What percentage of Columbia residents have a college degree? Which village has the highest rate of households that own their homes, free and clear? Which village has the largest average household size? And what percentage of Columbia households include children?
The answers to these questions, and many more facts about Columbia, can be found in “Characteristics of Columbia, Maryland: a demographic and socio-economic profile,” which was recently released by Columbia Association (CA).
The 178-page report is based on analysis data from the Census Bureau from the 2010 Census and the latest estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The report provides a basis for understanding the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Columbia and its villages.
“This report provides important data sets that can aid Columbia Association and the villages in tailoring programs and facilities, as well as help them advocate for the needs of the Columbia community,” said Jane Dembner, CA’s director of community building and sustainability.
In line with CA’s sustainability initiatives, the report is being published in electronic format and can be found online at bit.ly/columbiacharacteristics. A limited number of CD copies of the report also are available.
CA staff also will be available to make a presentation of highlights from the report’s findings. For more information, contact Dembner at Jane.Dembner@ColumbiaAssociation.org or call 410-715-3107.
CA would also like to acknowledge the invaluable technical assistance and support provided by the Research Division of the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning, and the Demographic and Socioeconomic Projections Division at the Maryland Department of Planning.
CA Today 
This is quite an exhaustive report: professional, detailed and probably interesting. I added the word “probably” because, as it is, this is a doc for mavens and SMEs who, I assume, are a key audience for the report. Personally, I’ve tried three or four times to *want* to read the info and find myself scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through a ton of text and word-and-numbers-laden charts (178 pages’ worth), none of which sinks in much for me. This not-sinking-in-ness makes sense in that I’m not in the maven/SME target audience for the report. I get that.
Yet, I’m very much in the “interested parties” category, and I want to “get” the salient and relevant information. Now, the answer to my question here may exist in the report, and I don’t know it because I haven’t read the thing, but here goes: will there be a follow up of more data visualization? Or — and excuse me if I am using the wrong technical terms — APIs that would open up the data for others to crunch and use?
There are so many DV tools and much more of a trend toward data visualization in recent years that I’d think all this good work, all the investment, and all the potential use of the data would provide much more value to the community were it visually digestible.
Fingers crossed that you say, “yes.”