drdrang@fosstodon.org
drdrang@fosstodon.org

☃️ There's a lot of missing county-level data for no good reason.
leancrew.com/all-this/2023/12/

|
Embed
Progress spinner
roisinmaeve@mastodon.social
roisinmaeve@mastodon.social

@drdrang weird thing I noticed, there are 6 DeKalb Counties in the US and all 6 of them are missing from the database. Seems like an odd coincidence?

|
Embed
Progress spinner
drdrang@fosstodon.org
drdrang@fosstodon.org

@roisinmaeve That is weird. I knew there were 6 DeKalbs in my list, but I never checked to see that they were the only ones. When I first learned about DuPage and DeKalb in Illinois, I thought the intercaps might be an issue, but then I found several non-intercapped counties with missing seats. We might both be suffering from apophenia.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
chontorres@mastodon.social
chontorres@mastodon.social

@drdrang The two California cities are census designated places and not incorporated. Maybe their query is not including unincorporated areas?

|
Embed
Progress spinner
drdrang@fosstodon.org
drdrang@fosstodon.org

@chontorres Does that mean those CA counties don’t have capitals? The examples of legitimate missing values I gave weren’t meant to be exhaustive, but I’d add new ones if there’s a distinct new category.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
chontorres@mastodon.social
chontorres@mastodon.social

@drdrang They do have capitals, but the capitals are unincorporated. Both of the counties are very small and rural.

I've visited the Sierra County Courthouse in Downieville (the county seat of Sierra County), which is right next to the Sierra County Sheriff's Gallows - thankfully not used since the 1880’s.

|
Embed
Progress spinner
In reply to
mrbeefy
mrbeefy

@drdrang Just to muddy the Virginia data even further, an independent city in Virginia can be the county seat of a county it is not in. Charlottesville is the county seat of Albermarle County, but as an independent city is legally distinct from Albermarle County.

|
Embed
Progress spinner