Overview

Dynamically visualize data from Data Axle to display four metrics related to church closures at the tract level over various date ranges. Include ‘snapshot’ views of socioeconomic information about the areas alongside the church closure metrics.

Project Goals

1. REVIEW: Evaluate the raw data and previously outlined cleaning, validation, and harmonization methods employed by Dr. Insang Song for accuracy and identify opportunities for improvement.

2. PREPARATION: Implement identified improvements to prepare the dataset for analysis and distribution to qualifying collaborators.

3. METRICS: Calculate the metrics necessary for dynamic visualization.

Findings addressing each of these objectives are accessible via the navigation bar in the top right.

Important Links and Locations

In accordance with the Data Use Agreement for this dataset, some repositories may not be publicly accessible or may contain local files that are not tracked by Git and or included on GitHub. Complete copies of the data and summary results can be accessed in the ‘SOCAH LAB\Church closing\Raw data’ folder on Yale’s OneDrive.

Active dashboard: Closed Churches in the US

Original GitHub Repo by Dr. Song: sigmafelix/healthreligion_project

Source for Dashboard Map Code: ysph-dsde/church-closures

Repository Note

The Data Use Agreements (DUAs) with the data owner, Data Axle, prohibit public distribution of the raw data. Accordingly, individual-level files are stored in ~/KEEP LOCAL directories. While most local-only files are individual-level data, some code or results may also be restricted.

All publicly distributed results are summarized, and all publicly distributed code has been constructed to avoid directly revealing or referencing individual-level results. Executing all code below requires access to the raw data and results.

API keys are user-specific and are not publicly distributed. Where applicable, instructions have been provided to help users obtain their own API keys.