Slides from a workshop (7/23/2015) on using American FactFinder to find and download U.S. Census data.

1. Finding and Mapping
Census Data
Kathleen Fear, Data Librarian
Blair Tinker, GIS Research Specialist

2. Part 1: Getting the data (American FactFinder)
Part 2: Mapping (ArcGIS)

3. http://factfinder.census.gov

4. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

5. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

6. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic
Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

7. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic
Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

8. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic
Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

9. What it’s got…
• American Community
Survey
• American Housing Survey
• Annual Economic Surveys:
– Annual Survey of
Manufactures
– Business Patterns
– Nonemployer Statistics
• Annual Surveys of
Governments
• Census of Governments
• Commodity Flow Survey
• 2000 / 2010 Decennial
Census
• Economic Census
• EEO Tabulation
• Population Estimates
Program
• Puerto Rico Community
Survey

14. I want to find out the percent of
households with kids under 18 in
each zip code in Monroe County in
2010.

15. Census geographies:
a brief diversion
A line connecting
two geographies
indicates a
hierarchical
relationship
between them,
e.g. states are
comprised of
counties.
The absence of a
line means there
is no reliable
relationship
between two
geographies, e.g.
Kansas City is in
MO and KS.

16. Census tract: subdivisions of a county or county
equivalent, optimally ~4,000 people.
Block group: subdivision of census tracts, between
600 and 3,000 people.
Census block: smallest geographical area used by
the Census Bureau. Not based on population;
bounded by visible boundaries (roads, rivers) and
non-visible boundaries (property lines, town lines).
See
http://www.census.gov/geo/reference/webatlas/
for more details.

17. Zip codes vs. ZCTAs
• ZCTAs only have a relationship with Nation
and Census block
• Zip codes and ZCTAs are almost identical

18. From: Grubesic, T. H. (2008). Zip codes and spatial analysis: Problems and prospects. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 42(2), 129–149.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2006.09.001

19. From: Grubesic, T. H. (2008). Zip codes and spatial analysis: Problems and prospects. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 42(2), 129–149.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2006.09.001

20. From: Grubesic, T. H. (2008). Zip codes and spatial analysis: Problems and prospects. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 42(2), 129–149.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2006.09.001

21. I want to find out the percent of
households with kids under 18 in
each zip code ZCTA in Monroe County
in 2010.

25. “Within state”: New York
“Within county”: Monroe
“Geographic type”: ZIP Code/ZTCA

28. Census vs. ACS: another brief
diversion
• Census products:
– Summary File 1 (SF1), Summary File 2 (SF2): Short
form
• Age, sex, race, Hispanic/Latino origin, households,
families, housing units, owner/renter status
• 100% sample
– Summary File 3 (SF3), Summary File 4 (SF4): Long
form
• Income, education, occupation, ancestry, disability,
foreign birth, commuting, etc.
• 19 million households (about 1 in 6)

29. Census vs. ACS: another brief
diversion
• Census products:
– Summary File 1 (SF1), Summary File 2 (SF2): Short
form
• Age, sex, race, Hispanic/Latino origin, households,
families, housing units, owner/renter status
• 100% sample
– Summary File 3 (SF3), Summary File 4 (SF4): Long
form
• Income, education, occupation, ancestry, disability,
foreign birth, commuting, etc.
• 19 million households (about 1 in 6)
Long form eliminated in 2010

30. Census American Community Survey
Every 10 years Annual
Count of population Demographic survey
Snapshot of a point in time
Average of characteristics over
time (1, 3 or 5 years)
SF1: Data for individual census
blocks
SF3 (2000): Data for block groups
5-year estimates: Data for block
groups
3-year and 1-year estimates:
Data for census tracks

36. This will embed
any footnotes
directly in the
data
This puts
footnotes in a
separate file
This adds a
header row with
descriptive
variable names

37. README file
Annotations file
Metadata
(variable names)The actual data!
Variable-level
footnotes