Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: So Juan Cristobal and I have been working on a bit of a research project ahead of the November elections – nothing too fancy. We have, however, found it tremendously frustrating tracking down good, usable, disaggregated data, so we’ve decided to ask for help.

INE’s useless. Its website looks like it was designed by trained monkeys: a national disgrace. They give out a reasonable amount of information disaggregated by state, but almost nothing at the municipio or parroquia level.

We figured somebody in the reader community must have data like this, or know how to get it, so why not ask?

What we’re specifically looking for is:

• Household income data at the parish-level (or, if that doesn’t exist, municipal-level)
• Data on poverty, however defined, at the parish-level (or, if that can’t be had, municipal-level)
• Average years of schooling per adult, disaggregated to the parish level (en su defecto, municipal)
• The land area of each parish – so we can calculate population density. (Amazingly, INE simply doesn’t just publish this, and Google isn’t finding it either.)

That’s our wish list, but basically we’ll settle for any data on social conditions that’s disaggregated to the parish (or, second best, municipal) level. Anything we can use as a proxy for poverty or rurality will make us very happy. Dengue infection rates? Percent of households without proper plumbing? We’re pretty stumped here, so we’re not picky.

Consider this a cry for help. If you have it, or you know someone who has access to it, or you know someone who knows someone…please write in.