How to Use the Draw My Area Tool

Learn how to create and select custom areas in the Community Needs Assessment using the Draw My Area tool. This tool is available to Premium Subscribers.

Enter A Starter Location

Draw Your Area

Complete Your Report

Step 1 – Enter A Starter Location

To access the Draw My Area Tool, ensure you are logged into your Premium SparkMap account. Then, navigate to the Community Needs Assessment.

Under the “Location” tab, click “Draw My Area” (Figure 1).

Draw my area tool location — *Figure 1 – Location selection option*

When you select it, a search bar popup will appear (Figure 2). Enter a starter location (state, county, city, or ZIP code) here.

Draw my area location search bar — *Figure 2 – Location search bar*

Step 2 – Draw Your Area

Zoom in and out on the map using your mouse, or the + and – buttons until you can see the location you would like to select (Figure 3).

Once ready to draw, click every corner and bend of your location of interest (Figure 4).

To complete your drawing, double click or close in the shape.

*Figure 4 – Highlighted area in map selection*

Step 3 – Complete Your Report

Select your indicators and then proceed to your completed report (Figure 5).

Your report will provide data for your selected area and for the county/counties and state(s) in which it is located.

If you selected a small area to analyze and want to learn more about SparkMap’s small area estimation methodology, read our short explanation here.