I am looking to buy a house in Philadelphia and had a thought about looking at the population statistics in different neighborhoods. By looking at the data I would be able to see which neighborhood are increasing in size, and purchase a house in one of those places.
Any thoughts as to how I can get the data? I’ve never researched population data before.
census bureau website has a lot of info so you should start there.
Start by seeing if what you want is on City-Data.com.
Because most cities don’t have official neighborhood boundaries, you may find it easier to seek statistics by ZIP Code. Census makes it easy to see basic demographics by ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area).
That said, I don’t think you’ll find any Philadelphia neighborhoods increasing in population. Household size has been steadily decreasing in the US, and the markers of an up-and-coming urban neighborhood is that the population, and even the number of housing units, decreases as wealthier people expecting more space per person replace other residents.
It doesn’t seem to show population change over time, but this interactive map allows you to get a fair amount of data about individual, named neighborhoods.