Geographic Mismatch Error: Cypress Park

Neighborhood Geography vs. Census Geography

The map below shows how Census geographies correspond to Cypress Park boundaries in Los Angeles. Neighborhood 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. Geographies that are partially inside and partially outside a neighborhood are shaded in blue; the portion outside the neighborhood is shown with orange striped shading. Demographic data from the outside portions is borrowed into the neighborhood’s estimates and is the source of geographic mismatch error.

Map Key
Split tract — inside neighborhood
Split tract — outside neighborhood
Neighborhood boundary
Tract boundary

Quantifying Geographic Aggregation Error

Using 2020 decennial census block-level data, the table below isolates the error caused by geographic aggregation. The true values come from direct aggregation of unaggregated census blocks into the neighborhood boundary. The tract and hybrid estimates are then built from the same block data after first rolling those block counts up to census tracts or block groups, and then re-estimating the neighborhood from those larger units. This shows the distortion introduced by using tract- or block-group-level geography instead of direct blocks. Because every figure comes from the same decennial census source, this comparison removes sampling noise and time mismatch and isolates the effect of aggregation alone.

Variable Direct Blocks
(Decennial Census Data)
Estimate (Block Data Aggregated Up)
Error (Estimate − True)
Tract Hybrid Tract Hybrid
Race
Hispanic or Latino 81.21 77.85 79.96 -3.36 pp -1.25 pp
White 8.18 9.83 9.25 +1.65 pp +1.07 pp
Black 1.12 1.14 1.10 +0.02 pp -0.02 pp
Asian 7.39 9.08 7.58 +1.70 pp +0.19 pp
Other or Multi-racial 2.11 2.09 2.11 -0.02 pp +0.00 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 1.35 pp 0.51 pp
Age Group
Under 5 years 4.57 4.51 4.49 -0.06 pp -0.08 pp
5 to 17 years 14.68 14.05 14.51 -0.64 pp -0.18 pp
18 to 24 years 10.25 9.67 9.91 -0.58 pp -0.34 pp
25 to 44 years 31.57 32.68 32.45 +1.11 pp +0.89 pp
45 to 64 years 24.89 24.73 24.52 -0.16 pp -0.37 pp
65 years and over 14.04 14.36 14.12 +0.32 pp +0.08 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 0.48 pp 0.32 pp
Housing Tenure
Owner-occupied 37.79 39.85 40.09 +2.07 pp +2.30 pp
Renter-occupied 62.21 60.15 59.91 -2.07 pp -2.30 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 2.07 pp 2.30 pp
Housing Occupancy
Occupied Housing 94.65 94.58 94.81 -0.06 pp +0.17 pp
Vacant Housing 5.35 5.42 5.19 +0.06 pp -0.17 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 0.06 pp 0.17 pp
Household Size
1-person HH 21.26 22.11 20.69 +0.85 pp -0.57 pp
2-person HH 27.60 27.83 27.71 +0.23 pp +0.11 pp
3-person HH 18.29 18.31 18.53 +0.02 pp +0.24 pp
4+ person HH 32.85 31.75 33.07 -1.10 pp +0.22 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 0.55 pp 0.29 pp
Household Type
Family Households 67.67 66.66 68.13 -1.01 pp +0.46 pp
Married-couple Family 40.23 39.29 40.53 -0.94 pp +0.30 pp
Non-family Households 32.33 33.34 31.87 +1.01 pp -0.46 pp
Living Alone 21.26 22.11 20.69 +0.85 pp -0.57 pp
Average Absolute Error — — — 0.95 pp 0.45 pp
Average Absolute Error Across Categories — — — 0.91 pp 0.67 pp
Note: Percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Average Absolute Error: mean of absolute errors across variables within each category.
Average Absolute Error Across Categories: simple average of the six category-level averages.