Map Room FAQ
Both free and paid subscribers can save maps from the Map Room to their SparkMap profiles. To save your maps, first ensure you are logged in to your SparkMap profile. When you finish creating your map, click the “Save” button at the top right corner of the page. It will save to your user dashboard under the “My Projects” tab.
The Map Room is always free, but more features are available in certain paid SparkMap Subscriptions. For example, with Pro and Premium SparkMap Subscriptions, you gain access to the Data Builder and Data Upload Tools.
The colors of SparkMap’s data layers are not customizable. However, you can customize the colors of maps created through Data Upload, available to Pro and Premium Subscribers.
The labels for SparkMap’s map layers are not customizable. However, you can customize labels for maps created through Data Upload, available to Pro and Premium Subscribers.
Yes! You can download Map Room data using both the Query Data Tool and Select Data Tool.
In order to upload data to the Map Room, you must be a Pro or Premium SparkMap Subscriber. Once subscribed and logged in, use the How to Use the Data Upload Tool tutorial to create your custom map.
SparkMap acquires and analyzes data from more than 100 secondary sources. Secondary sources are typically very reliable and are supported by government agencies. For example, a large portion of our data comes to us from the United States Census. Other sources include agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Geological Survey.
Data are only as reliable as the source! SparkMap acquires and analyzes data from more than 100 secondary sources. Secondary sources are typically very reliable and are supported by government agencies. For example, a large portion of our data comes to us from the United States Census. Other sources include agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Geological Survey.
Data are updated as often as they become available. For example, the American Community Survey (ACS) releases five-year estimates every year, so we update ACS indicators once per year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes unemployment data monthly, so we update unemployment monthly. Every SparkMap indicator and map layer has a corresponding release cycle, and we work to ensure that SparkMap is always equipped with the most recent data. If you find an Indicator that you believe is out of date, please contact us at sparkmap@missouri.edu.
SparkMap has a “Data News” section that provides data updates, alerts about new data, data corrections and more. Check out Data News.