York College Student Technology and Computer Science GIS Projects – Fall 2020

Project: Internet Accessibility in the State of Pennsylvania

Student Researcher: Tyler Krautz


The Background

“Throughout the United States, internet accessibility can vary strongly depending on the type of area you live in. The gap between internet access and the type of area one lives in spreads across suburban, rural, and urban areas. For example, those who live in urban areas hold a higher chance of having high-speed internet access, than those who live in rural areas. Oftentimes, this can depend on the population of each area. Urban and suburban areas tend to have higher population densities than rural areas. The purpose of this study is to determine how population densities relate to the amount of internet access found in each type of area. With the internet being so prevalent in our lives, we depend on it for many of our required daily tasks, necessities, and luxurious festivities. The ability to research this knowledge will provide the opportunity to encourage this topic, and ideally, affect it in such a way that the need and value for internet connectivity will be ignited by change.”


The Problem

“The main problem that this study addresses is the internet accessibility people have when it comes to the locality in which they live. The ability in which people have access to the internet solely depends on the type of area (e.g. urban, suburban, rural) they live in. The problem contained within this research depends on how the population density of a given area affects internet accessibility.”


The Geography of Pennsylvania

“The State of Pennsylvania is located in the northeastern region of the United States. The Middle Atlantic state is bordered by six different states, which include: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Pennsylvania is made up of roughly 67 counties spread across the entire state. Each county helps make up roughly 2,560 municipalities found in the state. A municipality is the catchall phrase for any county, city, borough, or township. The municipalities in Pennsylvania consists of 1,546 townships, 968 boroughs, and 56 cities.

In terms of the purposed geographic question (mentioned above), the population within each county contributes to the state’s overall population proportionality, which will be used when comparing internet accessibility by county later on in the study.”


Conclusions

  1. “Based on the results shown in the pie chart, it has been determined that sections with lower percentages represent counties that contain a higher population, which are mostly found in large cities. It can be assumed that the counties with lower percentages are well-developed cities, which attract more residents.
  2. Sections of the pie chart that contain higher percentages represent counties that contain a lower population. These counties happen to have lower numbers of people, primarily because they fall into a rural type of land.
  3. Overall, it can be concluded that the population in the state of Pennsylvania is quite diversified and spread out across each county.”

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