Scope

The geographic extent of our study area includes 15 counties that make up the Texas Hill Country as defined by the
HCA. These counties include: Bandera, Blanco, Burnet, Comal, Edwards, Gillespie, Hays, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble,
Llano, Mason, Medina, Real, and Uvalde. Our team chose to eliminate Travis and Bexar counties from our analysis
to prevent our final results from being skewed. The skew occurs when largely populated urban areas are compared
with predominately rural areas.

Data

U.S. Census Bureau: 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000

Methodology

Data sets were collected for 1970, 80, 90, and 2000 census decades and joined with county geography. General
census queries that tend to remain consistent over time have been chosen for standardized mapping purposes. The
reason for this is because the Census Bureau slightly alters their questioning and survey layouts between each decade
with exception to counts such as age, income, and population. 2000, the latest census decade released, contains the
most extensive data so much of our attention was focused on this decade.

Conclusion

TDCG has attempted to help the HCA in its mission to raise awareness concerning the preservation of the hill
country and to better understand its people. TDCG has gathered data to map demographic trends and to identify
where these trends may go in the future. The overlay of data sets with county geography produced graphics
illustrating how counties have changed between 1970 and 2000. These graphics can be used to generate different
theories for understanding various demographic phenomena. Primarily, our results show counties that have experienced
changes in population, income, housing, and employment. With these time series maps it is easy to imply how and
where the hill country is changing. With this information at their disposal, the HCA can better understand their region's
people and culture and focus on their goals as an organization.