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NeighborhoodScout® Overview
NeighborhoodScout pairs a database that includes nearly 200 different demographic, crime, public school, housing, and environmental characteristics for neighborhoods, with a patented algorithm created by a PhD Geographer. This allows you to simultaneously map any combination of more than 60 data elements, and to instantly search, reveal, and map neighborhoods in any area of America that meet any combination of criteria included in our data set that you may want to explore, teach to students, or illustrate.
NeighborhoodScout's Data
NeighborhoodScout uses its algorithms to synthesize data from the FBI, U.S. Justice Department, the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies. The system covers the entire United States at the Census tract level, which is much more local-focused than city-level information, and even more local than zip codes.
Data Included
Median House values
Percent of neighborhood houses in different price categories
Relative rental Prices, by category
Neighborhood-specific appreciation rates
Public school ratings (spending per student on instruction, student to teacher ratio, and graduation rates, at the school district level)
Crime rates (FBI defined crime index crimes. Index crimes are the eight crimes the FBI combines to produce its annual crime index: willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft, and arson, at the community level.)
The Neighborhood Setting:
- Densely Urban, Urban, Suburban, Rural, Remote, Coastal (on the ocean or tidal rivers), Farms
Neighborhood Homes:
- Home types: Single-family, Row houses and attached homes, Small apartment buildings, Complexes or high-rise apartments, Mobile homes.
- Home ownership: Owners, Mixed owners and renters, Renters
- Sizes of Homes: Large (four, five or more bedrooms), medium (three or four bedrooms), small (one, two or no bedrooms)
- Ages of homes: Historic (1939 or earlier), Well-established older homes (1940-1959), Established but not old (1960-1984), Newer (1985 or newer).
Special Character of the Neighborhood:
- Urban sophisticates (wealthy, educated people in historic city neighborhoods)
- Artsy/funky (like Greenwich Village or Harvard Square)
- Quiet (less crowded, very few college students, children or renters)
- Walkable (easy to navigate on foot)
- Nautical (historic seaside neighborhoods)
The Neighbors you will find in the neighborhood:
Age & Lifestyle:
- Mixed ages
- Families with children
- Seniors (many people 65 and over)
- College students
- Young singles - upwardly mobile (single, educated, career-oriented)
Education levels:
- Concentration of adults that have four-year college degrees or graduate degrees.
Income:
- Wealthy (the 15% most wealthy neighborhoods in America)
- Upper middle income (well above average income for America)
- Middle income (near average income for America)
- Lower middle income (somewhat below average income for America)
- Low income (the 15% lowest income neighborhoods in America)
Occupations:
- Executive, managerial & professional
- Sales & service workers (from major sales accounts to fast food service)
- Clerical, assistants & technical support (office and technical support staff)
- Manufacturing & laborers (skilled trades people and laborers)
- Farmers, foresters or fishers
- Government employees (employed by any local, state, or federal government)
Ethnicity/ancestry:
- Hispanic (any Hispanic ancestry)
- Puerto Rican (Puerto Rican ethnicity or ancestry)
- Mexican (Mexican ethnicity or ancestry)
- Black (any sub-Saharan African ethnicity or ancestry)
- White (non-Hispanic)
- East Asian (any east Asian ancestry - Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or others)
- Asian Indian (ethnicity or ancestry from India or the Indian sub-continent)
- Arabian (Arab ethnicity or ancestry)
- Irish ancestry
- Italian ancestry
Languages:
- English speaking
- Spanish speaking
- Italian speaking
- French speaking (French or French Creole)
- Portuguese speaking (Portuguese or Portuguese Creole)
- Russian speaking
The database can be queried using our proprietary algorithms with simple clicks to provide
instant valuable research results and powerful maps for your classroom or research project. The search
capabilities are outlined below.
Search Capabilities
- Quantify and map best MATCHING neighborhoods in any area to any address you input - uses 178 data elements to calculate matches
- BUILD your own research results and instant maps by selecting any combination of demographics, and see how real neighborhoods match your search criteria.
- MODIFY a neighborhood: find and map neighborhoods that are like any address you choose, but with changes you select (less expensive, better schools)
- LEARN ABOUT any neighborhood, by address (includes a neighborhood street map)
- SEARCH BY LIFESTYLE select: "Families," "First-Time Homebuyers," "Retirees," or any other lifestyle of interest then simply customize the search to your desired price range, neighborhood setting, distance from a job or any search area you specify, and more.
178 Data Elements Used to ‘Match a Neighborhood’
The MATCH A NEIGHBORHOOD function includes 178 different data elements to capture the true character of
neighborhoods and find best matches. These data include all of the data listed above that are shown in profiles,
plus many more esoteric demographics and housing data used 'underneath the covers' that, together, capture the
flavor of the neighborhood to get beyond the way a neighborhood looks to give a sense of what it would be like
to live in the neighborhood. Here are just a few examples of some of the additional data used in the
powerful MATCH A NEIGHBORHOOD function:
- Length of residence in the neighborhood, and where the person moved from if resident for fewer than 5 years.
- Single parent household - female head of household
- Single parent household - male head of household
- Distribution of residents by age, in 4-year increments
- Non-family households with householder living alone
- Married couple households
- Unmarried partner households
- Other relatives in household
- In group quarters - non-institutionalized
- In group quarters - institutionalized
- Avg. family size
- Average household size (number of people in household)
- Occupied housing units
- Vacant housing units
- Disability status of householders, by age
- Foreign born
- Speak a language other than English at home
- Educational attainment:
- Less than 9th grade
- 9th to 12th grade, no diploma
- High school graduate (includes equivalency)
- Some college, no degree
- Associate degree
- Bachelor's degree
- Graduate or professional degree
- Never married
- Separated
- Widowed (Male or Female)
- Divorced (Make or Female)
- Grandparents responsible for grandchildren
- Civilian veterans
- Born in U.S.
- Born in this state
- Born in different state
- Born in another country
- Naturalized citizen
- Not a citizen
- Region of birth if Foreign born:
- Europe
- Asia
- Africa
- Oceania
- Latin America
- Northern America
- Ancestry:
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- French (except Basque)
- French Canadian
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Lithuanian
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Scotch-Irish
- Scottish
- Slovak
- Swedish
- Swiss
- Ukrainian
- Welsh
- West Indian (excluding Hispanic groups)
- Other ancestries
- Mean travel time to work
- Commuted by car, truck or van - drove alone
- Commuted by car, truck or van - carpooled
- Used public transportation (including taxicab)
- Walked
- Other means of commuting
- Worked at home (didn't commute)
- Industry details of occupations:
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining
- Construction
- Manufacturing
- Wholesale trade
- Retail trade
- Transportation and warehousing, and utilities
- Information
- Finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing
- Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services
- Educational, health and social services
- Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services
- Other services (except public administration)
- Public administration
- Poverty status
- Rooms per housing unit
- Number of vehicles per household
- House heating fuel:
- Utility gas
- Bottled, tank, or LP gas
- Electricity
- Fuel oil, kerosene, etc.
- Coal or coke
- Wood
- Solar energy
- Other fuel
- Occupants per room in occupied housing units
- Monthly owner costs as a percentage of household income
- Monthly renter costs as a percentage of household income
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