"DC is divided into 8 geographic units called wards. These wards differ along many dimensions, including centrality to downtown, demographic composition, density, etc. " "The US Census Bureau regularly gathers information the US population using the American Community Survey. This information includes mean and median household income. DC summarizes this information by ward " This data was collected from a csv file open to the public. The 311 requests were gathered from the previous assignment which was cleaned and found at : https://opendata.dc.gov/datasets/311-city-service-requests-in-2014 (Links to an external site.)
Research Question:
Is there an association between average household income and service requests? What is the relationship between average household income and non-parking related service requests? What is the relationship between average household income and parking related service requests?
To complete this, I subsetted data into 2 datasets: parking requests and non parking requests. I then created an aggregation of requests per ward.
I then merged the parking and non parking aggregation. As well as median and mean income
After the datasets were complete, I started to create visualizations to help with the research question.
Research Question 1: Is there an association between average household income and service requests?
Answer: I took the average income by ward in the first graph (mean and median) and also made a separate graph to show the service requests by ward. By looking at both at once, we can see if there is a relationship between average household income and service requests. When looking at the median, the Average income graph follows a relatively close line with Ward 3 as the max. Comparing this to the non-parking scatterplot, we will see a similar trend but not a very strong relationship. When looking at the parking scatterplot, we see that the relationship is sparse if any. Now looking at the Mean scatterplot by ward, we can see that Ward 3 is an extreme outlier maximum, while the rest of the curve matches that of the Median, but just above. Therefore, all statements made about the median scatterplot in relation to the non-parking/parking can be applied to the mean.
Research Question 2: What is the relationship between average household income and non-parking related service requests?
Answer: The relationship between average household income and non-parking related service requests does not visually appear to have a strong correlation or relationship. The scatterplot resembles a random relationship.
Research Question 3: What is the relationship between average household income and parking related service requests?
Answer: The relationship between average household income and parking related service requests does not visually appear to have a strong correlation or relationship. However, the points on the graph do seem to slightly follow that of an exponential trend with the exception of a few outliers. (As average income increases, so does parking requests).
Limitations:
We know the average income for the ward, but since the request in made by individuals, it would be more helpful to know the actual income of the person making the request and graph that.
The data may have been inputted wrong / inaccurate data
Take away: What was found and why does it matter?:
When looking at the graphs in response to the research questions, there does not seem to be a relationship to any of the tested variables. And if there is, the correlation is weak. It is important to study these because if there is a correlation between the requests made and the income, there may be an underlying issue that needs to be resolved based upon ward income.
