Patchwork Nation – CS Monitor

Check out the Patchwork Nation project from The Christian Science Monitor. It was set up for the election but gives some interesting insights into the geographic concentrations of various demographic groups and local economies by county. Be sure to take the quiz and see how you fit in with your neighbors.

…identified 11 places across the US that represent distinct types of voter communities. They are Monied ’Burbs, Minority Central, Evangelical Epicenters, Tractor Country, Campus and Careers, Immigration Nation, Industrial Metropolis, Boom Towns, Service Worker Centers, Emptying Nests, and Military Bastions…working with Professor James Gimpel, an expert in political geography at the University of Maryland. He has analyzed piles of Census and consumer data – including race, employment, religion, and household spending – to identify these different community types across America and has mapped them county by county. The map on the home page of this site shows his findings. The data used to identify these community types are available on this site to anyone (see Methodology)…you can see which community type your county falls into and take a quiz to see how well you fit in…