# Color Coded, Interactive Racial Map of the US **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995 "2013-08-23T19:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/1 "2013-08-23T19:30:14Z")
Check out this cool, drill down [map of the United States](http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html). Color coded dots indicate the racial makup (based on census data) of any given area, from the country as a whole to a street level view. Clicking the “AddMap Labels” button overlays city names and makes it easy to find your neighborhood. I just started playing with it, but the distributions are interesting. I searched and didn’t see a previous thread on this, hope I’m not late to the party! ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/2 "2013-08-24T00:29:42Z")
Looking at the map of my area I noticed only one area heavily green. It’s the only area that stands out in green at all. I was trying to figure out what neighborhood that would be when it occurred to me that it’s the county jail. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/3 "2013-08-24T00:49:29Z")
I live so far out in the boonies, I can actually see which little blue dot is me! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/4 "2013-08-24T01:42:49Z")
There’s an area of town near hear that everyone is like “Yeah that whole area is blacks.” And I’ll be damned…it is a perfect square of green, with a little smattering of red. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/5 "2013-08-24T01:50:06Z")
There’s a surprising number of people living in the public park across the street from me, apparently. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/6 "2013-08-24T04:45:54Z")
I was surprised to see how distinctly 8 mile road shows up as a demographic border here in Detroit. I mean, sure on one hand it’s background knowledge I grew up absorbing, but so clearly delineated, wow. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/7 "2013-08-24T05:05:38Z")
My friend commented, “The most ethnically diverse area around here is a square neighborhood on the north side of Walla Wa– oh, that’s the big house.” ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/8 "2013-08-24T05:27:12Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > There’s a surprising number of people living in the public park across the street from me, apparently. :dubious: The dots are placed randomly in each census block. My census block is really big with a lot of people on the edges and nobody in the middle, so pretty much all of the dots are strewn around empty fields and factories. ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/9 "2013-08-24T06:19:14Z")
I wish I could zoom in more. I don’t see any blue people where I live. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/10 "2013-08-24T12:03:16Z")
I wish they’d add previous censuses back to 1790. Now that would be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/11 "2013-08-24T17:05:34Z")
Wow, on Long Island, Meadowbrook Parkway being the diving line between Blacks & Whites is striking. I was trying to figure out what one random solid green square was in the blue section when I realized, Oh, that’s the Nassau County Jail. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/12 "2013-08-24T17:13:50Z")
> [@\_Olive](#): > > I wish I could zoom in more. I don’t see any blue people where I live. Just use the zoom tool in your web browser. If you’re using MS Internet Explorer, the zoom adjustment is in the lower right corner. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/13 "2013-08-24T17:18:58Z")
Yep, west Dayton (Ohio) is predominately black, and east Dayton is white. Scanning the greater Dayton area, I noticed a small pocket of Asians living just south of Dayton. Looked up the area on Google Maps, and it’s in the same vicinity as the LexisNexis headquarters. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/14 "2013-08-24T19:04:11Z")
Interesting to see how my old neighborhood in the Bronx, which used to be Irish and Italian, is now almost entirely Hispanic and Asian. (I think I can make out my mother’s house and the Italian guy who lives across the street, almost the only blue dots left on the street.) I’m also surprised at how much of the borough is now dominated by Hispanics, with the only large concentration of blacks now in the north. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/15 "2013-08-24T19:21:15Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > There’s a surprising number of people living in the public park across the street from me, apparently. :dubious: Also in the middle of a large tidal marsh near me. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-coded-interactive-racial-map-of-the-us/666995/16 "2013-08-25T00:58:44Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Also in the middle of a large tidal marsh near me. From the explanatory text that goes with that map: [QUOTE=The explanatory text that goes with that map] The locations of the dots do not represent actual addresses. The most detailed geographic identifier in Census Bureau data is the census block. Individual dots are randomly located within a particular census block to match aggregate population totals for that block. As a result, dots in some census blocks may be located in the middle of parks, cemeteries, lakes, or other clearly non-residential areas within that census block. No greater geographic resolution for the 2010 Census data is publicly available (and for good reason). [/quote]