The new CensusViewer “ACS Data US” map includes the following datasets at the census tract level from the 2006-2010 ACS (Aamerican Community Survey) 5-year estimates:

• Household Income In The Past 12 Months (by Race)
• Family Income In The Past 12 Months (by Race)
• Poverty Status In The Past 12 Months (by Sex by Age by Race)
• Occupation For The Civilian Employed Population 16 Years & Over (by Sex by Race)
• Marital Status For The Population 15 Years And Over (by Sex by Race)
• Housing Values: Owner-occupied housing units
• Price Asked: Vacant-for-sale-only and sold, not occupied housing units

We’ve ported CensusViewer to the new Bing Maps 7 AJAX map control which provides better performance and enhanced features including:

• Improved iPad compatibility
• More intuitive zoom and pan controls
• Easier switching between Road, Automatic and “Bird’s Eye View” which provides a better angle of aerial photography

Bing has made dozens of changes to improve their base road map style. The result is a new style designed to communicate more important information at a glance.  As examples, primary roadways are displayed in a more distinct color, one way streets are more clearly marked, and road shields are more visible. Bing has optimized the map style to fit the way people most commonly look at maps online—with data layered on top of it, a noticeable improvement for the CensusViewer environment.

And don’t forget to check out the “bird’s-eye” angled aerial photography views now available in CensusViewer.  See the included screenshot or better yet click on any of the map links in the right column of this page to experience it in the live environment.

A heat map detailing the distribution of the Latino population in the Houston, Texas area.

Using CensusViewer’s Heat Map tool is a great way to easily view the relative concentration of certain segments of the population that meet specific criteria that you define.  It’s simply a matter of selecting your choice of population attributes in the side panel and then clicking on the Heat Map “paint bucket”  and expanding the Heat Map tab.

Your selected population is now represented on the map as a percentage of the total population in a gradient of nine different colors ranging from 0 to 100% making it easy to identify the areas of greatest concentration and least concentration for your selections.

The screenshot example to the left illustrates a heat map of the distribution of the Latino population in the Houston, Texas area.  The examples below illustrate the differences between the concentrations of both the black and white populations in the greater Chicago area.

A comparative heat map illustrating the relative distribution of the white population in the greater Chicago area.

A heat map illustrating the relative distribution of the Black and African American population in the greater Chicago area.