[Google Maps API v2] Re: Census Data 2010: Getting it and Using it

This might interest you: http://maps.webfoot.com/demos/demographics/
I know these are generated tiles, although I'm not sure how, I assume
it is dynamic since she lets you change the colors.
It's one of the coolest Google API maps I've seen.

On Aug 30, 6:46 pm, Aaron Kreider <aa...@campusactivism.org> wrote:
> I want to start a thread for people who are interested in mapping the
> US 2010 Census Data - for sharing ideas and free data sources.
>
> My goal is to make a map of the US that shows Race at the block
> level.  So I'd like to color code areas for the major race groups:
> black, white, hispanic, asian, and native american.  I'm also
> interested in income data - which is available down to the census
> tract level.
>
> There are several problems trying to do this with Google Maps. These
> problems include
>
> -Census Data set is very large - 200 GB for the entire summary file
> 1.  It'll be smaller if I filter out all the variables I don't need,
> but it still is going to be huge.
>
> -Google Maps has trouble displaying large KML files. I'd like to
> convert the Tiger Shapefiles (which define the boundaries of census
> tracts, block groups, etc) into KML.  This is probably feasible if I
> do it for a single state and only down to the census tract level. But
> if I try to do it for block groups or blocks - it will be harder.
>
> -I could generate tiles.  But if I want to show blocks on tiles I need
> to go to zoom level 14 or more.  I either need to statically generate
> a huge number of tiles (to cover the entire US at zoom level 14) or do
> it dynamically.  For generating static tiles I think GMapCreator looks
> like the best solution:http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp
> Does around 1000 tiles/minute on my computer.
>
> -Census Data is in a hard to use format.   The Census Bureau
> recommends using a Microsoft Access tool to access it.  If you do not
> need the block groups and block level data, an *excellent* resource
> is:http://census.ire.org/
>
> How can I display block level data?
>
> For Census Geographical Areas my guess is there are around
> -3000 counties
> -40,000 zip codes
> -75,000 census tracts (1 per 4000 people)
> -210,000 block groups
> -8 million blocks
>
> If I were to use KML I think I could display counties for the entire
> US map, zip codes when zoomed in to the state, census tracts when
> zoomed into the state (might be slow for big states), block groups
> when zoomed into a county, and blocks for medium and small counties.
> To do this I'd need to generate 3000+ KML files (one for each
> county).  Is there a better way?
>
> Note: I'm using this county KML file (which you are free to use):http://www.energyjustice.net/map/kml/county_boundaries.kml
>
> Also: Are there any good Census 2010 data APIs?

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