I used Google Fusion to create a graph displaying my data, which indicates the United States population in each decennial census from 1790 to 2010.
Since there were only two columns – year and population – I figured a simple bar graph would be clear in organizing the population number on the y-axis versus the year on the x-axis. The graph allows us to encode values to the image because we can take into consideration the length of the bars and the upward trend. When looking at the data itself, there’s a jumble of numbers without commas that makes the numerical value difficult to identify; however, inputing this information into a bar graph allows us to gauge the rise and decline.
The information can lead us to consider more research questions, such as influences on increase of population throughout the decades. Things we could look into based off of the data are the quality of health facilities, reasons for fluctuating birth and death rate, water/food accessibility, immigration/emigration, etc. Also, the data encourages us to look into specific states/areas and how much they constitute the percentage of the total country population, so that we could target problem areas for research.
You’re right! A bar graph is the best for this data set. I like how you noted that it was hard to read all of the numbers in the data set but the data visualization made it easy to see the trends. Since the data set was pretty bare, I like how you expanded and asked possible research questions!
Nice blog post! I enjoyed reading some of your possible research questions regarding the dataset. Since U.S. is relatively a newer country and so massive, its population will continue to rise. Compared to the rest of the world, we have a lot of space for immigrants in desperate need of a new home like Syrian refugees.
I liked how your data visualization showed the trend in years. It really got across that the population of America is steadily increasing. I find it interesting that in the early censuses there were hardly any people listed. I would’ve expected the amount of people to have a bit more up and down or spike somewhere which a line graph might’ve showed.