Geographic Distribution of Military Recruitment in New York City

 

recruitment rates as compared to poverty

 

The map to the left was created by the American Friends Service Committee using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It shows the spatial distribution of army recruitment stations across New York City. Each dot represents an army recruitment station in its exact location. Each station is responsible for recruiting people in a target area made up of surrounding zip codes. Each dot shows the number of people recruited to the army per 100,000 people in the station's target area. Larger dots indicate higher rates of army recruitment. Under these dots is a choropleth map which shows the percentage of people in that zip code who are under the poverty line. Darker colors indicate higher rates of poverty. Army recruitment data was obtained from the Department of Defense and made public by the National Priorities Project. Addresses for each recruitment station were obtained from the Army’s website. Poverty rates were obtained from the 2000 census.

The map is interesting because it indicates socio-economic patterns in Army recruitment.  If the army was recruiting equitably along socio-economic lines, army recruitment stations would be distributed evenly throughout the city. However, a statistical test called "the nearest neighbor analysis" indicates that army recruitment stations are clustering in certain areas.  Poorer areas of New York City, such as the South Bronx, East New York and Flatbush in Brooklyn, have higher rates of military recruitment and higher numbers of recruitment stations. More affluent areas, such as Park Slope in Brooklyn and the Upper East Side of Manhattan, have lower rates of army recruitment and lower numbers of recruitment stations.

Map and commentary by Eli Tinkelman, AFSC NYMRO intern

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