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Create a profile

Updated

A profile is built in two steps: choose your study area, then set up comparisons and a report type on one page.

Start a profile

  • Click New profile in the sidebar or on the Home page, or
  • Type a place in Where are you working? on the Home page and pick it. Studio skips straight to step 2.

You can also start from a project with New profile in this project.

Step 1: your study area

Under Where are you working?, search for the place your profile is about, or use Map, Browse, FIPS codes, or Saved places under the search box. See Choose a place.

Search results for Burlington, Vermont, with Smaller areas inside and Use this

Step 2: comparisons, report type, and data coverage

The second page has four numbered cards:

  1. Your study area: the place you picked. Use Change to pick another, Save area to keep it for later, or click the map pin to check it on the map.
  2. Compare against... (optional): places shown side by side with your study area in every table. Suggested lists the county, state, and nation that contain it. See Add comparison areas.
  3. What kind of report?: pick a template. Your most recent one is preselected and marked Last used. To build your own from an empty profile, click Start from scratch. See Report templates in Studio.
  4. Data coverage: Studio checks whether every data source in the template has data for your places. A gap is a data source with no numbers for one of your places, which happens because some data is published only for certain kinds of areas, such as counties. See Data coverage and stand-in geographies.

Step 2 of a new profile: study area, comparisons, report type, and data coverage

Create it

The footer shows the name the profile will get. Click Create profile. The button is unavailable while Studio is still checking data coverage or filling gaps.

If some data sources have gaps you have not reviewed, Studio asks first. Click Fill gaps to review them, or Create anyway to leave them empty. Empty values show as not available and are footnoted in the profile.

Studio then builds the profile, which usually takes about a minute, and shows Profile created when it is done.

Note: The profile is named after the study area and template, for example "Burlington city - Existing Conditions". To change it, click the title once the profile opens.

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