Essential Esri Redistricting Online vocabulary

Below are some common terms you will encounter when using Esri Redistricting Online.

ArcGIS Online

ArcGIS Online is a website for working with maps and other types of geographic information. Visit the site to create maps; find and use maps, application, and tools; and share your maps and applications with others. Within the site, you will find an application for building and sharing maps.

You will also find useful basemaps, data, applications, and tools that you can view and use, plus communities you can join. Visit ArcGIS Online for more details.

Census blocks

A block is the smallest unit for which the U.S. Census Bureau reports a full range of demographic statistics. The U.S. Census Bureau provides redistricting data at the block level, which is the lowest level of census geography.

Census block group

A unit of U.S. census geography that is a cluster of census blocks having the same first digit of their 4-digit code within a census tract. There are about 700 residents per block group. A block group is a subdivision of a census tract.

Census tract

A small, geographic statistical subdivision within counties containing an average of approximately 4,000 inhabitants that have statistically comparable population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions.

County

The primary legal subdivision of all U.S. states, except Alaska and Louisiana. The U.S. Census Bureau uses counties or equivalent entities (boroughs in Alaska, parishes in Louisiana, the District of Columbia in its entirety, and municipios in Puerto Rico) as statistical subdivisions.

District

A type of administrative division, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, or subdivisions of municipalities; the boundaries that define the constituency of an elected official.

Demographics

The statistical characteristics (such as age, birth rate, and income) of a human population.

Plan

A preliminary design of proposed administrative, legistlative, or election boundaries created using Esri Redistricting Online.

Publish

To produce data and information in a distributable format, such as digital, Internet, or print media.

Redistricting

The process of revising the boundaries of administrative, legistlative, or election districts; the drawing of new political district boundaries.

Territory

A region marked off for administrative or other purposes.

VTD

Voting Tabulation District (VTD) is a Census term for a geographic area, such as an election precinct, where election information is collected.