Long Island Mapping

Yesterday we looked at some great examples of animated heat maps. Today we celebrate the fine art of animated choropleth mapping.

The Long Island Index's 40 Years of Long Island's Changing Demographics is a mapped visualization of demographic change throughout Long Island over a 40 year period (1970-2010). The map allows you to explore at census tract level demographic change using almost 40 different variables.

You can use the demographic category links above the Google Map to select different census results to view on the map. Some of the changes in Long Island, revealed by the maps, are striking. The map shows how manufacturing jobs on the Island have dramatically fallen away, how Long Island’s population is ageing and how education levels are steadily rising.

The timeline slider allows you to visualize demographic changes over time decade by decade. You can manually progress through the decades or select the play button to animate through the 40 years of census data.

The map was developed for the Long Island Index by the CUNY Graduate Center. The Regional Plan Association has also published a detailed report of some of the demographic changes revealed by the map.