The Data For This Dashboard
For today’s dataset, a file on historical and current day alcohol consumption in the United States would need to be web scrapped, prepared and visualized. The bulk of the relevant data was found at the bottom of a txt file online, with some columns left as numbers referenced to tables above this major chunk of data:
From the image above, you can see the historical data alongside the key to the final column in the table, referencing the type of data source the data was pulled from.
Data Collection and Cleaning
To collect this data, Alteryx was utilized through the Download Tool, returning every line of the txt file so the individual tables can be selected.The rest of the Alteryx process consisted of cleaning the data and attempting to substitute the identification tables into the main table.
Introducing My Topic
The topic I decided to focus on was the correlation alcohol had within key events/economic indicators within America, to see if alcohol consumption was more common during times of unrest within America.
The Dashboard Overview
The first half of my dashboard highlights some key stats on average beverage consumption for each of the states within America, allowing for a selected state to be chosen to filter the rest of the contents of the report. Additionally, the specific type of alcohol can be chosen to filter the whole report.
The main bulk of my report can be seen in this chart, being able to compare beverage consumption against three key indicators (unemployment, crime rate, and recessions).
Data Analysis
The yearly beverage consumption was the main data that was being compared again the three indicators. Since the recessions were manually added by me, the actual columns where a recession happened will be there no matter which comparison is clicked by the user. Other than that, the user can chose between just the yearly beverage consumption, or yearly beverage consumption with either unemployment or crime rate.
Insights
The findings proved interesting but I suspect there were too much at play to be able to draw any significant connections between alcohol consumption and the indicators.
Conclusion
Overall, this dashboard was quite fun to create. It was interesting having such a focus being on census data, since most of my dashboards have not incorporated such data yet. Despite that, it was quite annoying trying to find and gather the data, taking up more time than I would have liked. Still, though, I though it really helped to enhance my story and was good practice for the future.
Thanks for reading, if you would like to check out my dashboard feel free to check it out here.
