The U. S. Census that is conducted every ten years provides a wealth of demographic information that can be useful for a variety of business initiatives. The Census data is so voluminous that mapping provides one of the few ways to analyze it and quickly gain insights that may help you solve your business problem. As an example, the following map gives a quick picture of differences in population of the states of the United States and average income of states, all projected to the year 2005. Demographic data is available from a large number of providers in a variety of formats, some of which can be imported into spreadsheets or more specialized GIS software for analysis purposes. Some vendors provide not only the demographic information but also geographic boundary information such as Zip Code boundaries, Area code boundaries, Congressional District boundaries, and county boundaries. Such boundary information is essential if you want to use different colored shading to represent different values for attributes on a map. It is also advisable to make certain that you are aware of the source of the demographic data as well as its age before purchasing the data. Things such as ZIP code boundaries, for example, are continually changing and need to be updated frequently if you want to view current company data by ZIP code boundary maps. You can probably find demographic data by state, county, Congressional District, Area Code, and ZIP Code geographies for hundreds of variables within the following categories, just to mention a few: Population Age Race Sex Ancestry Income Education Occupation Industry Vehicle ownership Housing Mortgage Retail sales potential Financial information Population growth projections Geological (rainfall, snow, temperature, etc.)