Final Lab: Percentages of Race: Continental U.S. Counties

Descriptions of Each Map

For the thematic maps of the census, I went with different percentage rates of the Black, Asian, and some other race alone in comparison to the overall population of the counties of the United States. The top map is the one on the Black race, the middle map is the one on the Asian race, and the bottom map is the one about some other races alone census.
The Black race map shows a high population in the southern to eastern regions of the United States. The legend within the map has the percentage break downs and the areas that are colored RED have counties that have over 50% Black. The ORANGE filled counties show that there is between 30 to 50 percent of the population is Black. If the bottom end of the spectrum is taken into account, from percentages ranging from >10%, we can see that there is very little of the Black race in the plains and central west.
The Asian race map shows high concentrations of the race in Los Angeles County as well as the counties in Northern California near San Francisco. A little bit of background history can explain why this is the matter, it is due to the fact that many Asian immigrants immigrated here to Angel Island. The Northern California region shows high percentages ranging from 20 to 46%. There are also pockets of Asian race in the south of Texas and north of the east coast.
The Some Other Race alone census, also known as Hispanics, show prominence in Southern California and counties in Texas. The highest spectrum for counties with this race is between 22 to 40 percent. This can be due to the fact that the country of Mexico borders these relative states. As the map indicates, the percentages drop as you go farther north and east.
The census maps here show percentages of different races in relation to their population in their counties. If I were to conduct a study looking at income levels of different counties of the United States, I would definitely use this chloropleth map to see if race plays a factor.

Concluding discussion about your census map series

The census map series seems to be very applicable in the in real world situations and if you were going to figure out statistics of people. I feel that the chloropleth map is a good map to be used in this situation because of the distinctions and different values that can be distinctly classified. I enjoy learning about statistics of our nation because it is interesting, culturally, historically and socially to understand why people are where they are.

Overall impressions of GIS

I am very impressed with the hand on technique that I felt in this class, and the topic of GIS is very interesting because I feel that it is very applicable to many things ranging from the environment to business. Geographic information systems are a great way of conducting spatial analysis with the impressive technology that it has at hand with ArcGIS. I definitely have been impressed and I will definitely attempt to minor in GIS because of its technical laden value and the ability to apply it to many things with spatial analysis as the driving force.