Table 3

Pairwise Correlation between MAE¹ and RMSE² and ZIP code area and population density for Arizona and New Hampshire.

Estimation Method

Error Measurement Method

Geometric Centroid

Population Centroid

Service area based on LandScan

Service area based on area

ARIZONA

MAE – area

0.535*

0.410*

0.417*

0.578*

RMSE – area

0.489*

0.221*

0.315*

0.330*

MAE – population density

-0.357*

-0.244*

-0.271*

-0.432*

RMSE – population density

-0.207*

-0.1143**

-0.148*

-0.196**

NEW HAMPSHIRE

MAE – area

0.552*

0.302*

0.274*

0.552*

RMSE – area

0.517*

0.173**

0.256*

0.476*

MAE – population density

-0.202**

-0.160**

-0.189**

-0.220**

RMSE – population density

-0.136**

-0.074

-0.104

-0.139**

(1) MAE: Mean Absolute Error; (2) RMSE: Root mean square error

* p < 0.001

** p < 0.05

† NS

Berke and Shi International Journal of Health Geographics 2009 8:23   doi:10.1186/1476-072X-8-23