Methods of measuring the distribution of socio-economic conditions

A metropolitan community was faced with the problem of locating areas of the community in terms of more or less need for leisure-time services. The authors developed a set of methods and techniques to solve this problem. It was noted that these methods differed in some ways from prior efforts of this sort. The advantages of the methods were that they could use readily available data, did not require the use of a computer, and presented a relative level of need that was more than a simple ranking of planning areas. Further, the methods could be used to locate any number of conditions in which one might be interested. In addition to spelling out the details of the original effort, an attempt is made to show how factor analysis could be used as an alternate approach to the first effort. The pros and cons of factor analysis as a substitute method are discussed. The major disadvantage would be if the particular community did not have a large computer available. This is outweighed by the higher levels of accuracy, predictability and comparability provided by factor analysis.