Searching, Exporting, Cleaning, & Graphing US

Census Data

Kelly ClontsPresentation for UC Berkeley, D-Lab

March 18, 2014

• To become familiar with the types of data published by the US Census Bureau– US Decennial Census– American Community Survey

• To understand how to search and analyze US Census data– Find appropriate data– Download and format data in Excel– Create population pyramids using Excel

Learning Objectives

The Census Decennial American Community Survey

The Census

Go to census.gov Quick Facts Select State or City

The Census

Go to American Fact Finder 2 on your web browser at: factfinder2.census.gov

“Advanced search” Layout Geographies

Fact Finder 2

Level of Geography

Fact Finder 2: Locating an Area

1. Find your neighborhood Geographies > Address > Tract (like

neighborhood)

Fact Finder 2: Locating an Area

1. What kind of data do you want? Can add multiple geographies (but not overlapping

subjects) Select your current or home town tract & the city

Dataset 2012 ACS

Subject Search B08301. Means of Transportation to Work

Must clear prior selection before re-searching

View Dataset

Fact Finder 2: ACS data

1. What kind of data do you want? Subject

Search “income” Search Means of Transportation to Work

Must clear prior selection before re-searching

View Dataset

Fact Finder 2: ACS data

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

SF Tract 127

• Margin of error (MoE)– Number of households = 1,000 +/- 100– Number of households = 20,000 +/- 400

– 1,000 +/- 100 tells us that we are 90% confident that the number of households is between 900 and 1100

– When would the MoEbe a problem?

Margin of Error (ACS)

The uncertainty associated with an estimate that is based on data gathered from a sample of the population rather than the full population

-US Census claims no Margin of Error

Margin of Error (ACS)

1. What kind of data do you want? Dataset

2010 100% Subjects

Population

Age Groups and Sex: 2010 Census Summary File 1

US Census

1. Export Data Download

CSV Excel

Clean CSV – change header names Excel

1. Delete extra rows2. Make Columns equal size, delete

unnecessary3. Change to number

Locating an Area

Analyzing1. Copy data to a new Sheet2. Delete Unnecessary Data3. Multiply Males by -14. Copy raw values

Graphing5. Highlight data6. Insert>bar7. Clean up

Population Pyramid

Under 5 years 5 to 9 years

10 to 14 years 15 to 19 years 20 to 24 years 25 to 29 years 30 to 34 years 35 to 39 years 40 to 44 years 45 to 49 years 50 to 54 years 55 to 59 years 60 to 64 years 65 to 69 years 70 to 74 years 75 to 79 years 80 to 84 years 85 to 89 years

90 years and over

-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400

Population Pyramid for San Francisco Tract 127

Male

Female

Number of People

• Graphing and Analyzing Data– Compare to region (City, Bay Area, State)– Analyze data• Equality of gender?• Age distribution?

Population Pyramid

Under 5 years 5 to 9 years

10 to 14 years 15 to 19 years 20 to 24 years 25 to 29 years 30 to 34 years 35 to 39 years 40 to 44 years 45 to 49 years 50 to 54 years 55 to 59 years 60 to 64 years 65 to 69 years 70 to 74 years 75 to 79 years 80 to 84 years 85 to 89 years

90 years and over

-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400

Population Pyramid for San Francisco Tract 127

Male

Female

Number of People

• Go to socialexplorer.com

Social Explorer

• Go to socialexplorer.com Maps & Tables

Social Explorer

Social Explorer