This vignette examines the accuracy of the
ACS-Decennial-Block harmonization calculated by
bl_harmonize_vars()
. We start where the README leaves off.
library(blockpop)
library(dplyr)
library(stringr)
library(tidyr)
acs_d = bl_download_acs_vars("WA")
census_d = bl_download_2010_vars("WA")
block_d = bl_download_fcc("data-raw/fcc.csv") %>%
bl_load_state("WA", .) %>%
bl_est_2020() %>%
bl_harmonize_vars(census_d, acs_d)
print(block_d)
Then we join summarize our block-level estimates at the block group level and join them to the ACS data to compare.
sum_d = block_d %>%
select(-starts_with("vap_")) %>%
mutate(bgroup = str_sub(block, 1, 12)) %>%
select(-block, -state) %>%
group_by(bgroup) %>%
summarize(across(everything(), sum)) %>%
rename_with(~ str_c("est_", .), .cols=starts_with("pop_")) %>%
inner_join(rename_with(acs_d, ~ str_c("acs_", .),
.cols=-bgroup), by="bgroup") %>%
pivot_longer(c(starts_with("est_pop_"), starts_with("acs_pop_")),
names_to=c("source", "type", "race"),
names_sep="_", values_to="count") %>%
select(-type) %>%
pivot_wider(names_from=source, values_from=count) %>%
mutate(est_pct = est/pop2020,
acs_pct = acs/acs_pop)
Plotting, we see excellent agreement between the ACS and estimated demographic percentages at the block group level. In fact, the Spearman correlation is in excess of 99.9%.
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(sum_d, aes(acs_pct, est_pct, color=race)) +
geom_point(size=0.1, alpha=0.5) +
coord_cartesian(expand=0) +
guides(color=guide_legend(override.aes=list(size=5))) +
theme_bw()
#> Warning: Removed 96 rows containing missing values or values outside the scale range
#> (`geom_point()`).
This agreement occurs with 2020 block total population estimates
exactly equal to the projections from bl_est_2020()
, and
using block-level demographic estimates that are as close as possible to
the 2010 Census counts. This means much more accuracy and granularity
than simple population-based disaggregation from block-group-level ACS
data.