Author: Nathan Walsh

The interactive map above represents the percentage of housing stock in each municipality rated affordable. Clicking on a specific area will create a text box indicating both the municipality’s name and percentage of affordable housing. Gray areas indicate municipalities with less than 5% affordable housing. The other municipalities are varying shades of red. This sliding color scale indicates the more affordable housing stock available. Darker colors indicate municipalities where a larger percentage of housing is defined as affordable. For example, we know that within the City of Hartford, represented by a dark red in the center of the map, about 37% of housing is deemed “affordable.” This map does not include every Connecticut municipality. “Affordability” is defined under the Connecticut Statute 8-30g.

The above charts illustrate the malleability of statistics; both charts represent identical data. On the first chart, the vertical axis ranges from 40 to 80, the extremes of the data. On the second chart, the vertical axis rages from -10 to 100. The change in scale significantly effects the slope of the graph. The steep slope gives the appearance that the data is changing rapidly while more moderate slope give the impression that the data is relatively stable. The line on the second chart was also smoothed, making the change look even less significant. This exercise demonstrates how easily statistics can be manipulated to give the reader a certain idea. It is also a caution to me, as a reader, to be wary about the presentation of data.