Interpolating Demographic Estimates for Alternate Subpopulations and Geographies
Presentation Type
Event
Abstract
Applied demography employs population studies in the effort to answer real world questions and the problems that business and civic leaders face on an ongoing basis. To answer these questions the applied demographer sometimes performs primary research, but more often they attempt to leverage and extend the use of publicly available data to answer the questions presented in an efficient and time constrained manner. The work described here looks at a problem presented by the Michigan Department of Education and the solution presented by the Michigan State Demographer. The problem required estimates for a single-year age group at a non-standard poverty level. These data are not published by the U.S. Census Bureau, but a novel solution that deploys geographic interpolation methods was developed to serve an intermediate need until a custom tabulation of Census data could be delivered. With the delivery of a custom tabulation of Census data and the interpolated dataset that was produced by the State Demographer, there was a unique opportunity to test the results of the interpolation against what would be a gold standard dataset. The results reveal that the process of interpolating estimates devised as a solution could produce estimates that could be useful for a variety of purposes.
Start Date
2-12-2018 12:00 PM
Interpolating Demographic Estimates for Alternate Subpopulations and Geographies
University Student Union: Volstorff A
Applied demography employs population studies in the effort to answer real world questions and the problems that business and civic leaders face on an ongoing basis. To answer these questions the applied demographer sometimes performs primary research, but more often they attempt to leverage and extend the use of publicly available data to answer the questions presented in an efficient and time constrained manner. The work described here looks at a problem presented by the Michigan Department of Education and the solution presented by the Michigan State Demographer. The problem required estimates for a single-year age group at a non-standard poverty level. These data are not published by the U.S. Census Bureau, but a novel solution that deploys geographic interpolation methods was developed to serve an intermediate need until a custom tabulation of Census data could be delivered. With the delivery of a custom tabulation of Census data and the interpolated dataset that was produced by the State Demographer, there was a unique opportunity to test the results of the interpolation against what would be a gold standard dataset. The results reveal that the process of interpolating estimates devised as a solution could produce estimates that could be useful for a variety of purposes.