Exercise: Geography Matters: Analyzing Demographics

Going Places with Spatial Analysis MOOC
Exercise
Geography Matters: Analyzing
Demographics
Section 1 Exercise 1
08/2019
Geography Matters: Analyzing Demographics
Instructions
Use this guide and ArcGIS Online to analyze data and maps showing world demographics.
Note: ArcGIS Online is a dynamic mapping platform. The version of ArcGIS Online that
you will be using for this course may be slightly different from the screenshots you see in
the course materials.
Time to complete
Approximately 30-45 minutes.
Introduction
In this exercise, you will use the ArcGIS Online mapping platform to analyze data and maps
showing world demographics. Each step covers a key component or feature of the platform.
Feel free to experiment and try things out. You will have the chance to apply what you learn in
this exercise to exercises in later sections of this course.
The questions included throughout this exercise are intended to encourage you to think
spatially and critically. Answers are provided at the end of this exercise.
What will you learn?

As a result of this activity, you will accomplish the following tasks:
• Gain the perspective necessary for upcoming spatial analysis work in this course and
beyond.
• Acquire skills in using the ArcGIS Online platform, which is the platform used throughout
this spatial analysis course.
• Reflect on your learning through self-assessment quiz questions.
Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 1

Technical notes
1. We will be making full use of web mapping services throughout this course. You will need
a robust web connection to complete this exercise and the exercises that follow.
2. To take advantage of these web-based technologies, you need an up-to-date version of a
standard web browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer.
Note: For information on supported browsers for ArcGIS Online, visit http://
doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/browsers.htm (https://bit.ly/2pIIN2T).
Step 1: Sign in to ArcGIS Online

a
Open a new private/incognito browser tab or window.
We recommend that you open a private or incognito browser window whenever you need to
work in ArcGIS Online to help prevent conflicts with your accounts.
b Go to www.arcgis.com and click Sign In.
c Sign in to ArcGIS Online using the credentials explained at the start of this course.
Note: If you have trouble signing in or have questions about an exercise, try these steps:
1. Check the Common Questions on the Help tab.

2. Search for other students with the same issue in the Forum.
3. Use the Have A Question form at the bottom of the Help tab.

Step 2: Open the map

In this step, you will open an ArcGIS Online world demographics map.
a From the navigation bar in the Going Places with Spatial Analysis organization home
page, click Gallery.

The gallery for the Going Places with Spatial Analysis organization opens.
b Click the thumbnail image for Section 1, Exercise 1: Geography Matters: Analyzing
Demographics.
A map of the world displays.

Step 3: Save and share the map

In this step, you will save the map into your own ArcGIS account so that you can make
permanent changes to the map.
a From the ribbon at the top of the window, click Save and choose Save As.
b In the Save Map dialog box, make any desired changes, and then click Save Map.

Next, you will share the map. You can share it with everyone, with groups of colleagues that
you may want to set up in the future, or with no one at all.
Note: In this course, you are encouraged to share your maps with everyone. This way, all of
the course participants, as well as any colleagues, teachers, and friends, will be able to view
your map.
c At the top of the window, click the Share Map button .
d In the Share dialog box, check the Everyone (Public) box.
e Click Done.
Step 4: Explore the ArcGIS Online interface and map

Each ArcGIS Online map has a set of map layers on the left side of the map, tools at the top
(with some accessible on the left side of the map), and a map frame itself that displays the
layers (https://bit.ly/2RB5xM9).

The three buttons at the top of the Details pane provide options to see information about the
map, the map contents, and a legend.
The About button displays descriptive information about the map, the Content button
displays a list of the layers in the map, and the Legend button displays a legend for the layers
in the map. Depending on the width of the Details pane, labels on the buttons may be visible
or hidden.
You can click and drag the horizontal size handle icon in the middle of the right edge of the
Details pane to resize the Details pane and map frame.

