Sources of U.S. Census Data

State and Local Government

Boston Redevelopment Authority

• Research and Publications - Reports on Boston's economy, population and commercial markets.

MassGIS

• Datalayers from the 2000 US Census - MassGIS has reprocessed Census datalayer information and converted it into the Massachusetts State Plane (NAD83 Meters) Coordinate system. The data have been extracted into six (6) statewide layers and are being distributed in Shapefile format.
  
• Legislative District Demographic Browser - Instantly view maps by Congressional district with demographic information such as population/age, income, housing, or language.

MassBenchmarks: The State Data Center

• Massachusetts State Data Center - A program of the UMass Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research Unit is housed at the Institute's offices on the UMass Amherst campus. The Census Bureau provides data products, training, technical assistance, and consultation to data centers, which then offer products and assistance to local community leaders, planners, businesses, researchers, and the general public.

Federal Government

United States Census Bureau

• Census Bureau Homepage - the portal to Census information


• American Factfinder - provides access to population, housing, economic, and geographic data.
  • Try this guided keyword search to help discover which tables topics of interest are located in and link directly to them


• American Communities Survey (ACS) - samples the US population every year and will replace the long form in future censuses. Information about the geographic locations surveyed in a given year can be found under "survey basics-> sample size". Public Use Microdata (PUMs) are available through the ACS website. Microdata show the full range of responses made on individual questionnaires, including questions on age, sex, tenure, income, education, language spoken at home, journey to work, occupation, condominium status, shelter costs, vehicles available, and other subjects. The advantage of PUMS is that data users can tabulate data according to the characteristics they need to know about. The American Community Survey PUMS are useful for research that does not require the identification of geographic areas smaller than states. All identifying information is removed to ensure confidentiality.


• Statistical Abstract of the United States - Published since 1878, StatAbs is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Available on cd in the MIT library collection, dating back to 1993. Available in print in the MIT library collection, dating back to 1878.


• USA Counties - USA Counties features over 6,000 data items for the United States, States and counties from a variety of sources. Files include data published for 2005 estimates and many items from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, the 1990 census, the 1980 census and the 2002, 1997, 1992, 1987, 1982 and 1977 economic censuses. Information in USA Counties is derived from the following general topics: age, agriculture, ancestry, banking, building permits, business patterns, crime, earnings, education, elections, employment, government, health, households, housing, income, labor force, manufactures, population, poverty, retail trade, social programs, veterans, vital statistics, water use, and wholesale trade. Files contain a collection of data from the U. S. Census Bureau and other Federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Social Security Administration. CD-Roms dating back to 1992 are available in the MIT Library collection


• State and Metropolitan Area Data book - features more than 1,500 data items for the United States and individual states, counties and metropolitan areas from the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal statistical bureaus, governmental administrative and regulatory agencies, private research bodies, trade associations, insurance companies, health associations, educational associations, and philanthropic foundations. The files include data published for 2005 population and housing unit estimates and many items from the 1990 and 2000 Census of Population and Housing. Information in the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book covers the following topical areas: age, agriculture, births, business establishments, communications, construction, cost of living, crime, deaths, education, elections, employment, energy, finance, government, health, households, housing, immigration, income, manufactures, marriages and divorces, media, natural resources, population, poverty, race and Hispanic origin, residence, retail sales, science and engineering, social services, tourism, transportation, and veterans. Available in the MIT Library collection back to 1979.


• TIGER - descriptions and technical documentation for the Census Bureau's TIGER system, which automates the mapping and related geographic activities required to support the decennial census and sample survey programs of the Census Bureau starting with the 1990 decennial census.
  • TIGER files in shapefile format for free download from ESRI
  • TIGER/Line Files (2000) - Technical Documentation (pdf)
    
• TheDataWeb - Network of online data libraries from multiple U.S. federal agencies and individual researchers. Access to data is via DataFerrett.


• CenStats Database - Free service for some Census Bureau data, including: Building Permits, Census Tract Street Locator, County and Zip Code Business Patterns, Detailed Occupation by Race, Hispanic Origin and Sex, International Trade, Data, USA Counties, Public Law 94-171 Data

• Gateway to Census2000 data - access population totals, rankings, comparisons, summaries and reports, as well as redistricting and apportionment data. Check Barton for product availability in the MIT libraries.


• State Data Center Program - working with the U.S. Census Bureau, the State Data Centers are a source of microdata at the county, city or community level.
  
• Historical Census Data - selected historical decennial census population and housing counts dating back to 1790.


• Population and Household Economic Topics


• Census Bureau's Housing Topics


• Personal Income Statistics - Personal income statistics from the US Census Bureau

National Center for Education Statistics

• School District Demographics System- State, county and school district maps and demographic Data

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

• Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 1990
• Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 2000

National Center for Health Statistics

• The NCHS provides reports and statistics about health, disease and health care in the United States.

Academic

Harvard-MIT Data Center

• HMDC - is the principal distributor of quantitative social science data from major international data consortia for Harvard and MIT.

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - Columbia University

• US Demography Homepage - Consists of a series of cascading hypertext links providing access to national data resources, on-line supporting documentation (codebooks, data dictionaries, citations), and possibly extraction tools for data access, and you may connect to an anonymous ftp service for data file retrieval.
• Population and Poverty Datasets - Locate data, applications, and information.
• Archive of Census-Related Products - Georeferenced data files containing nationwide census information, provides access to raw data, including general 1990 census data files plus block statistics, Public Use Microdata Series (PUMS), 1980 Census, etc.

Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) - University of Michigan

• ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use.
• ICPSR Quick Links - Contains links to general reference resources of Census2000 data and federal information processing standards, as well as US reference maps at a variety of scales.

Geospatial and Statistical Data Center - University of Virginia Library

• A valuable resource for statistics and social science data, much of it available online.
• County and City Data Books - This resource provides access to the 1944 through 2000 County and City Data Books. This service allows the user to create custom printouts and/or customized data subsets (subsets only available for 1988-2000). Editions in print and on cd, dating back to 1949, available in the MIT library collection.
• Historical Census Browser - Population, education, economic and other data from 1790 to 1960. Includes an interactive mapping tool.

Lewis Mumford Center - University of Albany

• The Lewis Mumford Center offers information and preliminary analyses of how the racial and ethnic composition of metropolitan areas has shifted in the last ten years, and how increasing diversity is experienced at the level of local neighborhoods.

National Historic Geographic Information System - University of Minnesota

• The National Historic Geographic Information System (NHGIS) is a project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000.

Missouri Census Data Center - University of Missouri

• Basic Tables Demographic Profile Generator - Report generator creates a basic demographic profile of a local area down to block group level.

Social Explorer - Queens College (CUNY)

• Social Explorer provides demographic information about the United States, including historical data back to 1940

University of California San Diego

• Census 2000 Quick links - Use to find information on redistricting, demographics, summary files, Census Bureau tables, SSDC data tables, geography and map projects, news, and related links and training.

University of Michigan Library

• Documents Center - a one-stop repository for links to demographic and housing statistical resources on the web

This page was last updated on 09/11/07