On New Years Eve, Social Explorer reflects on a year of 2.9 million maps created by over 100,000 users.  Looking to 2011, we resolve to fatten up with new data and tools.  Here’s the exciting new data diet we’re sticking to:

1.  The entire release of the American Community Survey 2005-09 (coming early January).

2.  A tool that automatically adjusts Cost of Living for any year since 1913, and makes it possible to compare things like income distribution from year to year.

3. Release of the 2010 Census Redistricting Data state-by-state as it becomes available (starting with New Jersey and Virginia in February).

4. The ability to overlay Social Explorer on top of Google maps and switch seamlessly between them.

5.  Interactive tools to view data on the map interface.

6.  An embed code generator to help you share maps and reports on blogs and other websites.

7.  A tool that will automatically report change over time, taking into account shifts in the data or geography.

8.  A new release of the the InfoGroup religion data for 2010.

The data gluttons at Social Explorer look forward to bringing these and other features to our users in the coming months.

Social Explorer wishes you and yours a happy New Year filled with data!

Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge appeared on a NY1 television story about New York’s impending loss of two congressional seats.

He explains that population declines upstate, particularly in the west, contributed to New York’s stagnation relative to other states.

On the upcoming removal of two congressional districts, he says, “It’ll be a real brouhaha when they start doing this because it’s like musical chairs…who loses their chair?”

For more on this change, check out the related Gotham Gazette and New York Times stories, and stay tuned to Social Explorer in the coming months as federal and state redistricting unfolds.

Today’s front page of the New York Times features maps and stories based on data and analysis from Social Explorer.  In the article “Region is Reshaped as Minorities Go to Suburbs,” Sam Roberts explores population shifts to the suburbs and the racial and economic stratification in the cities.

Using the first tract-level data available since the 2000 census, he writes:

Diverse racial, ethnic and immigrant enclaves have proliferated in New York City and especially its suburbs since 2000, but that increase generated only negligible inroads against historic patterns of racial segregation, according to analyses of the new data. Most whites in the metropolitan area and most blacks in the city still live where a majority of their neighbors are of the same race.

The latest figures are the single largest data release in the Census Bureau’s history, providing a look for the first time since 2000 at a variety of characteristics, including income, race, immigration and commuting habits for people in areas as small as just a few square blocks.

A number of searchable, interactive maps using Social Explorer data and expertise accompany the article.

Click here to explore the maps.

The New York Times also featured an article about immigrant settlement patterns, “Immigrants Make Paths to Suburbia, Not Cities,” and a roundup of poverty, commuting time and other indicators in “Samples of Highs and Lows from Around the Country.”

This project reflects just a small percentage of this latest data release, all of which will be available on Social Explorer by the end of the year.

New York’s Congressional delegation is shrinking, yet again.  Preliminary demographic analysis conducted by Social Explorer shows that the state lost enough population over the past ten years to lose up to two two congressional districts.  In the New York Times article “New York’s House Delegation to Lose One or Two Seats,” Sam Roberts writes about this 60-year trend of an ever smaller New York delegation.

In the article, Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge explains how the next round of redistricting could play out:

“If New York State loses one seat, most of that loss will come upstate,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a Queens College sociologist, who analyzed the population shifts for The New York Times. “If it loses two seats, then the older suburbs downstate will also lose, while New York City and the fast-growing outer ring suburbs will more likely hold their own.”

Districts are supposed to be roughly equal in population. If the delegation is reduced by one seat, each of the remaining 28 Congressional districts should have an average of at least 700,000 residents. Under that formulation, according to Dr. Beveridge’s analysis, two upstate districts, the 27th and the 28th, will each fall about 100,000 people short. If the state loses two seats, those two districts and five others upstate with too few people will need to be reconfigured.

Click here to read the full story. For more on redistricting, check out Beveridge’s Gotham Gazette article forecasting New York State changes, and listen to his interview on the Brian Lehrer Show.