Homework 2: Wrangling Data

Journalism Handbook:

A key takeaway from this article is that cleaning your data and sifting through the numbers (even though it may be boring) is of utmost importance. A good and quick way to “clean up” your data is by creating frequency tables of categorical values. We don’t want to assume that the data given to us is the end of the story because there may be, and there usually are, questions left unanswered or up in the air that we should be aware of.

Cleaner, Smarter Handbooks:

Contrary to popular belief, the formulas for Excel/spreadsheets are not the most important part of learning this skill. What is really important is how you structure your data in the spreadsheet by including a ‘data dictionary’ and a ‘data diary.’ This can help you and others decipher the spreadsheet easily and understand how you are looking at the data.

Data About Colombia

I decided to look at the World Bank data for Colombia. I was born in Medellín, Colombia and adopted by my parents when I was a baby so I have a strong connection to this country but also I felt compelled to look and see if there was any data that I could relate to personally. Or, at the least, help me answer some of my own questions about my adoption and my biological mother.

One metric that stood out to me was the adolescent fertility rate in Colombia, which is configured by looking at the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. From 1960 to about 1982 there was a steady decline in the number of young women giving birth, but after 1982 to about the late 90’s there is an uptick in the number of young women giving birth.

From what I know about Colombia’s history and my own life, this period in Colombia’s history was defined by violence, civil war, and drug trade. My brother (not blood-related) was adopted from Colombia in 1996 during what my parents say was the height of this violent period. I find it really interesting to see that even though there was a lot violence and poverty, younger women were increasingly more often having babies (even if they were not keeping them). There is a lot that this data shows but it doesn’t fully answer the question: Why was there an increase in adolescent fertility rate during this period? I think looking into the history, or further into other metrics during this period could help answer that question.