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Census Geographic and Census Geographic and Data ProductsData Products

Linda Akers Smith and Timothy McMonagleLos Angeles Regional Census Center - Geography

U.S. Census Bureau

2010 HCPO/HIGICC ConferenceData Discovery Session

Sept 23 - 25, 2009

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Topics

2009 TIGER/line Shapefiles

Future TIGER/line Shapefile release schedule

American Community Survey Data

2010 Decennial Census release schedule

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2009 TIGER/Line Shapefiles• Release date October 2009• Additional Shapefiles available

– More State-based files• Changed Topological Faces

Relationship file to a Shapefile• Improvement in clean-up of feature

distortion• Improved Documentation

Future TIGER/line Release Schedule

• 2010 TIGER/line shapefiles– Contains census 2010 geography– State by State in early 2011– National in early-mid 2011

• Post 2010 TIGER/line shapefiles– 113th Congressional Districts– Urban/Rural, Urban Areas, Metropolitan– TAZ, ZCTAs,SLDs

Most Frequently Asked Questions

• Where are the streets?:– The streets are in the county-based All Lines

(edges) file. There is a Road Flag attribute which indicates if the feature is a road or not

• Where is the demographic data?– The TIGER/Line® Shapefiles do not contain

demographic data but have all of the necessary information to join the data to them. American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov) is the best resource for electronic survey data from the Census Bureau

Changes Under Consideration• In addition to the all lines layer:

– Roads only shapefile– Rail only shapefile– Linear hydrography shapefile

• In the metadata:– Unique description for each file type– Including the file layout inside the metadata– providing direct links to the file on the Census Bureau’s

website– Provide link to the technical documentation on the Census

Bureaus website

Questions about the TIGER/Line®shapefiles?

geo.tiger@census.gov301.763.1128

• Free public download from our website (see handout):

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html

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Census Demographic Data

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Census Bureau Demographic Data

• Decennial Census• American Community Survey• Other Surveys and Censuses

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Census Geography

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American Community Survey• A large, continuous demographic survey goes

to 3 million addresses every year, covers every county in U.S.

• Produces annual and multi-year estimates of the characteristics of the population and housing

• Produces characteristics, not a population count

• Produces information for small areas including tracts, block groups and population subgroups

• Full implementation began January 2005

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ACS Data Product Release Schedule

Data products are released in the year following the single-year or multi-year period in which data are collected.

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Current ACS Data Release

• 2008 ACS data released Sept 22, one year estimates, for the first time includes estimates on health insurance coverage, marital history, and veterans’ service connected disabilities

• 2006-2008 ACS Data will be released Oct. 27, three year estimates.

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Hints (Warnings)

• Know what level of geography you need data

• Know what tables you want• Download size limit when using Excel

format option• Use the “Down Load Center” for large

downloads- up to 50 tables

Contact InformationLinda Akers Smith

linda.kane.akers.smith@census.govTimothy McMonagle

Timothy.william.mcmonagle@census.gov

Los Angeles Regional Census Center9301 Corbin Av. Ste 1000

Northridge, CA 91324818-717-6701