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Social Explorer Guide

This guide contains an introduction and tutorial for Social Explorer, a visualization and data-mapping tool recommended for Data Science research.

Finding Data

1. Under Explore Maps, scroll to select a map you might be interested in, or select Explore.
2. Select Change Data in the upper left box.
3. Select Data by categories, source, years, or scroll to view more.
4. Use the search bar to get more specific.
5. If using Maps to identify dataset, then download CSV file from tables, use the Info icon to note your data source. The data source is what you can use in Tables & Reports to search and download the data. 
  

Download CSV File from Map

We recommend using Reports to generate a CSV file due to higher margin for error when generating CSV files from Maps. If you still wish to use Maps, see instructions below.
1. Once you choose the data of interest, select the hamburger icon. Then, select Create Report.

2. Select Geography using the toogle toolbar on the righthand side. Tip: use the square or circle feature to select large areas. Double check the map and number of geographies selected to be sure that all of your desired geographies are selected. Last, click Create to create your report.

3. Once report is generated, select Data Download on right side of top banner. 
4. Select Output column labels in first row.
5. Scroll down to Download data by geography type. Click the blue link to CSV file.

Note: In this example case, the data initially selected in Maps (number of people who take public transportation to work) was not able to be isolated by downloading the CSV file from the Map itself. You are able to isolate it, and only download the public transportation variable, using the Tables > Create Report process.