The horizontal size handle icon.
You will now practice resizing the Details pane and map frame.
a On the divider between the Details pane and the map frame, point to the horizontal size
handle icon .
b When the pointer becomes a double arrow , click and drag the pane horizontally to
expand or reduce the size.
Note: Reducing the size of the Details pane expands the size of the map frame. Likewise,
expanding the size of the Details pane reduces the size of the map frame.
Now, you will explore the contents of the ArcGIS Online map.
c If it is not already selected, click the Content button to view the Contents pane.
As you can see on the left side of the map, this map contains two layers: Demographics -
World Demographics and Topographic, which is a basemap (https://bit.ly/2RBrZVy) layer.
d To view the topographic basemap, uncheck the Demographics layer.

Next, you will practice changing the basemap.

e At the top left side of the window, click Basemap.
f From the gallery, choose a basemap to use. Try several selections, such as Imagery and
OpenStreetMap.
g When finished, change the basemap back to the Topographic basemap.
Step 5: Work with spatial data

Several core skills are fundamental to analyzing data spatially:
• Sort and query

• Filter
• Symbolize
• Classify
Like the other maps you will use throughout this course, this map is not simply graphics
floating around in cyberspace; rather, it is a representation of a geographic information
system (GIS). Because of this, the map is a "smart map": it has intelligence behind it,
including locational information, topological information, and attribute information. Each
point, line, polygon, and pixel on the map has locational information connected to it, a
latitude and longitude coordinate.
In this step, you will examine and work with the spatial data behind the map. First, you will
look at some locational information.
a On the map menu bar at the top of the window, click the Measure tool.
b Click the Location button.

c Move your pointer around the map to see the latitude and longitude details for locations
in the Measurement Result area of the pop-up window.
The latitude is given first, and then the longitude. This presentation corresponds to
coordinate pairs in a Cartesian coordinate system (https://bit.ly/2SpHIvr), but with y (latitude)
given first and then x (longitude). On the globe, the x-axis is the equator, and the y-axis is the
prime meridian. Negative x values therefore represent locations in the western hemisphere
while negative y values indicate locations in the southern hemisphere.
Locational information does not have to be latitude and longitude. Locational information
could be street addresses or anything else that can be geocoded (https://bit.ly/2MONSQt), or
mapped, based on some sort of specific location.
You can also measure areas and distances with the Measure tool.
d In the Measure tool pop-up window, click the Area button.
e Click a location on the map to draw a polygon representing the area you are interested in,
and then double-click the last point to finish the polygon.
The Measurement Result indicates the number of square miles included in the identified area.
Note: You can change the measurement value by clicking the down arrow to the right of Sq
Miles and choosing a different value.
f In the Measure tool pop-up window, click the Distance button .
g Click the map to place a start point and an end point on a location you want to measure
the distance of, and then double-click the last point to finish the distance.
The Measurement Result indicates the distance.
Note: You can change the measurement value by clicking the down arrow to the right of Miles
and choosing a different value.

h Close the Measure tool pop-up window.

This map and other maps in a GIS environment also contain topological information. Thanks
to topology, everything on the map "knows" how near or far every other thing, or "feature,"
is on the map. You will take advantage of this topological information later in this course when
you perform proximity, overlay, and other types of analysis on your data.
The third type of information in a map in a GIS is attribute information. Next, you will explore
information stored in an attribute table.
Step 6: Explore attribute information

Attributes could include how much water is flowing in a specific river segment, the median
age in a neighborhood, or the depth of an earthquake. In the case of this map, each feature
(countries of the world) contains information about births, the annual rate of population
change, and the life expectancy in 2013. Now, you will examine some attribute information.
a In the Contents pane, check the Demographics layer to turn the layer on.
b Click a country on the map.

The information that appears in the pop-up window is pulled from the attribute table that is
associated with the map.
Think of the map as the "G" (geographic) part of GIS and the attributes as the "I"
(information) part of GIS.
c Close the attribute pop-up window.

d In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Show Table button .
The attribute table appears at the bottom of the map, with each country represented by one
row, or record, in the table. The variables that you have been examining appear as fields in
the table.
1. According to this dataset, how many countries exist?
_______________________________________________________________________________
e Click a country in the table, and it will be highlighted on the map.

