The Urban Elders of Seattle

The Seattle Times has created an interactive map of Nielsen demographic groups in Seattle.

The Nielsen Company categorizes people into 66 different demographic groups in order to help businesses target their marketing more effectively. By looking at the dominant groups in different neighborhoods the market-research company can than infer generalized characteristics of the local residents.

The Seattle Times' What Your Census Tract Says About You is an interactive map revealing the two most dominant Nielsen categories in each Seattle neighborhood. Click on a Seattle neighborhood and you can find out what Nielsen thinks about the people who live there.


These Nielsen categories suggest that there may be a future for Judgemental Maps within the marketing world. These stereotype maps may not be quite as well researched as Nielsen's neighborhood categories but I'm sure they are made with much more real local knowledge.

Looking at the two maps above there does to be some sort of agreement between the two. Where the judgmental map has 'Republicans' the Seattle Times has 'Executive Suites' and where the judgmental map has 'Single Girls Drinking Wine' the Seattle Times has 'Bohemian Mix'