Which Americans Shirk the Census? – Slate Magazine

Census response rates: Midwest high; South, West low - Slate Magazine

A poor map for at least two reasons.

The map doesn’t answer the question posed in the headline. It shows, instead, which Americans take part in the census. If you want to highlight the shirkers,use darker colors to represent them.

What in the world is the Democrat/Republican distinction supposed to be? This map does not indicate that Democrats and Republicans fill out the American Community Survey in equal numbers: it’s just a quick mash-up of old election results–squeezed into a binary–with a “high or low” response to the survey. Couldn’t at least one of the variables represent a range of values?

Census response rates: Midwest high; South, West low – Slate Magazine.

One Response to Which Americans Shirk the Census? – Slate Magazine

  1. harrietlou's avatar harrietlou says:

    Thanks for this. Not being a “map” person I tend not to look at this sort of thing critically. This helps me have a point of reference.

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