Comparison Reports

Comparison Reports allow you to create reports that compare your sites based on a set of popular categories. These popular categories include population, households, income, and housing as well as customizable reports. Options also include comparing your sites to a benchmark and geographies.

Steps:

1. Click the Reports tab and click Comparison Reports.

Comparison Reports opens with the Comparison Report Setup dialog box. By using the following steps, you can create your comparison reports.

Choose the sites you want to compare from the site panel above.

The sites you have selected by clicking the check box of the site in the site panel appear in the Selected Sites list in step 1.

The following options help you tailor your comparison report for these selected sites.

Select geographies to compare to your sites.

This second optional step allows you to compare the selected sites against the respective geographies. Selecting a geography from the drop-down lists will add the site to the comparison graphs and table in step 3. The geographies available in each drop-down list are based on the sites you select in step 1.

This step alleviates the creation of geography sites for comparison purposes. If you want to compare sites to a geography that is not automatically available in the drop-down lists in step 2, you can create a geography site under Select Location, using Select Geographies, and select it for comparison in step 1.

Each drop-down list is populated based on the sites you have selected. For example, for a point-based site, the ZIP Code drop-down list includes the ZIP Code where the point-based site lies. For a hand-drawn polygon, all ZIP Codes that the polygon touches are added to the ZIP Code drop-down list.

Select a site to use as a benchmark.

This third optional step allows you to select a site, geography, or summary statistic to benchmark for comparison and see how the other selected sites and geographies compare to the benchmark values. The sites available for selection as a benchmark are the same as those selected in step 1. The geographies are the same as those available in step 2. In addition, you can select the average or median values calculated from all the selected sites in step 1 to serve as a benchmark. This is useful if you do not have a benchmark site but still want to see which sites selected in step 1 are above or below average relative to each other.

View graphs and tables for the popular criteria below or choose Customize to select your own criteria.

You can choose from Population, Households, Income, and Housing, or you can customize your own criteria.

Click one of the buttons (Population, Households, Income, or Housing) to view the results of your Comparison Report setup. The Comparison Report appears containing the results of your selection from the steps in the previous page.

The appearance of the results will vary depending on your selection; however, the viewing options are similar for Population, Households, Income, and Housing.

The tabs allow you to see the results of the other options. You can select the view using the toggle for graph view or table view. Graph view is the default.

If a benchmark site has been selected, it appears first on the graph and is indicated as the Benchmark.

You can also select the data to view using the toggle for 2013 or 2018. The default is 2013.

You can return to the Comparison Report Setup page any time by clicking Back to Comparison Report Setup.

Click Print to print the report.

Table View

Table View presents the comparison data in a tabular view and provides options for manipulating the table.

You can select the layout for the variables to appear in columns or rows and click the check box to expand rings, drive times or donuts.

Click Print to print the report.

Click Export to Excel to export the table to an Excel file.

Custom Comparison Reports

You can create custom comparison reports to rerun at any time. These reports can be used to compare metrics from variables you select and save for future analysis.

Steps:

1. From the Comparison Report Setup dialog box, select your sites for comparison and click the Customize button in step 4. Or, from the Comparison Report screen within the population, households, income, or housing screens, click the Customize tab.
2. Select your variables by using the search for a variable name, an issue or an area of interest text box.
   • You can use the search for a variable name, an issue or an area of interest text box.
   • You can browse the categories and search within the category you choose. The Browse buttons with the white backgrounds provide categories for further data searching. The Browse buttons with green backgrounds provide specific data browsing including My Data, Favorites, By Source and Show All.
3. With the variable results, you can refine the results by keyword or changing the year. Click the check box for the variables you want in the customized report.

   The checked variables appear under Selected Variables in the right column.

   Continue until you have added all the variables you want to include in the report.

   To clear the selected variables, click Clear all.

To save lists

Once you have selected the variables for your list, you can save them.

Steps:

1. Click Save List.
The Save Variables List dialog box appears.
2. Type the nam of the list the in the text box and click Save.

The saved lists appear in Saved lists.

View Table or View Graph

Once you have selected the variables for your custom comparison report, you can click View Table or View Graph to view the results in the respective table.

Print

Steps:

1. Click Print.

   The Print dialog box appears for you to print your report.

Export to Excel

Steps:

1. Click Export to Excel.
2. Select the location to download the Excel file.
   Note:

   For the U.S., only the first 100 block groups can be exported.

   For Canada, only the first 100 dissemination areas can be exported.

   The Excel file appears in the location you selected.