Exploring Social Explorer

Written by Steve Lantz

Social explorer is a web based mapping platform that aggregates U.S census data as well as from other academic and private institutions. Social Explorer has won many awards for its webs maps. Awards include WMA standard of excellence and the Gold Award from the Modern Library Awards. The clients of Social Explorer include but not limited to the New York Times, Stanford University, Yale University and Target.

​You can start using the data by clicking on “Start now” tab.  The web maps that Social Explorer creates are extremely intuitive and easy to use. By default, it starts out at a national scale looking at population density from the most current census. To change the data that is being displayed click on the “Change Data” tab to open a drop down menu. Within the menu there are many different types of data that can be mapped. Some of the different types of data that can be mapped include education, house value, health as well as many other categorizes.  Again some is limited in the free version.

​Additionally, the user can easily switch back and forth between the two maps the user is looking at. There are two different options for comparing two data sets. There is the “swipe” version. In that mode you can move the cursor and slide it from side to side to gain a better idea of the difference and similarities between the two maps.