IDV Solutions has released American Enclaves, an interactive map and data visualization tool which illustrates the clustering of ethnic groups in the United States. American Enclaves was built with IDV’s data visualization software, Visual Fusion, which unites data sources in a web-based, visual context for better insight and understanding.

Using 2010 census data, the visualization identifies as an enclave any census tract where the proportion of Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, or White Americans is far greater than the national average. To distinguish these conclaves, the IDV team combined the spatial capabilities of SQL Server 2008 and Visual Fusion’s SQL Connector.

"Performance was an important consideration for us, knowing that a topic with general interest would be accessed by folks across a varying range of connection speeds," said John Nelson, Visual Fusion user experience manager. "Census tracts can be quite tiny and have very complicated shapes, so we used optimization options available in Visual Fusion to make the app as fast and responsive as possible while providing a consistent and engaging user experience."

The distribution of enclaves reflects settlement patterns over 300 years of immigration and migration. For example, Asian enclaves tend to cluster around urban areas; Hispanic enclaves are more common in the southwestern U.S., and African-American enclaves are found mainly in the Deep South, along the Mississippi River, and in urban areas. White enclaves area more prevalent in the eastern U.S. than in the West.

Users can explore the data by panning and zooming in the map, or use the “quick jump” buttons for views of some major urban areas. Clicking on one of the color-coded enclaves reveals details about the tract, and the proportion of the relevant ethnic group.

About IDV Solutions
IDV Solutions is a business intelligence software company committed to helping organizations gain more insight from data. By repeatedly solving key problems for customers in the Global 2000 and government, IDV and its products have earned a reputation for innovation, speed, and the highest quality user experience. For more information, please visit www.idvsolutions.com