1. Steve Doig, Arizona State U. Paul Overberg, USA TODAY Philadelphia Jan. 31, 2011 Reynolds Center BusinessJournalism.org

2. Bureau of the Census

Nations premier data-gathering organization

Conducts decennial census of population

Also data of interest to business reporters censuses, surveys and economic indicators

Conducts surveys for other agencies:

• Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)

• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

• Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)

• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

• National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

• National Science Foundation (NSF)

• Social Security Administration (SSA)

3. Some Census business data

• American Community Survey

• Economic Census

• County Business Patterns

• Current Population Survey

• Annual Survey of Manufacturers

• Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics

• Survey of Business Owners

• Non-Employer Statistics

• Survey of Income and Program Participation

• Property Owners and Managers Survey

• Retail Trade surveys

• Foreign Trade

• Building Permits

4.

www.census.gov/econ/progoverview.html

More than 100 surveys and other programs 5. How data is gathered

Census data

• Attempt to get responses fromeveryone

• Data gathered by mail (or web)

• Advantages: No error margin, small areas

• Disadvantage: Expensive

Survey data

• Get responses from a random sample

• Data usually gathered by phone

• Advantage: Less expensive than census

• Disadvantage: Error margin, cant go to small area

6. Decennial Census

Mandated by the Constitution

Every 10 years since 1790

Original purpose: Reapportionment

Now used for:

• Allocation of $400 billion in federal funds

• Political redistricting

• Marketing

• Planning for services

• Social science research

7. Census 2010 Questions

How many people in the housing unit on April 1, 2010?

Is this unit owned with mortgage, owned w/o mortgage, rented, occupied w/o rent?

Telephone number of unit

Name of each person

Relationship to Person 1

Gender of each person

Age and date of birth of each person

Hispanic origin?

Race?

Does each person sometimes live or stay elsewhere? (Dorm, military, jail, etc.)

8. Race

Six race categories

• White

• Black or African American

• Asian (country of origin)

• American Indian or Alaska Native (name tribe)

• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (name origin)

• Some other race

Hispanic or non-Hispanic (country of origin)

Starting in 2000, respondents could pick more than one race

2+ races: 2% in U.S.

9. Where are the other questions?

No long form in 2010

American Community Survey has replaced it

• Ongoing survey of 3 million per year

• Combine data for small areas

• • Three years for greater than 20,000

• • Five years for smaller areas

• Beware of error margins

10. Whats NOT Asked

Religious preference

Political party affiliation

Sexual orientation

Crime victimization

Home schooling

Detailed health status

Union membership

Number of miles commuting to work

Age of vehicle

Type of vehicle

Computer in home

Use of the Internet

Size of house

Condition of house

11. Census geography

Tiled geography

• Nation

• States

• Counties

• Tracts

• Blocks

Other: Places, ZIPs, metros, reservations, districts, precincts, et al.

12. 13. 14. Census 2010 Schedule

Census Day: April 1, 2010

April-July: Households that didnt return a form were visited

Dec. 21: Official state counts for reapportionment of Congress were released

Feb.-March: PL94-171 data for redistricting released state by state

Detailed summary files will flow out until September 2013

15. Census 2010 products

Summary files:

Subject profiles: Single geography with thematically related tables

Data profiles: Single geography with many data topics

Geographic comparisons tables: Many geographies with one data variable

16. Microdata

Sample of individual returns

Makes possible the creation of non-standard summary tables

Special geography: PUMA (>100k population)

Use IPUMS for census and CPS microdata:

www.ipums.org

17. American Factfinder (new!) 18. American Factfinder

Integrated access to census data

Search by:

• Topic

• Geography

• Population groups

• Industry codes

Create custom tables

Map your data

19. Getting data

Download tables from American Factfinder

DataFERRET: Data mining and extraction tool

Get data DVDs from Catalog

Download raw data via ftp (for expert user)

Get 0n Census Bureau media email list

20. Go to factfinder.census.gov 21.