Last Monday I was interviewed by Kevin Farkas of Appalachian Beaver County. The interview was about storytelling with statistics. He is compiling an oral history of Beaver County. He saw my post on the poorest school districts in the Alleghenies and wanted some pointers. The video above shows the first half of the interview. The second half will be posted in an update below.
Farkas asked me about sources of data. I told him about the census bureau. The Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) had poverty estimates at the county and school district level. On their data tool, he can see trends in poverty rates from 1997 to 2022 and compare Beaver County rates to Pennsylvania, U.S., and other county rates.
I also told him about County Health Rankings. The overall rankings are less interesting than the raw statistics used to determine the rankings. For example, two individuals can have the same IQ score but very different strengths and weaknesses in specific domains.
In the second part of the interview. I showed Farkas the data tool from the Gapminder institute. It shows the countries of the world with larger dots for more populous countries. One can use the tool to move back and forth in time and can change the variables on the x and y axis. Unfortunately the tool only applies to statistics at the national level, not the local level.
I was only able to scratch the surface of the data tools. The interview on storytelling with statistics showed some of the free tools available. Other tools that are not publicly available are more powerful. Democratization data and data literacy are important for correcting discrepancies in data knowledge. Privacy concerns must also be taken into consideration.