Visualizing Same-Sex Couple Household Data With Linked Micromaps

Brent D. Mast
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) organize and clarify the patterns of human activities on the Earth's surface and their interaction with each other. GIS data, in the form of maps, can quickly and powerfully convey relationships to policymakers and the public. This department of Cityscape includes maps that convey important housing or community development policy issues or solutions. If you have made such a map and are willing to share it in a future issue of Cityscape, please contact ronald.e.wilson@hud.gov.

In this article, I demonstrate how using linked micromaps (Carr and Pickle, 2010) can improve mapping of same-sex couple (SSC) household data. Micromaps display multiple maps on the same exhibit and highlight different geographic units in each map. Linked micromaps display columns of data next to micromaps.