.
Map 3: Change in Latino Population from 2010 to 2014
Map 4: Change in Black Population from 2010 to 2014
My general audience for these maps is anyone interested in understanding racial and demographic changes in Chicago. For policymakers, the visualizations can shed light on how different neighborhoods of the city are changing as well as the existing racialized settlement trends of the city. For advocates, the visualizations help show where resident are being displaced or which communities are rapidly depopulating.
On the map making process.
My process for creating the maps was relatively simple. Having worked with this dataset over the summer, I had already created the main variable of interest to me: racial and ethnic population change from 2010 to 2014. Yet because my dataset did not include and geospatial data, I still had to access some files with the Chicago community areas geolocation information. I was able to get this from the City of Chicago’s open data portal, which I downloaded as a KML file and uploaded via CartoDB. I was able to merge the geospatial data with my dataset using the common community name.
As for the design details of each, my biggest decisions were around the color scales. For the population change maps, I wanted to use a 2-color gradient to highlight the stark difference between population growth and loss. My goal was to intuitively match red with population loss and green with population growth (which I ended up having to manually do in CartoCSS). I also chose to use quantile categories in each choropleth map as a straightforward way to compare all 77 communities to each other. Finally, across all maps I also included hover infowindows to show identify each community area and share the relevant data for that map (such as black population change in both absolute and percentage formats).