4.1 Selecting a Spatial Unit of Analysis

Data on demographics are available at many different levels of aggregation, from very small (e.g. Census block groups in the United States) to very large (e.g. states or countries). You will need to select a spatial unit that is appropriate for your data and research question. For reference, you can find a list of available spatial units in the tidycensus package’s documentation. For most students working on local St. Louis projects, Census tracts will be the most appropriate.