Lab 7

The population density of Asian Americans is relatively low across the continental United States. Most Asians reside on West Coast and East Coast, with the highest density 30.8% in San Francisco County, California. In the Midwest and other parts of the continental US, Asian population spreads out randomly with densities generally below 2.28%. The pattern of the population is formed due to geographical locations between Asia and North America. Since Asia is to the west of the US, the first place immigrants from Asia arrived at is West Coast. Thus, the population density is high in counties on West Coast. Since New York and surrounding cities are always attractive places to immigrants because of abundant job opportunities and modernization in those cities, a lot of Asian immigrants also reside in those areas.

From the map, we can see that the population density of African Americans is highest in the southeastern part of the US, with the highest density 86.5% in Jefferson County, Mississippi. The population densities of many counties in Mississippi and Alabama are above 50%, while in northwestern part of the US, the population densities of most counties are below 10%. In the history of the United States, black slavery were brought from Africa to the southeastern part of the US and most of their descendants still stayed there.

The population densities of other minorities are highest in counties in California, New Mexico and Texas, with densities generally above 10%. The highest density is 39.1% in Imperial County, California. However, the densities are quite low in Midwest and other parts of the US. They are generally below 5%. From the map, we can see that the places with highest densities of other minorities are on border with Mexico. Thus, we can imagine that the dominant ethnic in this category is Hispanic. Due to the proximity to Mexico, most immigrants decided to settle down in South and Southwest US.

In general, I find that the population densities of Asians and other minorities are highest in the southwestern part of the US, while the density of African Americans is highest in the southeastern part of the US. Across the continental US, there is no county with a population density of Asians or other minorities over 50%. The census experience I had with GIS is quite interesting and useful. I not only know more about the geographical distribution of population densities of different races, but also developed my GIS manipulation skills of integrating data from external sources into the software. The series of census maps allows me to analyze real-world problems in population distribution. Overall, GIS is quite useful and powerful in map-making and geographical data processing. We can generally utilize it with ease once we know the basic methods of manipulation.