http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Strength in Numbers en Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:19:05 +0000 http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1481 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:25:32 +0000 dc321 1481@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>This is probably no longer an open question, but a good place to go for zipcode info is <a href="http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/websas/geocorr2k.html" rel="nofollow">http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/websas/geocorr2k.html</a>.</p> <p>In the 2000 census, they actually made zipcodes a SPATIAL geography with defined border, a set population etc. Prior to that, zipcodes changed quite a bit and did not have definitely locational boundaries. ZCTAs are mostly like zipcodes except sometimes they are n:n. Still for purposes like this, I think you'd be fine to use them.</p> <p>There is also a 1991 zip population dataset available from the same site. However, make a time series of consistent zip code areas is a very tricky endeavor that requires quite a bit of assumptions. </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1391 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:48:01 +0000 karmakaze 1391@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>Awesome, thanks! </p> <p>Know of any free geocoding services or datasets that let you query nearby counties? I'm thinking to make my friends network a little more accurate, I'll take 0-10 hops on a random walk to a county within, say, 50 miles. If I start with the 'people' with the least number of friends in the graph, by the time I get to people with a significant number of friends, they should have friends already set in a random location in the country. I think this is somewhat realistic (if you only have a couple friends, chances are they live nearby you, if you have more, there's a higher likelyhood of having friends spread across the country). </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1388 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:24:41 +0000 nathany 1388@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>yeah, i'd go with population by county, which you can get from US Census:</p> <p><a href="http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/counties.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/counties.html</a> </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1387 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:33:24 +0000 karmakaze 1387@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>So, would you guys suggest using county then? Is there a data set of all U.S. counties by population, or would I need to compile that by state?</p> <p>As I said, I'm really just looking for a way to generate 10,000 mock users spread somewhat realistically throughout the US, so if there's already a good sample I could use instead that would work too.</p> <p>Actually, to get more specific, I'd love to have a mock network of 10,000 'facebook' users, with 'location' and friend graph. Both facebook and location in quotes since I don't need real data, just something that would approximate it to test performance.</p> <p>Basically I'm trying to do a smaller scale version of this: <a href="http://www.metabrew.com/article/a-million-user-comet-application-with-mochiweb-part-3/" rel="nofollow">http://www.metabrew.com/article/a-million-user-comet-application-with-mochiweb-part-3/</a></p> <p>But with the added wrinkle of location. So I want to generate a network of 10,000 users, each with a location and friends list, and then use that mock data to test performance of a couple different implementations. </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1381 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:56:33 +0000 nathany 1381@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>i think you're right vtstarin. zipcodes don't really have specific boundaries so you can't really get population per zip. for example, a zipcode might only be used for single post office. </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1378 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:54:35 +0000 vtstarin 1378@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>I may be wrong, but zip code is for easy postal delivery, not always very good for population statistics. </p> <p>I think they use by county only. </p> http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/looking-for-us-population-by-zip-dataset#post-1377 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:09:44 +0000 karmakaze 1377@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ <p>I tried searching on census.gov and data.gov, but couldn't find the data in a single table for download.</p> <p>Actually, I'm not really interested in the raw data, rather I'm interested in creating a sample set of 10,000 "users" spread evenly across the U.S. by zipcode for some performance testing.</p> <p>I realize real users most likely won't follow that distribution, but it's sure better than assigning a random zip between 00000 and 99999 :) </p>