SOC/CRJ 435/535: Urban Sociology

Community Data and Maps - Michigan

Data Driven Detroit: houses a comprehensive data system that includes current and historic demographic, socioeconomic, educational, environmental, and other indicators.

• This data system allows analysts to illustrate complex relationships by combining different datasets to reveal the true stories of our regions, cities and blocks.

SEMCOG Data and Maps (Southeast Michigan Council of Governments): includes information on demographics, socio-economics, housing, land use, and transportation related data.

Detroit Crime Viewer: Interactive crime map (currently in beta phase) that shows where and when crimes were committed. Crimes are color-coded and it displays location, arrest category, report number, and charge description of incidents that happened within city limits. Users can filter results by date and crime, crime type, and also select location by police precincts, zip codes, neighborhoods, council districts, or by searching the interactive map.

Other Sources for Community Data and Maps

See the GIS Software guide and the ArcGIS StoryMaps guide if you would like to use GIS software for mapping (optional). Contact GIS Librarian Joel Seewald at seewaldj@umich.edu if you have any questions about using GIS software.

Policy Map (library database): a geographic information system (GIS) used to understand U.S. communities. Included in the tool is access to PolicyMap's extensive data collection, with over 15,000 indicators used to understand communities.

• These indicators are organized into general categories including demographics, income and spending, housing, lending activity, quality of life, economy, education, health, federal guidelines, and other analysis.
• For help, see their tutorials and FAQs on their Help page. 
• VPN is needed to access this database from off-campus: follow the VPN Setup instructions on the Online Library Access page.

Sage dataplanet (library database): Provides access to statistical information produced by U.S. federal agencies, private companies, and intergovernmental organizations. Create maps and reports from data you select from over 640 datasets.

• Subjects include health, housing, crime, population, finance, industry, and marketing.
• Check out their Search FAQs and Search Guides for help finding datasets in this database.

Social Explorer (library database): includes tools that allow you to explore U.S. Census data through the use of interactive data maps and also allows you to browse and download Census data in convenient formats for offline processing.

• For help, see their tutorials as well as their curated maps and datasets on their Help Guide.

US Census:  the leading source of quality data about American people and communities

• American Community Survey (ACS): an ongoing survey that provides vital information on a yearly basis about our nation and its people, including demographics, housing, economic, and social data
• Profiles: Get an overview of your state, county, or place all in one location with their geo-profile pages.
  • Provides high-level statistics about your area regarding people and population, race and ethnicity, families and living arrangements, health, education, business and economy, employment, housing, and income and poverty.
  • Try searching for your hometown to see what data they have, and don’t forget to share or embed the maps and charts.
• Topics include business, economy, education, employment, families & living arrangements, health, housing, income & poverty, population

Canada Census: the leading source of quality data about Canadian people and communities

• Community Profiles: presents information from the 2016 Census of Population for various levels of geography, including provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas, communities and census tracts.files: 

Justice Map: Visualize race and income data as well as create and share maps for neighborhoods, counties, states, and the US.

• For help, see their Help and Instruction page.