Data Sources
- Data on presence and type of internet subscription by household come from the U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) Five-Year estimates for 2018-22, which is the current ACS vintage as of May 2024 (see Table B28002).
- Data on broadband adoption by race/ethnicity were derived from ACS 2018-22 Tables B28003 (“Presence of a Computer and Type of Internet Subscription in Household”) and B28009H (“Presence of a Computer and Type of Internet Subscription in Household [White Alone, Not Hispanic or Latinx]”).
- Broadband service by census block, Broadband Now package prices, and Ookla speed test data all from from from Esri’s Living Atlas, which is partially built on the FCC’s Form 477 Fixed Broadband Deployment Data.
- All other socioeconomic and demographic layers were also sourced from the current ACS.
Geographic Assignment
Following the model of the Buffalo Co-Lab’s legislative district information system for Buffalo, all ACS data for were collected at the census block group level and disaggregated to the smaller block level using population-weighting. The reason for this disaggregation is that the summary geographies represented in the mapping tools (e.g., ZIP codes, legislative districts, etc.) often cut through block groups and related geographic units. However, census blocks are the literal “building blocks” for higher-level geographies like legislative districts. As such, block level data can be neatly (re)aggregated to summary geography boundaries.
Funding and Acknowledgements
The NYS Digital Equity Portal is supported in part with federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds allocated to the New York State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The project team and collaborators included individuals from the John R. Oishei Foundation, Community Technology New York, and the Cornell University ILR School Buffalo Co-Lab. Special thanks to Cornell University ILR student Jean Fang for her role in collecting necessary data.
What’s New: When the NYS Digital Equity Portal first launched in late 2021, all data and indicators were collected and mapped at the census tract level of analysis. As implied above, census tracts frequently cross the boundaries of “higher level” summary geographies like ZIP codes and legislative districts. When the Buffalo Co-Lab team began updating the Portal in summer 2023, Cornell University High Road Fellow Asher Cai worked with the team to collect updated data and develop the architecture for disaggregating ACS data to the block level. In Fall 2023, a “soft launch” of that new feature — which allows for more precise data summaries and can now accommodate summaries for small areas like towns and villages — was released with data from the then-current 2017-21 Census ACS. The current version of the Portal was then updated in May 2024 with the latest (2018-22) ACS data, which will remain current through the end of 2024.
Contact
Direct questions or feedback to: rcweaver@cornell.edu