The United States Census has released the 2005-2009 American Community Survey data, which reflect answers to detailed questions asked over that time frame. With any release like this of large amounts of data, experienced analysts are already telling stories about what's new and what has changed in their part of the country.

Here's a collection of some of the questions that you could answer with this new Census data, and stories that people have told from it. With dozens of data sets available and results down to the neighborhood level, this is fertile ground for stories backed by numbers.

Poverty

David Jesse's story on poverty trends in Washtenaw County is front page news. The number of Washtenaw County households making less than $10,000 a year grew by 13 percent in the past decade, outpacing growth in the lowest income category across the state.

The poverty story is sadly a national one, with headlines in Colorado, Alabama, and towns and cities throughout the country as reporters digest the data.

Segregation

The Detroit Free Press story on metro Detroit segregation is derived from an analysis from the Brookings Institution. William Frey from Brookings is the lead on these stories, and if you chase enough links you find that the data lives at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center.

The analysis as published looks at racial segregation over the 100 largest metropolitan areas. It should be possible, with the right tools, to re-run this analysis over other geographies covered by the Census mapping, including Washtenaw County; I have a query in to see if that is feasible.

Redistricting

The 2010 census data will be used to redraw the map of Congressional districts and other political boundaries nationwide. This data release does not include that information, though it's expect in a couple of days; when it does get released, the Census redistricting data page will be a good place to start.

District maps are a very good way to understand just how odd boundaries can dilute and concentrate population characteristics. This Republican dominated Michigan map proposal wipes out a Democrat by splitting his district three ways along I-75; a counterproposal from a Democratic strategist consolidates Democratic power. Expect bitter, partisan fights.

Data exploration and mapping

The Census publishes a set of maps derived from the 2009 American Community Survey, which looks at some of the frequently requested maps.

The New York Times has a very nice interactive Mapping America: Every City, Every Block tool, with a data explorer that lets you zoom and pan through 22 of the Census variables. You could easily lose a day or a week wandering through these maps.

The Times analysis is built on top of Social Explorer, an interactive Census analysis tool which has both a large set of free mapping tools and a subscription service that includes access to The Times entire data set — over 40 billion data points, over 200,000 variables, and over 15,000 interactive maps, dating from 1790 to the present day.

What else do you see?

The nice thing about Census stories is that if you can find someone who has done an analysis somewhere, that you can replicate that exploration anywhere in the country. If you see an interesting story somewhere else, and want to know what the same kind of analysis would reveal locally, let us know.

Edward Vielmetti is mesmerized by maps at AnnArbor.com.