New tool enables exploration of inequalities across Europe
Researchers have developed a new interactive tool to view inequality indicators. It allows journalists, policymakers, researchers, and data scientists to visually explore and understand inequalities more precisely than ever.
Researchers from the University of Groningen, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, have collaborated with other European universities to develop a new tool called "Mapineq Link." The tool is part of the Mapineq project, which studies educational, socioeconomic, and health inequalities across the life course.
"We are thrilled to introduce this innovative and unique tool that can be used to explore and analyze regional distribution of socioeconomic inequalities using diverse data sources and advanced analytical methods. This is a huge step forward from the nation-level comparisons that researchers and decision-makers have relied on until now," says Professor Jani Erola, Professor at the University of Turku and the Mapineq project leader.
The tool uses multiple governmental, commercial, and unconventional data sources, including geo-located socioeconomic, environmental, infrastructure, and health indicators from government agencies, commercial providers, and less conventional channels such as satellite images.
The graphical, easy-to-use mapping tool, available for all users, allows local, regional, and national comparisons of associations between any two user-chosen indicators included in the database. The tool will also enable researchers to conduct more complex analyses using any number of indicators—in combination with their own data.
"Mapineq Link is a fundamentally different interactive tool that harmonizes geospatial data, from pollution to real-time information on housing prices, to tackle local disparities and promote equality throughout the life course.
"This groundbreaking tool is a crucial step towards a new equality of place," states Professor Melinda Mills, Mapineq Link project lead and Professor of Data Science and Public Health at the Department of Economics, Econometric and Finance, Faculty of Economic and Business, University of Groningen.
An interactive web tool for various users
Mapineq Link comprises three components: a database that includes various indicators from multiple sources, an interactive web dashboard that makes the database accessible to a broad audience, and an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows users to access and retrieve data from the database.
The tool is designed to serve various user groups. Through the dashboard, journalists, policymakers, researchers, data scientists, and other users can access information to explore data spatially and uncover correlations between indicators.
Mills, who is also Director of the University of Oxford's Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science, explains that, "Policymakers may want to understand how different types of inequalities or inequalities are patterned in a certain region, district, or country, whereas journalists may want to use it for investigative journalism or producing data-driven stories. Furthermore, researchers can download and embed data in their articles, and data scientists can access and retrieve data for further analysis."
Improving functionality through user feedback
The database and the dashboard will be fully launched for public use in December 2024. The dashboard is available at https://www.mapineq.org/ and Mapineq Link reports can be found at https://mapineq.eu/inequality-database/. Mapineq Link is free to use and does not require registration.
Mills concludes, "Future plans for Mapineq Link include expanding the database beyond Europe, enhancing its functionality based on user feedback, and incorporating new indicators such as job site advertisements to see supply and demand in different regions."
Provided by University of Turku