Note: You may need to zoom in or out or pan to see the highlighted country.
f Conversely, click a country in the map, and the corresponding row in the table will be
highlighted.
Note: You may need to scroll up or down within the table to see the highlighted row.
g In the table, click the Births column heading.

The Births data is the birth rate, the annual number of births per 1,000 total population in
each country in 2013, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
h From the drop-down list, choose Sort Descending.

2. According to this dataset, which country had the highest birth rate?
_______________________________________________________________________________
i Scroll to the bottom of the table.

3. Which two countries had the lowest birth rate?
_______________________________________________________________________________
When examining spatial data, it is important to look for relationships. Notice the relationship
that seems to be evident when comparing the birth rate to the growth rate
(Rate_Increase)—higher birth rates correspond to higher growth rates. The relationship is not
perfect because immigration, health measures, and other factors also affect a country's
growth rate. Still, thinking about spatial information and relationships is a key skill that you are
already fostering in these types of studies.
You will also notice that San Marino and Japan have the highest life expectancies.
j In the table, click the country name of San Marino to select the row.
Hint: You can click the heading of the Country column and choose Sort Ascending to reorder
the list of countries in the table.
k At the top right of the table, click the Options button .
l Choose Center On Selection to zoom to San Marino.
The polygon representing the country of San Marino is highlighted in bright blue.
m Turn off the Demographics map layer to see the topographic basemap.

n Zoom out as needed to get a sense of the location of San Marino.
o Continue to explore the map and attribute data table.

You will notice as you move through the table that some data is missing from the table,
particularly for some small islands. Like other data, spatial data is imperfect. However, the
data is very useful. Managing errors and imperfect data is another key skill that you will build
in this course.
Step 7: Filter layer data to limit feature display

Another way to access attribute information is through filtering, or selecting, data. In this step,
you will filter the table data to select certain features.
a Turn on the Demographics map layer.

Next, you will clear the selection to deselect the row for San Marino.
b At the top right of the table, click the Options button .

c Choose Clear Selection.
The table header shows 254 features, with 0 selected.
As an example of how you might use a filter, imagine that you are in charge of a program at
the United Nations that is studying societies undergoing rapid population increases. Using the
World Demographics map and associated data, you could use the Filter tool to select
countries with population growth rates that meet your criteria.
You will now learn how to filter or select information from the table.
d In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Filter button .
Hint: You may have to switch to the Content view.
e In the Filter dialog box, for the first field, choose Rate_Increase.
Rate_Increase is the annual growth rate of the population in each country from 2012 to 2013,
according to the Population Reference Bureau.
f For the second field, choose Is At Least.
g For the third field, type a value of 2.

In plain language, the expression that you just created will display features in the map layer
where the value of the Rate_Increase field in the table is at least 2.
h Click Apply Filter And Zoom To.

4. On which continent are nearly all of the countries with a growth rate of at least 2.0?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Hint: You may need to zoom in or pan the map to examine the map closely.
i Examine the table and look at the data critically.

5. How many countries had a growth rate of at least 2.0?
_______________________________________________________________________________
A growth rate of 2.0 may not sound like much, but a country that maintains that rate of growth
can expect to double its population in only 35 years! So, a key part of spatial analysis is to
understand the variables and data that you are using.
j In the table, click the Rate_Increase column heading.
k From the drop-down list, choose Statistics to generate statistics for the selected countries.
6. What is the maximum rate of growth of any of the selected countries? In which
country did this growth rate occur?
_______________________________________________________________________________
As useful as scrolling through the attribute table and filtering can be, the map is an even more
powerful medium for spatial analysis. You will now practice two additional key skills: changing
the map symbology and classifying the data.

l Close the Statistics pop-up window, and then close the attribute table.
Step 8: Change the map style

Up to this point, you have been working with a map layer represented as a single symbol.
Every polygon (country) is represented as a single color. In this step, you will practice
changing the symbol color, transparency, outline color, and outline width.
First, you will remove the filter.
a In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Filter button.
b In the Filter dialog box, click Remove Filter.

