Create Comparison Reports

The Create Comparison Report allows you to create comparison reports using your sites. Comparison Reports include a set of popular categories provided to aid you in creating useful reports. These popular categories include population, households, income, and housing as well as customizable reports. Options also include comparing your sites to a benchmark and geographies.

Click the Get Reports tab and click Create Comparison Reports .

The Create Comparison Reports pane opens with the Comparison Report Setup dialog box. By using the following steps, you can create your comparison reports.

Choose the sites you want to compare from the site panel above.

The sites you have selected, by clicking the check box of the site in the site panel, appear in the Selected Sites list in step 1. As a default, the first site in the site panel is automatically selected.

The following options help you tailor your comparison report for these selected sites.

Selected geographies to compare to your sites.

This second optional step allows you to compare the selected sites against the respective geographies. Selecting a geography from the drop-down lists will add the site to the comparison graphs and table in step 3. The geographies available in each drop-down list are based on the sites you select in step 1.

This step alleviates the creation of geography sites for comparison purposes. If you want to compare sites to a geography that is not automatically available in the drop-down lists in step 2, you can create a geography site under Select Location, using Select Geographies, and select it for comparison in step 1.

Each drop-down list is populated based on the sites you have selected. For example, for a point-based site, the ZIP Code drop-down list includes the ZIP Code where the point-based site lies. For a hand-drawn polygon, all ZIP Codes that the polygon touches are added to the ZIP Code drop-down list.

Select a site or geography to use as a benchmark.

This third optional step allows you to select a site, geography, or summary statistic to benchmark for comparison and see how the other selected sites and geographies compare to the benchmark values. The sites available for selection as a benchmark are the same as those selected in step 1. The geographies are the same as those available in step 2. In addition, you can select the average or median values calculated from all the selected sites in step 1 to serve as a benchmark. This is useful if you do not have a benchmark site but still want to see which sites selected in step 1 are above or below average relative to each other.

View graphs and tables for popular variables:

You can choose from Population, Households, Income, and Housing, or you can customize your comparison report.

Click one of the buttons (Population, Households, Income, or Housing) to view the results of your Comparison Report setup. The Comparison Report appears containing the results of your selection from the steps in the previous page.

The appearance of the results will vary depending on your selection; however, the viewing options are similar for Population, Households, Income, and Housing.

Select graph view or table view.

The tabs allow you to see the results of the other options. You can select the view using the toggle for graph view or table view. Graphs view is the default.

The Graphs View offers selections different from Table View.

Select mile, rings or minutes for your sites.

Sites appear on the X-axis and values appear on the Y-axis. The arrow below the site name allows you to select the different mile, rings or minutes, which are shown in the respective graph.

Note

Note:

The Households tab does not include this capability.

If a benchmark site has been selected, it appears first on the graph and is indicated as the Benchmark.

You can also select the data to view using the toggle for 2012 or 2017. The default is 2012.

Select the variables.

The variables drop-down list provides pre-selected variables from which you can choose.

Select the years.

The Years drop-down list which provides pre-selected years from which you can choose.

Note

Note:

The Households tab does not include this capability.

Click to return to the Comparison Report Setup.

You can return to the Comparison Report Setup page anytime by clicking Back to Comparison Report Setup .

Click Print to print the report.

Click Save to save the report as a .jpg, .png, or .gif.

Table View

Table View presents the comparison data in a tabular view and provides options for manipulating the table.

Select the layout for your variables.

You can select the layout for the variables to appear in columns or rows, and click the check box to expand rings, drive times, or donuts.

Click Print to print the report.

Click Export to Excel to export the table to an Excel file.

Custom Comparison Reports

You can create custom comparison reports to rerun at any time. These reports can be used to compare metrics from variables you select and save for future analysis. Once saved, the reports are available in My Lists for easy retrieval.

  1. From the Comparison Report Setup dialog box, click the Customize button in step 4. Or from the Comparison Report screen within the population, households, income, or housing screens, click the Customize tab.

Choose the variables that you want to use for your customized comparison report. You can select the category and year for the data to search for your variables.

  1. Select the category for the data you want to use.
Choose the category.

The variable you select will determine the buttons available. Below is a description of the data provided for each button:

Market Potential Data

Consumer Spending Data

Choose the year.

To search, type the words for the search in the search text box. Click Go . The results of your search appear.

The checked variables appear under Selected Variables in the right column. Continue until you have added all the variables you want to include in the report. To clear the selected variables, click Clear all .

To save lists

Once you have selected the variables for your list, you can save them.