The Ranking Variables - Variable takes the top DA's for your weighted variable, then looks for the presence of the other variables you've chosen within these dissemination areas (DA's).
When going through the process of creating the report, you will need to select a Trade Area, a weight variable, a threshold, along with additional variables to show up on the report. We recommend that you use 25% as your threshold value. What this will do is take the top 25% of DAs in your trade area based on the presence of your weighted variable, and then report on the values for the other variables you chose within those top 25% of DAs.
If you use 100% as your threshold you are essentially watering down your results. Ideally, we only want to include DAs in your trade area with a very high representation of your weight variable in the analysis. Using 100% as a threshold means that even if a DA has one person that corresponds with your weight variable, that entire DA is going to be included in the report even though that DA has very few people associated with the weight variable in it. By using 25% as the threshold we are ensuring that only DAs with a high proportion of the weight variable are included when reporting on our other variables.
Notes:
- % = The percentage in the top 25% of Dissemination Areas (based on your weighted variable) that correspond to the variable
- Base % = The percentage in the Area of Interest that correspond to the variable
Please see Ranking Variables Reports for more information.