Next, you will apply changes to the map style for better visual representation of the data in
the attribute table.
c Pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World Demographics layer name
again and click the Change Style button .
d In the Change Style pane, set the following parameters:
• From the drop-down list, choose the attribute to show by selecting Life_Expectancy.
This is the life expectancy (in years) at birth in each country in 2013, according to the
Population Reference Bureau.
• For the drawing style, confirm that Counts And Amounts (Color) is selected.
Note: This will result in a map where features are distinguished based on a color gradient. The
check mark indicates the current styling of the layer.
• Click Options to customize the look of the layer.


The default color gradient, or color ramp, uses a range of the color teal to represent life
expectancy values.
• To change the color gradients, click Symbols.
• In the Change Symbols pop-up window, confirm that Fill is selected.

• From the palette, choose a color ramp, such as blue to white.
• At the top of the pop-up window, click Outline.
• From the palette, choose an outline color, such as black (hex color #1A1A1A).
• Click OK to close the pop-up window.
The map display updates, and the color values indicate life expectancy by country, with
darker colors indicating a longer life expectancy.
• To change how the data is applied to the color sequence, use the handles along the
color ramp.

You can adjust the display by either dragging the handles or clicking the number beside the
handle and typing a precise value. Experimenting with the position of the handles allows you
to fine-tune the message of the map. Using the histogram beside the color ramp lets you see
the distribution of the data.
To further generalize your map, you can classify the data.
• In the Change Style pane, check the Classify Data box.

• Use the Natural Breaks classification method with 5 classes.
These natural breaks are based on natural groupings that maximize the differences between
the classes.
• To change the transparency of the layers, move the Transparency slider to the left or
right.

e Click OK to close the Style Options dialog box.
f Click Done to close the Change Style pane and view the updated map.
g Click the Legend button so that you see the map legend.
The resulting world demographics map shows life expectancy (in years) based on the natural
breaks classification method.
7. What are two patterns that you notice on the resulting map?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. What is the lowest life expectancy in the color ranges?
_______________________________________________________________________________

This map shows data based on natural breaks. The natural breaks method evaluates a
histogram of the data and selects naturally occurring breaks in the data to split the classes
along.
Step 9: Classify the data

In this step, you will classify the map data using a different method.
a Click the Content button so that you see the contents of the map.
b In the Contents pane, pause your mouse pointer over the Demographics - World
Demographics layer name and click the Change Style button.
c In the Change Style pane, set the following parameters:
• For drawing style, choose Counts And Amounts (Color).
Note: The Counts And Amounts (Color) style should already be selected.
• Click Options to customize the look of the layer.
• Change the data classification method from Natural Breaks to Quantile.

• Leave the number of classes as 5.
Quantile evaluates the number of data values that you are mapping and splits the classes so
that the same number of observations exists in each class. In the case of world demographic
mapping, 254 features are being mapped, leaving roughly 50 countries in each class.
d Click OK to close the Change Style pane.
e Click Done to apply your changes.

f Click the Legend button so that you see the map legend.
World Demographics map showing life expectancy (in years), based on the quantile classification method.
g Look at the values in the legend.

Although subtle, there are some changes in the legend now that each class contains the same
number of features.
9. What changes do you notice after classifying the data using the quantile method?
_______________________________________________________________________________
h Try the other classification methods (Equal Interval and Standard Deviation) and examine
the results.
Note: For more information about changing symbols and using classification schemes, refer to
the ArcGIS Online product help (https://bit.ly/1NPR9f7).
i Save your map again.
Step 10: Explore the map metadata

Every web map is composed of data layers from one or more web services. These services
could be served from national mapping organizations, such as the US Geological Survey or

the UK Ordnance Survey; from an international agency, such as the World Health
Organization; or from a city government, university, or private company. Because of the
migration of GIS to the web, today, anyone can serve mapping data. Therefore, it is more
important than ever to understand which organization created the mapping data that you are
using, why it was created, how often it is updated, at which scale it was created, and other
necessary information. If you are better informed about the quality of the data you are using,
you can make more accurate choices about if and how to use the data, and your resulting
decisions will be wiser.
The information about the map is contained within the metadata of the map.
In this step, you will access the metadata in ArcGIS Online to find out who created the
demographics data that you are using.
a At the top of the window, click the About This Map button .
b On the resulting screen, click the More Details link.
Metadata populated by the author of the map is displayed in a new browser tab.

