A Review of the Opportunity Atlas
Using the Opportunity Atlas to Understand Systemic Barriers to Upwards Mobility
Leo Sovell-Fernandez
The Opportunity Atlas, created by researchers at the Census Bureau and Harvard University, enables users to analyze the geography of social mobility in the US. In short, the atlas allows users to compare socio-economic metrics for children's outcomes at the age of 35 at the neighborhood (census tract), county, and metro/regional scales. The atlas suggests that social mobility can be tracked geographically and used to inform policy decisions; that neighborhood socio-economic environment (analyzed through 20+ metrics available in the atlas) may offer insight into how social mobility may be achieved.
The map and it’s numerous control widgets contain an immense amount of data, but can be difficult to navigate. Some practice is necessary to extract meaningful trends and from the overwhelming amount of US Census and American Community Survey data provided by the Atlas. In the following short videos, I will outline the steps necessary to investigate some of the systemic barriers to social mobility in the United States using the Atlas, examining evidence of biased policing and the scars of redlining in Minneapolis.
Now that we understand how the Opportunity Atlas stores and displays data, we may use the Atlas to analyze systemic barriers to social mobility. The following video we will examine how potential bias in policing and the federally-sponsored practice of redlining have likely directly affected modern outcomes—that is, a systematic obstruction to social mobility in many majority non-white census tracts in Minneapolis.
This graphic shows the same data symbolized in QGIS as compared with in-browser Opportunity Atlas symbology for reference.
As we can see, the same data on incarceration in Minneapolis can “truthfully” be displayed in a variety of ways. When interpreting data on Opportunity Atlas, it is important to understand the subjective breaks in color that the atlas uses.
I hope that through this brief tutorial you have a better understanding of the ways in which the Opportunity Atlas may be used not only to track trends in social mobility, but offer insight into racial bias and some of the roots of racial injustices in the United States.