Census of Agriculture (USDA) Data Visualization

The USDA Census of Agriculture (“Ag Census”) regularly releases reports coupled with attractive, and often interactive, data visualizations. (To view the report, as well as other visualizations that accompany it, click the X on the top right of the image.) Some examples of topics include agricultural trade balance and exports and imports, global supplies of […]

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STATS America

STATS America is an easy to use resource for a wide variety of data from many different sources (i.e. U.S. Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Bureau of Labor Statistics). Data profiles on population, housing, income and labor are easily accessible at the state, county, and metro levels. Not only does STATS America compile data from many public and […]

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Geography of Government Benefits: County-level data

The Geography of Government Benefits, an interactive mapping tool developed by the the New York Times, provides data on government benefits (i.e. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Income Support, Unemployment, and Veterans Benefits) as a percentage of personal income for every county in the U.S. The accompanying article can be found here. Data on transfer payments […]

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Location Quotient Calculator (BLS)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Location Quotient Calculator was discontinued as of March, 2017. Please try the following options: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) on Location Quotients QCEW Location Quotient Details If you need a refresher on Location Quotients, please see Location-Quotients and TRED (Targeting Regional Economic Development) by CCED’s own Steve Deller.

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Defining Rural

The question “What is rural?” seems to be the subject to a never-ending debate. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) provides some guidance. The ERS has identified nine different categories for classifying counties by their degree of urbanization. These nine Rural-Urban Continuum Codes are below: The ERS also has more […]

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Credit Card Repayment Calculator

Want to know how long it will take to pay off your credit card balance if you only pay the minimum monthly payment? The Dallas Federal Reserve developed a credit card repayment calculator that will quickly and easily calculate how long it will take to pay off your credit card balance. All you need are […]

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Inflation Calculator

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides an easy-to-use Inflation Calculator that quickly calculates buying power equivalencies between different years. It uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) U.S. city average series for all items, not seasonally adjusted. This data represents changes in the prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households.  

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Sample map (human poverty)

World Mapper

World Mapper is a unique mapping tool that rescales the world map based upon a wide variety of criteria (i.e population, education, wealth, health, internet use). Unlike traditional maps that are scaled based on land area, World Mapper re-sizes each country based on the criteria chosen by the user. The result is maps that dramatically […]

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8 Personal Financial Calculators

The Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) developed MyMoney.gov, a national financial education web site. The website includes several links to financial calculators. The following are some of our favorites: If you want to analyze the effect of different interest rates on the monthly payments of a loan, try the Monthly Payment Calculator. Input the […]

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