Geographic Mismatch Error: Near North Side
Community Area Geography vs. Census Geography
The map below shows how Census geographies correspond to Near North Side boundaries in Chicago. Community Area boundaries are shown with a solid black outline. The selected Census geography is shown with solid gray outlines; use the layer control to switch between Census tracts and the block-group/tract hybrid. In this case, Near North Side has no geographic mismatch error: census tracts and block groups perfectly align with community area boundaries.
Map Key
Community Area boundary
Tract boundary
Since Near North Side has no split Census geographies, both the Census Tracts view and the Block Group + Tract Hybrid view show the same boundaries. That’s because the hybrid view uses block groups only where a Census tract crosses the area boundary; otherwise, it uses whole tracts. When there is no geographic mismatch error, statistics come from the tract level, which is preferred because tracts are larger than block groups. See the methodology page for more details.
Note: part of Near North Side’s boundary extends into open water beyond the mapped Census tract/block-group geography (e.g., a lake, river, or coastline). That area has no population, so it has no effect on the figures on this page, but it can make the boundary line appear to run past the census outlines on the map above.