a demographic study by
Sir Nigel Seymour, Baron Huntingdon, Knight Civil
In June, Her Royal Terreneuvian Majesty, Dame Marcella, asked me to perform a demographic study on the population of the Kingdom of Terre Neuve. The primary goal of this study was to determine how best to serve the population of the Kingdom, to make sure that events were being scheduled for locations with easier access to the entire population, and that the populace had the best opportunities for advancement. I was aware that this study might show that the Kingdom should be divided, but my primary concern was to make sure that the people of Terre Neuve were best served.
I asked the Imperial Steward for the following information: a list of all addresses of members of the Kingdom, and how many people lived at that address. Since the Steward's database was not set up for that kind of information, I was provided a list of all members of the Kingdom and their addresses. The first thing I did was strip the names off of the database and destroy that data because it was irrelevant to my study. My only concern was the population distribution of the current membership.
I possess a program called The Thomas Guide Digital Edition 2001: San Diego County, with its accessory The Thomas Guide Digital Edition Toolbox. I own this program for another purpose unrelated to Adria. This program allows me to plot addresses on a map, and also obtain demographic information such as Census boundaries and ZIP Code boundaries.
I plotted all the addresses on the map, and labeled each plot with the number of people at each address. When I was done, it was very obvious to me that there was a marked disparity between the North County area and the remainder of San Diego County. There were five main clusters of residences that were very clear: Vista/Oceanside, Escondido, Scripps Ranch/Poway/Peñasquitos, Central San Diego City, and East County (La Mesa, El Cajon, Lakeside, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove). There was also a smaller cluster in Chula Vista/Imperial Beach.
I felt that it was clear that the Kingdom needed to be divided to better serve the membership. We were already approaching 200 members and at our current rate of growth, we would soon reach a point where the paperwork would be unmanageable. We have also had a chronic problem with the vast distances between our population centers and our events. When events rotate between three vastly separated areas of the county, it is difficult to encourage newcomers who encountere us in Vista to come out to the next event in La Mesa. It was also not feasible for some members who used public transportation to attend events in areas far from their homes.
I proceeded to draw a line which I felt represented the most logical division between the two areas. I used ZIP Code boundaries because it would make the tracking of members easier for the Steward's Office. Since State Highway 52 is the traditional boundary that separates North County from the rest of the county, it was the most logical place to start.
This is how the boundary looks for the division along ZIP code lines:
From this view, it's quite easy to see the clustering of people.
This is how the boundary looks along Highway 52:
Here, you can see that the boundary very closely approximates Hwy 52, the traditional border between the main part of the county and North County.
I do not have exact membership figures as of this date (28 September 2001), but the figures in June showed that the North had approximately 60 people and the South approximately 120. This is a ratio of about 1 to 2. (I do not have my figures handy as I write this, sorry.)
The issue of mundane population was brought up to me, so I did a demographic study using the 2000 Census figures thoughtfully provided by SANDAG. I discovered that the entire population of the County of San Diego was 2,813,833. The North section had 1,173,852 residents, and the remaining section had 1,639,981. This is a ratio of about 7 to 10.
I did not use the figures from Imperial County as they were not available to me.
The Kingdom of Terre Neuve will not lose its Kingdom status since it contains the requisite number of people to remain a Kingdom. The Kingdom of Terre Neuve has the larger proportion of people and the larger proportion of physical land.
Respectfully submitted,
Sir Nigel Seymour
Baron Huntingdon
Knight Civil