All Things Missouri: A free online tool for accessing, analyzing and visualizing state, local data
Curt Wohleber
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI
All Things Missouri (www.AllThingsMissouri.org(opens in new window)) is a free online resource that can help media outlets enhance their reporting and storytelling by providing context and insights, identifying trends, and enabling comparisons among geographical areas.
Created by University of Missouri Extension’s Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES(opens in new window)), All Things Missouri aggregates data from a wide range of sources, enabling journalists to explore that data within a single easy-to-use interface and create customized interactive maps and reports.
The platform incorporates up-to-date, quality data across sectors – including business, nonprofit, government, health care and education – to help Missourians better understand community needs, allocate resources and make more data-informed decisions.
Short video tutorials and two-page guides are available to help users get started(opens in new window). Sets of starter maps and reports on various topics provide selected groupings of indicators that reporters can use to find relevant data that help tell a compelling story.
The Missouri Map Room offers more than 30,000 data layers from reliable secondary sources at the local, state and national level. Great for social media, the Missouri Map Room allows writers to build and share customized maps and reports for counties, cities and regions in Missouri and across the country.
Some easy ways to use All Things Missouri for reporting:
- Get a map of the city, county or neighborhood your story is referencing. Download the map image to include it in the story. Make it clickable and interactive using a short link.
- Get maps that help readers better visualize an issue you are reporting on. Whether it’s a story about housing market fluctuations, unemployment, climate change or health trends, All Things Missouri can support your story with facts, figures and visualizations.
- Get state and national benchmarks to help readers better understand the severity of a local problem.
- Use the Missouri Map Room and Reports to identify trends at the county level that might otherwise go unnoticed. Use this data to highlight important patterns within the community.
All Things Missouri draws on data from more than 120 sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Missouri-specific sources include the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA).
Data are updated regularly; check out All Things Missouri Data News to see what’s fresh: AllThingsMissouri.org/whats-new(opens in new window).
About CARES
The Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (cares.missouri.edu(opens in new window)) is a group of geographic information specialists, programmers and data analysts. We love making maps, developing new data visualizations and helping individuals and organizations figure out ways to do their work better. For more than 30 years, we’ve collected, analyzed and visualized data related to the environment, agriculture, safety, education and the economy. We appreciate and understand the challenges and opportunities related to data collection and analysis in rural America. We seek to partner with like-minded organizations, build tools and find data that supports positive population change.
About MU Extension
Through the innovations and ideals of the University of Missouri, MU Extension (extension.missouri.edu) improves lives, businesses and communities by focusing on solving Missouri’s grand challenges around economic opportunity, educational access, and health and well-being. ∆