As I mentioned last week, I’m in a place with very slow WiFi…

… so it’s tricky to write up a detailed answer for you from last week.

BUT a question came up in conversation about “what large US city has the lowest population density as of 2020?”

There are tables one can find that will tell you one answer, but I’d like you to solve this Challenge in a more direct way–a way that will teach you how to download data directly into a table and then manipulate it yourself.

Can you do this hands-on data manipulation Challenge?

Here’s what I want you to do:

1. Search for a table of the largest US cities by population. You’ll want to find a table with at least 330 entires in it.

2. Download that table into a spreadsheet.

3. Compute the population density (if you need to… it might be a column in the data set).

4. Sort the table by density, and then tell us what the city name is!

Your table should look like the one above (hint: I got it from Wikipedia, but you can find your own source if you’d like–the diversity of data sources might be interesting).

This might feel like a bit of an odd Challenge, but it’s a bit of a sensemaking exercise–can you get yourself through all the steps and get to the correct answer?

Everything you need to know is pretty easily discoverable, and knowing how to do this will put you in good standing as a beginning data analyst–you’ll know how to find data, import it, transform it (as needed), and then validate it.

Can you do it?

Let us know in the comments below!

Search on!

P.S. My view at the moment. Will wait to upload this post until I get close to good wifi….