4 ms·

Would a map of college density line up to those maps pretty well?

by sosuke 11y ago

ch4s3 11y ago
or population density
- AnimalMuppet 11y ago
  The data is as a percentage of population, so no, it would not map to population density. (Unless you assert that college attendance is nonlinear in population density, which is probably true to some degree.)
  - dboreham 11y ago
    Asserted. It is true to a very large degree. If you live in Montana for example and need some sort of relatively non-trivial medical intervention, you're getting on a plane to Seattle or Salt Lake. The people providing those medical services can't exist in low population density areas. Same goes for many many other types of service and profession.
    - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
      So Montana doesn't get the medical specialists, so Montana has fewer MDs per capita than Salt Lake? That seems plausible. I'll go one step further, though: I suspect that people in Montana visit even a primary doctor less often than people in Salt Lake. I think this is partly because the per capita income is lower, so that it becomes a higher bar to decide to spend the money to see a doctor. But also I think that people in Montana are just more independent. They'll try their Aunt Sally's home remedy, or just ride out the illness or injury (not just because of money, but because they'll take care of themselves, thank you). If that doesn't work, then they'll see the doctor.
      - dboreham 11y ago
        I'm not sure about that. We have plenty of general practitioners here, and low income people often have subsidized or free medical care available. We just don't have neurosurgeons, big-time cardiologists, oncologists who specialize in one cancer field. Those folks need the throughput you can only find in a big urban area, so that's where they are. They are often also associated with teaching hospitals, and there are none of those in low population density areas either (due to lack of volume). In fact there has been a heated debate here in Bozeman about a proposal to build a (for profit) medical college here, with various members of the medical community pointing out in letters to the newspaper that we don't have the patient volume necessary for teaching.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  Visually, it seems to very closely mirror population density [0], though there are a very few peaks that don't correspond to equally-strong population density peaks (these seem to correspond pretty well to major research or educational institutions that are outside of major population centers.) (Because its measuring the share of the population of an area with a degree, the fact that it generally mirrors population density is still interesting.) [0] http://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/thematic/us_popdensity_2010map.pdf http://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/thematic/us_p...
- Terr_ 11y ago
  XKCD had a good one on this: https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/

Would a map of college density line up to those maps pretty well?

by sosuke 11y ago

Would a map of college density line up to those maps pretty well?

ch4s3 11y ago

or population density

AnimalMuppet 11y ago
The data is as a percentage of population, so no, it would not map to population density. (Unless you assert that college attendance is nonlinear in population density, which is probably true to some degree.)
- dboreham 11y ago
  Asserted. It is true to a very large degree. If you live in Montana for example and need some sort of relatively non-trivial medical intervention, you're getting on a plane to Seattle or Salt Lake. The people providing those medical services can't exist in low population density areas. Same goes for many many other types of service and profession.
  - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
    So Montana doesn't get the medical specialists, so Montana has fewer MDs per capita than Salt Lake? That seems plausible. I'll go one step further, though: I suspect that people in Montana visit even a primary doctor less often than people in Salt Lake. I think this is partly because the per capita income is lower, so that it becomes a higher bar to decide to spend the money to see a doctor. But also I think that people in Montana are just more independent. They'll try their Aunt Sally's home remedy, or just ride out the illness or injury (not just because of money, but because they'll take care of themselves, thank you). If that doesn't work, then they'll see the doctor.
    - dboreham 11y ago
      I'm not sure about that. We have plenty of general practitioners here, and low income people often have subsidized or free medical care available. We just don't have neurosurgeons, big-time cardiologists, oncologists who specialize in one cancer field. Those folks need the throughput you can only find in a big urban area, so that's where they are. They are often also associated with teaching hospitals, and there are none of those in low population density areas either (due to lack of volume). In fact there has been a heated debate here in Bozeman about a proposal to build a (for profit) medical college here, with various members of the medical community pointing out in letters to the newspaper that we don't have the patient volume necessary for teaching.
dragonwriter 11y ago
Visually, it seems to very closely mirror population density [0], though there are a very few peaks that don't correspond to equally-strong population density peaks (these seem to correspond pretty well to major research or educational institutions that are outside of major population centers.) (Because its measuring the share of the population of an area with a degree, the fact that it generally mirrors population density is still interesting.) [0] http://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/thematic/us_popdensity_2010map.pdf http://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/thematic/us_p...
Terr_ 11y ago
XKCD had a good one on this: https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/