At the end of each month, the AGS team looks back at articles and blog posts that we saw this month that stood out to us. Some are from news agencies, and many come from our partners, but not all use our data. Here is the round-up from October 2026.
Halloween by the Numbers
The Census Bureau gets into the Halloween spirit with a look at the people and places behind the holiday, including an estimated 72 million potential trick-or-treaters under age 18 in 2025. Its annual collection also highlights communities with spooky names, from Devils Lake, North Dakota, to Slaughter Beach, Delaware.
Consumers Keep the Holidays Bright
NRF expects holiday retail sales to grow 4.2% this year, reaching $1.013 trillion, with higher-income households likely to drive more of the spending. Consumers are still prioritizing holiday celebrations, but rising costs are shaping when and how they shop—a reminder that the national outlook can look very different across local markets.
PlacePulse: Learning Transferable Place Representations from Structural Geographic Data
New research from CARTO introduces PlacePulse, a geospatial AI model trained on 572 attributes from AGS’s national database to characterize more than one million areas across the United States. The model turns detailed demographic, economic, business, and environmental data into reusable geographic profiles, with potential applications in identifying similar markets, screening sites, and finding expansion opportunities.
Why Expertise Still Matters in the Age of AI
Geography professor Kyle Walker explores how experienced professionals can overlook the knowledge and tools that help them get useful results from AI. Using mapping examples, he shows how beginners can encounter roadblocks or convincing errors, making a case for investing in subject knowledge and mentoring as AI becomes part of everyday work.