10. Where does the data come from?
_______________________________________________________________________________
c Return to the browser tab containing the Demographics map.
d Save the map.
e To sign out of ArcGIS Online, at the top right side of the map window, click the arrow next
to your name and choose Sign Out.

f Close the private/incognito browser window.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have investigated a map and its associated attribute table, thought
spatially and critically about the map, asked questions about the map through the table and
through filtering, and symbolized and classified the data. Throughout this course, you will
continue applying these skills as you increase your analytical abilities through upcoming
exercises.

Answers to Exercise Questions
1. According to this dataset, how many countries exist?

According to this dataset, 254 countries exist.
2. According to this dataset, which country had the highest birth rate?
Chad had the highest birth rate of any country in the dataset, at 51.30 per thousand.
3. Which two countries had the lowest birth rate?

Monaco and Vatican City had the lowest birth rate.
4. On which continent are nearly all of the countries with a growth rate of at least 2.0?
Nearly all of the countries with a growth rate of at least 2.0 are located in Africa.
5. How many countries had a growth rate of at least 2.0?

A total of 62 countries had a growth rate of at least 2.0.
6. What is the maximum rate of growth of any of the selected countries? In which country did
this growth rate occur?
The maximum growth rate for any country in the dataset is 4.61. This maximum rate
occurred in Uzbekistan.
7. What are two patterns that you notice on the resulting map?
Answers may vary but could include observations that high life expectancies exist for
western Europe, East Asia, and Canada-USA, whereas low life expectancies exist for
Equatorial and Southern Africa.
8. What is the lowest life expectancy in the color ranges?

The lowest value for life expectancy is 45.11.
9. What changes do you notice after classifying the data using the quantile method?
Answers may vary, but note that the class break values have changed, and the
appearance of the map also changed.

10. Where does the data come from?

The Population Reference Bureau (http://www.prb.org/) created the data.

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Going Places with Spatial Analysis MOOC

Geography Matters: Analyzing Demographics

What will you learn?

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 1

Step 1: Sign in to ArcGIS Online

b Go to www.arcgis.com and click Sign In.

1. Check the Common Questions on the Help tab.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 2

Step 2: Open the map

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 3

A map of the world displays.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 4

Step 3: Save and share the map

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 5

c At the top of the window, click the Share Map button .

d In the Share dialog box, check the Everyone (Public) box.

Step 4: Explore the ArcGIS Online interface and map

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 6

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 7

The horizontal size handle icon.

d To view the topographic basemap, uncheck the Demographics layer.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 8

e At the top left side of the window, click Basemap.

g When finished, change the basemap back to the Topographic basemap.

Step 5: Work with spatial data

• Sort and query

b Click the Location button.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 9

d In the Measure tool pop-up window, click the Area button.

f In the Measure tool pop-up window, click the Distance button .

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 10

h Close the Measure tool pop-up window.

Step 6: Explore attribute information

b Click a country on the map.

c Close the attribute pop-up window.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 11

1. According to this dataset, how many countries exist?

e Click a country in the table, and it will be highlighted on the map.

g In the table, click the Births column heading.

h From the drop-down list, choose Sort Descending.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 12

i Scroll to the bottom of the table.

k At the top right of the table, click the Options button .

l Choose Center On Selection to zoom to San Marino.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 13

n Zoom out as needed to get a sense of the location of San Marino.

o Continue to explore the map and attribute data table.

Step 7: Filter layer data to limit feature display

a Turn on the Demographics map layer.

b At the top right of the table, click the Options button .

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 14

c Choose Clear Selection.

The table header shows 254 features, with 0 selected.

f For the second field, choose Is At Least.

g For the third field, type a value of 2.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 15

h Click Apply Filter And Zoom To.