Working with statistical data in GIS

This exercise outlines mapping statistical data with source data from Statistics Canada.  The MID/MIF data contains information about 1991 county and regional municipality boundaries of Ontario. The estat.dbf file is compiled information about socio-economic status for Ontario.

The shapefile polygons were merged so that each had a unique PRCDCSD value, using Edit | Combine or, alternatively Field | Summarize, then creating a new table. This allow joining of the shapefile and the attribute data.  Three fields were created before joining to help analyze the data later on.

Map 1 displays the following information:

1. County boundaries;
2. Counties where low income is low income is lower than than the provincial average;
3. Counties where average income is higher than the provincial average.

The next scenario simulates an investigation into the income disparity in Ontario, by assigning affected counties to either of two provincial offices (Bancroft and Toronto).   The mandate of each office is to investigate counties whose boundaries fall within 250km of the office. 

Map 2 displays splitting the counties into two groups, one for each office, using the following guidelines:

1. The group of counties assigned to each office is contiguous
2. The group is closer to the office assigned to it than the other office
3. The total number of unemployed people in the two groups is as equal as possible.   This is hard to weigh when considering the skew caused by Toronto.

The blue dots signify the Bancroft and Toronto offices.  Counties  with 'T' are assigned to Toronto and 'B' to Bancroft.

All metadata and explanations to all themes can be read in Theme | Properties.