Analyzing Community Insights with My Community Explorer

Sometimes, Child Care Aware® of Missouri (CCAMO) serves as a curator of data rather than a direct originator. One essential resource we rely on is My Community Explorer (MCE), a tool developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. MCE offers interactive dashboards and maps with demographic, business, and resilience data down to the Census Tract level.

MCE allows users to explore key facts by state and county across multiple categories, including:

• Businesses
• Poverty
• At-risk populations
• Health insurance coverage

It also highlights critical household demographics, such as:

• Households below the poverty level
• Households receiving food stamps/SNAP
• Households without a vehicle
• Households with a disability

This powerful tool enables a deep dive into the economic conditions of communities. The data primarily comes from two sources:

• American Community Survey (ACS): Provides detailed data on social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics across geographic areas.
• County Business Patterns (CBP): An annual series offering subnational economic data by industry, useful for analyzing local economic activity and trends over time.

Together, these datasets make MCE an indispensable tool for understanding and addressing disparities in child care access and broader community well-being. For more information, see https://mce-data-uscensus.hub.arcgis.com/.

The data you need when you need it. Contact CCAMO today.

Explore our other Child Care Aware® of Missouri resources:

Clock Hour Training
Scholarships for Educators
Child Care Health and Wellness
Family Child Care Network
Leadership Development Opportunities
Missouri Office of Childhood Updates
Show Me Child Care Resources
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