County heat maps

Open the heat-map controls

Heat Maps color the census block groups within one area so you can quickly see how a demographic measure varies from place to place. An area is either a county or a DMA — a Nielsen designated market area, the television market a place belongs to.

Find Heat Maps below the address search box in the upper-left corner of the map. Select the heading to expand or collapse the controls. Collapsing the controls only hides the options. It does not remove an active heat map.

Create a heat map

1. Expand Heat Maps.
2. Choose a county or a DMA. Search for its name, or select one of the buttons above the search box when a radius marker is already on the map.
3. Choose one of the options under Heatmap Options.

The heat map begins loading as soon as you choose an option; there is no separate Generate button. The selected option fills with orange while the map is being prepared. When it is ready, the map zooms to the area and colors its census block groups, and a legend appears below the selected area.

A DMA covers many counties, so a market takes longer to load than a single county and its boundaries are drawn slightly coarser.

Choose an area

You can map one area at a time — one county or one DMA, not both. Once an area is selected, its name appears as the selected area, the search box is hidden, and the heat-map options become available.

To choose a different area, select the X beside the current one, then search again or select another pin button. Search covers counties throughout the United States and DMAs across the lower 48 states. Each suggestion is labelled County or DMA, so a name that matches both is easy to tell apart. An area can appear in search even if heat-map data has not been prepared for it yet.

Counties and DMAs from your pins

When a radius marker is on the map, two rows appear above the search box: Counties from your pins and DMAs from your pins. Select a button to choose that area. You still choose a heat-map option to paint the map.

Each county and each market gets one button. Two pins in the same county share a county button, and two pins in the same market share a market button. While a name is loading, the button is a placeholder and cannot be selected.

After you select any area, every other pin button on both rows is unavailable — a county and a market are alternatives, not a pair. Select the X beside the current area and they become available again.

Removing a radius marker removes its buttons. A heat map that is already showing stays until you clear it.

Choose what to map

• Population Density: the number of residents per square kilometer.
• Median Household Income: the estimated median household income.
• % Population Growth: the estimated three-year percentage change in population. Negative values indicate decline and positive values indicate growth.
• Competition Ratio***: TBD the available competition measure for each block group. Coverage for this option is currently limited.

Select a different option to replace the current heat map. The app may reuse the boundaries it has already loaded, so later options for the same area can appear faster. Select the active option again to turn the heat map off; the area remains selected, so you can choose another option without searching for it again.

Read the map and legend

Each colored shape is a census block group. The legend lists the value ranges from low to high for the selected area and option.

• Population Density uses shortened values such as 1K.
• Median Household Income uses shortened dollar values such as $57K.
• Population Growth includes minus and plus signs so decline and growth are easy to distinguish.
• Gray areas labeled No data do not have a usable value for the selected measure.

The ranges are calculated for the selected area. A county mapped on its own and the same county inside its DMA can show different colors, because the ranges are calculated across everything in the selected area. When you change areas or options, read the new legend rather than assuming that the same color represents the same value.

Radius markers and specialist points remain visible above the heat map. The heat map is a visual comparison layer only: selecting an area does not create a radius marker or add results to the Analysis Panel.

Remove the heat map

You can clear the heat map by selecting the active heat-map option again, or by selecting the X beside the area name. Removing the area also clears the active option and legend.

If the heat map does not appear

No suggestions appear

• Enter at least two letters.
• Try a distinctive part of the county or market name.
• Confirm that you are signed in and connected to the internet.

If search is temporarily unavailable, the suggestion list may simply remain empty.

“No heat-map data for this county yet” or “…for this market yet” appears

The area is recognized, but its data has not been prepared for the selected option. Try another option or another area.

A request error appears

The map could not load the values or the boundaries. Select the active option once to turn it off, then select it again to retry. If the problem continues, refresh the page and retry.

Some areas are gray

Gray means No data for those block groups. It does not mean the value is zero.