Latest Contributions by HelenThompson

If you let us know which variables from the S17 table you find most valuable we can add them. Now is a good time as we are planning the June 2025 data package. Hoping to hear from you. H ... View more

Hi Josh I am one of the leads building the methodology behind apportionment and the model for calculating these scores. There is some extensive documentation here https://developers.arcgis.com/rest/geoenrichment/reliability/ In simple terms the apportionment reliability score is a combination of the mean of all the scores that influence the apportionment, from population dispersion to census age to census sampling methods. These are all discussed in the doc page referenced above. The scores are scaled using a simple linear equation to a range of 1.0 (best) to 5.0 (worst), and then are averaged with the census reliability scores to produce the overall reliability score. Polygon to Population Ratio is a model of the population of a given census polygon (scaled) compared to the area size (scaled). The ratio is again a linear equation to a create a range of 1.0 (best) to 5.0 (worst). I hope this helps Helen   ... View more

Have you looked at Create a Statistical Data Collection in BA Pro or Custom Data Setup in BA Web? Both these allow easy integration of external datasets into the BA data catalog and make it a well defined client that is also discoverable through the data browser and can be shared across users. ... View more

Most ACS data has acceptable margins of error at the tract level across a wide ranges of topics. At the block group level, the more straightforward attributes like Total Population may have acceptable margins of error at the block group level, but anything which then further segments attributes like population by race and age have suppressed values (0) or high margins of error. There are already these issues at the Tract level so they become much greater and more challenging for interpretation, aggregation, and analysis at the block group level. Although data is available it does not suit all GIS use cases.   If you would like to add your own ACS data at the block group level, you can use the add custom data workflow.   Best wishes Helen ... View more

Good afternoon You can find a detailed list of all the variables in the 2024 catalog which is here Poverty data for ACS is drawn from tables B17 and C17 in the current release. This is also true of data in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. Are there specific variables you are looking for? Best wishes Helen ... View more

Hi Frederick All Census Track only data is georestricted currently in BA Web. This includes ancestry, country of origin and other topics inducing detailed population and occupational data. There are about 800 variables for which the restrictions are in place when using them in analysis and apportionment based workflows. We will provide support for Tract level data in an upcoming release as we have refined support for new statistical models which take into account margin of error and reliability scores. Currently reapportioning these datasets to smaller geographies or informal trade areas does not fully encompass error models. For example, British Ancestry in a tract in Redlands is +/- 24 people (see below) with a COV of 112% for an estimated population of 13 people. So the range is 0 or 37 people.  The COVs vary considerably and often there is zero people with the characteristic but margins of errors in double figures.   I hope this helps Best Helen   ... View more

Hi Chris Thanks for the comments and we understand the impact in changing data. Unfortunately the retail/restaurant data you are referencing has dependencies on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) surveys. As we explained in the release notes the 2022 BLS survey redefined food away from home expenditure items by removing the meal type distinction of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This includes those provided by employers and at home. You can find the release notes here which explains the 20 variables which were removed. We replaced these variables with the four new fields which are just a collapsing of detail by dropping the meal type dimension but still retaining where food purchases were made: • X1156 Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages at Fast Food • X1157 Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages at Full Service Restaurants • X1158 Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages at Vending Machines and Mobile Vendors • X1159 Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages at Employer We also recommend that users look at attitudes towards food purchase to supplement market potential and spending at restaurants. Apologies that our release information was not found, or clear, which caused this issues. We understand how frustrating deletion of or changes to data is, as we too have models and analysis that used these characteristics in our work. Unfortunately these changes are due to supplier information deprecation from the US Government and the impacts are felt by all demographic data providers and users. Best wishes Helen ... View more

BA Pro supports the same report and infographic editing as BA Web. It is the same user experience but loads locally installed templates (or BA Web if using Online as the portal). You access the editor from the BA ribbon Open any of the templates. The Community Summary uses custom variables to define jobs. When you edit the panel you can see the variables used within it Editing an individual variable opens us the calculator. You can see how a variable like Services is made up of a set of variables and calculations. Use the calculation editor to change or create custom variables. The variable name can be edited in reports or infographics. and persist across years of data. I hope this helps H ... View more

Hi GISDesignConcepts Business Analyst was not designed to be a cartographic engine and there are solutions for high quality map production in ArcGIS Pro, including licensing appropriate data. ArcGIS Pro is used extensively by cartographic organizations from USGS to Swiss Topo to produce the maps that they need. BA was not intended to be a short cut to other capabilities and data offerings. The online VTSE offers multiple options for controlling what is seen at different zoom levels, from turning layers off to changing styles. It would be worth experimenting more with it. Another simple option is to have multiple basemaps - they are based on style references so can be easily duplicated - and switch between basemaps. This is the same logic as turning layers on and off. With respect to map representation - I think you would agree that the Esri basemaps are very high cartographic quality and were built with the same VTSE interface. Have you fully explored those basemaps? If you want on premise control them Street Map Premium is available. We recommend you look at Street Map Premium on premise for your needs if you are unable to achieve the results through VTSE. ... View more

Hi Samata Which product do you want to use - Pro or Web? I assume you want the layer to be in the background for visualization but not interactive. ... View more

Hi GISDesignConcepts In BA Web you can use calculated fields and assigned them a name and alias. By default a calculated field is given a descriptive field like Esri's own attributes so perhaps we can help with this aspect as your question does not specify how the data is created or where it is hosted. For Classic Reports this can be migrated to Pro and I assume they are based on custom data and custom variables as BDS files rather than statistical collections (SDCXs). Have you tried recreating the data file in BA Pro (or Web) rather than migrating them? How big (number rows, columns) are the files you are working with and the reports? There are ways to migrate both and our recommendation for 2024 is to move towards infographic templates rather than classic reports. Many of the aspects of automation, print quality, branding and support of new user experiences are far superior with infographics. ... View more

Hi Jason Filters work on both Esri data and you own custom data. We use filters in the What's in my Community infographic. Which you can open and edit.  I notice that your other data is not being summarized either. Can you send a copy of the template as a BRPT file to us via the upload button below? You can save the file and then we can look at it. ... View more

We have an opportunity to expand on existing document and how users can access it. ... View more