Profiles of California
The first section of this reference work, About California, is an overview that can be found in many reference works. Education compares public school district rankings and the state test results. This section is by rank while the listing includes the school district with the place name. The Climate section has a descriptive overview and relief map; however, most of the material is organized by the weather station with its location and the data it collected. Profiles has descriptive information on the usual demographic data; and, it includes air quality, ancestry, health care, health insurance, religion, and transportation. The communities within each county vary in what information is provided. The counties are in alphabetical order; the communities within each county are in alphabetical order; and an alphabetical place index is here. The Profiles comprise a third of the content. Comparative Statistics compares specific characteristics, such as health insurance, from the 100 largest cities in easily read tables. The cities are in alphabetical order. This is followed by the Community Rankings section that compares data for incorporated places having a population of 10,000 or more. For areas with larger populations, users will look at both; but, smaller places are included in the Community Rankings only. In this section, the arrangement is by rank while the listing is by place name with the county. For example, population with health insurance, population with private health insurance, population with public health insurance, population with no health insurance, and population under 18 years old with no health insurance are new data in this edition. In the Comparative Statistics, these health insurance data are column headings. In the Community Rankings, they are separate lists by rank. In Ancestry and Ethnicity, Place Profiles includes demographic information for the state, counties, and cities. Ancestry Group Rankings lists the place of ancestry in alphabetical order with the top ten places in California whose population is from that place. Each place has three separate lists, sorted differently. Hispanic Origin Rankings and Racial Group Rankings are presented similarly. The Ancestry and Ethnicity section is another third of the content.
Highly recommended for high school libraries in California and for public and academic libraries throughout the nation. High school students may need assistance using the Ancestry Group Rankings section of the data; but, they should easily negotiate searches in all the material listed by place or rank.”
-ARBA
“The book utilizes data from the 2012-2016 American Community Survey and the 2010 US Census and also includes government statistics and original research. Altogether the book covers, 1,709 places in California, including 212 unincorporated places. … Ample information can be gleaned from the maps alone which give population statistics; percentages of black, white, Asian, and Hispanic population statistics; median ages and income by location; and much more. Starting with Alameda County and ending with Yuba County, the Profiles section is the longest section of the book. It is rounded out by a place-name index. Profiles begin with an overview of the county in general, followed by statistics on places (unincorporated postal areas, towns, cities, and census designated places) within the county. Users will find an abundance of information on population, employment, income, educational attainment, housing, health insurance, and transportation. The next section allows users to compare the one hundred largest communities in the state by dozens of such data points as population, ancestry groups, educational attainment, health insurance, and crime. Community Rankings, the next section, curates data on incorporated places and census designated places with populations over 2,500, presenting data on each topic in ascending and descending order, with a few exceptions. This section will inform users about population density, average household size, employment, and more. Those raising school-age children will be drawn to the information in the Education section which provides school district rankings. This section lets readers see things like the student/librarian ratio, expenditures per student, numbers of teachers, and much more. Useful information will also be found in the final two sections, Ancestry and Ethnicity and Climate. This is a highly recommended purchase for public libraries, especially those in California.”
-ARBA, 2018