Lab 7: Census 2K, ArcGIS

The map above outlines the distribution of Asian Americans as a percentage of county populations in the United States.  One can see that the highest percentages of Asian Americans live on the West Coast in coastal cities and large urban areas.  The makes sense based solely on the proximity of the West Coast to Asia.  Urban centers on the East Coast also have high density pockets of Asian Americans.  Overall however, Asian Americans seem to be fairly well distributed throughout the continental US, with the majority being in the large coastal urban centers.

This map illustrates the distribution of black populations by county.  It is obvious that the large majority of blacks live in the South Eastern United States.  Other pockets of black populations are in densely urban cities of the north and some on the West Coast.  Examples of these cities are Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles.  The reason for these pockets outside the South is that during the World Wars of the 20th century, the Great Migration took place.  The Great Migration was the movement of blacks out of the South and into industrial centers in the North and on the West Coast.  These industrial centers provided jobs and a much less hostile environment for blacks.  Many of the counties in the South have extremely high percentages of black populations, due to the fact that many of these counties are small and therefore, lesser numbers are needed to for a high population distribution.  Larger counties elsewhere may have bigger populations of blacks that may make up a smaller percentage.

The term "some other race" is a new term for the US Census that applies to any race outside of the following:  White, Black, Asian American, American Indian, and Native Islander.  "Some other race" therefore constitutes Hispanics and lesser volume international heritages.  In the most recent census, the large majority of the population that classified themselves as "some other race" were Hispanics.  The map above illustrates the census data of those who declared "some other race."  The map above shows very high population densities in the South Western United States.  This is due to the close proximity to the border of Mexico.  Many border towns and counties in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas have very high Hispanic population percentages.  The pockets in Florida are caused by large populations of Dominican and Cuban ethnicity.  These population figures make sense in the context of geographic proximity since the high density Hispanic populations are close to Hispanic countries.