Cencus Tract

Until I had to do this assignment I never knew that the Census website had so much to offer. I knew it existed but I never really took the time to look at it unless I had to for a class or other academic reasons. I was looking at the block information for my parents home, I never realized that on our block our family in the year 2000 was the only 4-person family. After mapping my parent's address I see why the information for my Census tract is the way it is. A large portion of unincorporated Des Plaines is included in out census area which consists of many apartment complexes. I also never knew that in my census area there are 136 people within group quarters. It was also shocking to see that during the time of the 200 Census there were 489 vacant homes in the city of Des Plaines. To me it has always seemed that home here are occupied. I wasn't surprised by the median age for my neighborhood, because it does consist of a variety of ages. I really liked that I could see the wide range of races that reside in my neighborhood, I never realized that 14% of the residents for my neighborhood come from Asian descent. It seems like a big number because on my block there is only one home of Asian descent, so I was a little struck by the percentage. The average household size for renter occupied unit seems right, I currently live in a apartment complex and most of our neighbors are either young couples with one or no children or retired couples. So the average of 2.38 seems to be right and I don't think that will change very much in the 2010 census.