The above map is a choropleth map showing the percentage of the Asian population within each county. This data set was extremely skewed so ranking the data was difficult. In the end, I chose to use "Geometric Interval" because it seemed to sum up the data set rather well. According to this map, the Central U.S. has the lowest percentages of Asian populations while the eastern and western coasts, especially Southern California, have higher percentages of an Asian Population.
This choropleth map shows the distribution of the Black population of each county. It shows higher percentages along the southwestern coast and even more pronounced percentages along the southeastern coast. Like the Asian population dataset, this too was skewed to the left so I decided to use "Geometric Interval" to rank the data set.
"Some Other Race" describes multiracial individuals. This choropleth map shows the percentage of "some other race" population within each county. This population shows greatest percentages along the coasts and smallest percentages in the Central U.S. This data set was also extremely skewed so I ranked the data using "Geometric Interval."
All three maps show the percentages of a race within a county, and all three use geometric interval to rank the data sets. All the data sets had extreme outliers that skewed the data sets as well as "tails" within the histograms. Unfortunately, this made it difficult to accurately represent the data sets. I would have liked to better portray the data but the vastness of the data sets as well as the distribution made this impossible.
Overall, I really enjoyed being acquainted with the ArcGis program. Learning these technical skills was a great experience. But the program itself was irritatingly slow a lot of the time and over the course of the quarter I realized that being a cartographer is just not for me. Being able to make maps asks for a lot spatial thinking, skills, and patience that I just do not have. This exercise especially has showed me that representing data through maps is a skill that's better suited for other people.
