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Human Services

NYTimes.com Interactive Map of Food Stamp Usage

Submitted by jim on Tue, 2009-12-01 12:00

screenshot of NYTimes.com interactive map about food stamp usage in the USThe New York Times, known for some first-class infographics and data visualizations, released this thought-provoking map of food stamp usage in the United States, on a county-by-county basis.  In addition to the county-level statistics, there are a number of call-outs and a related article.

One feature I thought was interesting, in addition to the elegant interactive map, was the sortable data table view of the underlying dataset.  Even cooler, if you don't feel like using the sortable dataset, the designers of the infographic have helpfully provided a link to download the raw underlying data itself in CSV format, so that you can analyze it yourself in OpenOffice.org Calc or Microsoft Excel!  Three cheers for open journalism.

ESRI's Health and Human Services GIS

A good overlook and view of what and how GIS is used in GIS. There are case studies and a helpful newsletter linked to this site.

URL: 
http://www.esri.com/industries/health/index.html

IPLAN Data System - Public Health Statistics Generator for Illinois

The Illinois Department of Public Health has an excellent dataset generator for every Illinois county and MSA across the state. In addition to disease and mortality statistics, you can integrate a wide variety of related demographic and socioeconomic data.

URL: 
http://app.idph.state.il.us/data/CountyLevel.asp?menu=1

Suitability for walkers: built by walkers

A free site, that makes google "push pin" maps. Allows users to use a simple and generic interface to make maps of destinations.

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CommunityWalk