Exploring diversity - Visualizing the Afrozensus Germany in R

The challenge addressed was the need for an intersectional survey tool to capture comprehensive data on diversity and discrimination under the German Equal Treatment Act. To achieve this, Black and POC researchers, in collaboration with EOTO e.V., developed the Afrozensus—Germany’s largest project focused on the experiences of people of African descent. The goal was to gather detailed insights into their lives, assess societal challenges, and inform policy and community stakeholders. However, analyzing and visualizing the extensive survey data (over 6,000 responses and 700 columns) posed a significant hurdle, particularly for researchers without programming expertise.

To overcome this, an R package was developed to simplify and standardize data exploration while ensuring reproducibility. The package was designed to be user-friendly, allowing researchers to generate visualizations with minimal input parameters. It automatically adapts the visualization type to the question format—such as histograms for numeric responses or bar charts for single-choice questions—while adhering to the Afrozensus report’s stylistic guidelines. The solution also supports bulk visualization generation and integrates with R Markdown for automated report creation.

The project utilized a synthetic dataset that mirrored the actual Afrozensus data, encompassing single-choice, multiple-choice, matrix, numeric, and open-ended questions. These covered the eight dimensions of the German Equal Treatment Act, experiences of discrimination, and other life aspects.

The solution delivered a fully functional R package with pre-defined visualization functions, manual and automated testing, and comprehensive documentation. During the handover, the team provided training to Afrozensus researchers on how to use the package effectively. The impact was substantial: researchers with limited technical skills gained the ability to perform interactive data exploration, while those with more advanced skills could iterate faster. The package also enabled the automated generation of over 200 reports on individual variables. Moving forward, the package will be actively maintained and developed by Citizens for Europe, ensuring its continued utility beyond the Afrozensus project.