demographics (an unoriginal post)
March 19, 2002 11:44 AM

I almost never read metafilter, but I did today, and I saw something interesting (which I'm sharing on the basis of my assumption that you don't read mefi, either): Where does your zip code fit demographically?

The wild inaccuracy of the assessment for my zip code probably has something to do with the diversity of the neighborhood, straddling one of the richest and one of the poorer communities in the city. So I was curious. It appears breakdowns are also available by census block, which would explain why we (on the poorer side, also near an older population) largely receive direct marketing offers for things we would never, ever buy. We get direct marketing targeted at bilking older people.

Anyhow, I thought I'd gather a little more information. I'm curious. If you are, too, you can read the breakdowns of MicroVision segments or PRIZM clusters. Intriguingly, the MicroVision calculation for my area seemed to weight the poverty of my zip code higher than did the PRIZM one.

And if you're really curious, you can also read the (slightly old) book, published by Claritas or browse some less sales-oriented background information.