Big Data Might Live Next Door

Sunday, October 20, 2013

With more than 47,000,000 Americans only able to buy their next meal because they are on SNAP, formerly Food Stamps, one wonders where these people live. 47 million sure sounds like a big number. But where are they?

Try this thought experiment. If we wanted to move everyone on SNAP into concentrated hunger zones we would need to empty the fifty largest cities in America in order to make room for 47,000,000 people. Ponder that for a moment. All of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami – and Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Arlington, Texas. If you can imagine everyone in all of the cities listed below as hungry and on SNAP, then you are beginning to grasp the scale of the problem.

So, while 47,000,000 is a huge number, the people that make up that number must be all around us: down the block, around the corner, across the road, on the bus, in the elevator. Maybe we work with someone on SNAP. Maybe we have a friend who has not told us they are struggling. Maybe that kid in the park?

Where is hunger in your world?

1	New York	New York	8,336,697
2	Los Angeles	California	3,857,799
3	Chicago	Illinois	2,714,856
4	Houston	Texas	2,160,821
5	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	1,547,607
6	*Phoenix*	Arizona	1,488,750
7	San Antonio	Texas	1,382,951
8	San Diego	California	1,338,348
9	Dallas	Texas	1,241,162
10	San Jose	California	982,765
11	Austin	Texas	842,592
12	Jacksonville	Florida	836,507
13	*Indianapolis*	Indiana	834,852
14	San Francisco	California	825,863
15	*Columbus*	Ohio	809,798
16	Fort Worth	Texas	777,992
17	Charlotte	North Carolina	775,202
18	Detroit	Michigan	701,475
19	El Paso	Texas	672,538
20	Memphis	Tennessee	655,155
21	*Boston*	Massachusetts	636,479
22	Seattle	Washington	634,535
23	*Denver*	Colorado	634,265
24	*Washington*	District of Columbia	632,323
25	Nashville	Tennessee	624,496
26	Baltimore	Maryland	621,342
27	Louisville	Kentucky	605,110
28	Portland	Oregon	603,106
29	*Oklahoma City*	Oklahoma	599,199
30	Milwaukee	Wisconsin	598,916
31	Las Vegas	Nevada	596,424
32	Albuquerque	New Mexico	555,417
33	Tucson	Arizona	524,295
34	Fresno	California	505,882
35	Sacramento	California	475,516
36	Long Beach	California	467,892
37	Kansas City	Missouri	464,310
38	Mesa	Arizona	452,084
39	Virginia Beach	Virginia	447,021
40	*Atlanta*	Georgia	443,775
41	Colorado Springs	Colorado	431,834
42	Raleigh	North Carolina	423,179
43	Omaha	Nebraska	421,570
44	Miami	Florida	413,892
45	Oakland	California	400,740
46	Tulsa	Oklahoma	393,987
47	Minneapolis	Minnesota	392,880
48	Cleveland	Ohio	390,928
49	Wichita	Kansas	385,577
50	Arlington	Texas	375,600