14-01-2010 / blog
Today’s map improves on last week’s iteration, which only plotted population figures per census tract in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This week, I’ve traced population growth for each census tract in Halifax Regional Municipality using freely available data from the 2001 and 2006 Statistics Canada censuses.
A census tract (CT) is a a compact, populated area. It should have clearly defined boundaries, a population that is fairly homogeneous from a socio-economic standpoint, with roughly 2500 to 8000 (but ideally about 4000) people living in it (source).
This map reveals interesting trends in Halifax population patterns. For the most part, peninsular Halifax and old Dartmouth have stagnant or declining populations, while the suburbs (especially in western HRM) show strong population growth. Rural areas such as old Halifax County and the Chebucto Peninsula have roughly remained stagnant. Some CTs, however, have rates of decline or growth that differ in large degree from their neighbouring CTs, including:
- 2500008.00 . Located on Halifax Peninsula, this 16.5% spike in growth may be caused by the cumulative effect of condominium developments such as the Bishop’s Landing development on the waterfront.
- 2500131.02 and surrounding areas. Lower Sackville showed a localized and sharp population decline, with rates ranging from 5-7%.
- 2050025.02 . Clayton Park, despite being so close to peninsular Halifax, showed a 11.5% decline in population.
It will be interesting to see how the proposed development of the land east of Bayers Lake, which is divided between 2500025.03 and 2500024.00 will affect population rates in this area. Perhaps the development (which likely won’t be ready in time for the 2011 census) will improve growth figures for CT 2050024.00 in the future.
Producing this map reinforces the reasons why census tracts should all have a uniform size. Halifax Regional Municipality covers a large amount of urban, suburban, and rural land, and its census tracts’ population figures range from under 1000 to over 6000. This spread makes it difficult to measure one CT’s population growth or decline against another CT’s own rate. For instance the population of 205113.00, off of Windmill Road in Dartmouth, declined by 185 people in 2006, a difference of -20.6%. Meanwhile, the population of 2050004.02, in old Halifax’s south end, declined by 158 people in 2005, a difference of -3.6%. Since populations can vary quite a bit from one census tract to another, be sure to check the actual population figures of surrounding census tracts when comparing one colour code to another.
Population of Halifax in 2001: 359183
Population of Halifax in 2006: 372858
Difference: 3.8%
08-01-2010 / blog
Planning for 2010
One resolution I made for the New Year is to write on this blog with greater frequency. The first thing I tend to drop when things get busy are reading blogs and writing on this one, which bothers me a fair bit since I see blogging as a great way to keep in contact with the professional community. Blogging, as well Twitter, has given me a chance to meet and interact with so many other librarians and information professionals outside of Halifax, so I shouldn’t be so quick to let it go.
Therefore, I’ve decided to start summarizing my work weeks in 2010. Every week, I’ll hopefully write a work-related post that might touch a nerve with LIS professionals. The fact that I’m in the final term of my MLIS means that some weeks might be devoted to coursework instead of my time working in information literacy at Saint Mary’s University, but hopefully that will add a little variety to the mix.
In the mean time, I’m going to continue generating maps that visualize census data for Halifax Regional Municipality. These maps, as few in number as they are, have proven to be popular on the internet, so I’m going to make an effort to build a library of maps that project census figures. Look for projections not only of Halifax, but of all of Nova Scotia (and possibly the Maritimes if not Atlantic Canada) in the near future.
Finally, like so many other LIS bloggers on the web, I’m going to leave you with a list of my most popular posts from the 2009. It’s so easy to lose the data we enter into blogging CMS’s under the weight and number of newer posts, so this sort of list-manufacturing is actually useful to create from time to time. (This list excepts my About page, as well as the Homepage, which was far and away the most popular hit but doesn’t speak to content so it’s not too helpful for this list.)
- StatCan and Canadian Aboriginal Incarceration Rates
- The library science doctorate and the professional librarian
- Libraries, West Bend, and Civil Liberties
- FRBR and the (or my?) future
- 80/20 for librarians
- CLA 2009 Recap: Tech / Copyright / Leadership
- Understanding librarianship
- Mid-term report card
- DRM, Canada, and the long arm of contract law
- Canadian Culture at the Library
