- 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:
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- Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
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- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
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- Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
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- Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
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- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
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- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
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- National Science Foundation (NSF)
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- Social Security Administration (SSA)
3. Some Census business data
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- American Community Survey
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- Current Population Survey
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- Annual Survey of Manufacturers
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- Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics
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- Survey of Business Owners
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- Survey of Income and Program Participation
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- Property Owners and Managers Survey
4.
- www.census.gov/econ/progoverview.html
More than 100 surveys and other programs 5. How data is
gathered
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- Attempt to get responses fromeveryone
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- Data gathered by mail (or web)
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- Advantages: No error margin, small areas
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- Get responses from a random sample
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- Data usually gathered by phone
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- Advantage: Less expensive than census
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- Disadvantage: Error margin, cant go to small area
6. Decennial Census
- Mandated by the Constitution
- Every 10 years since 1790
- Original purpose: Reapportionment
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- Allocation of $400 billion in federal funds
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?
- Age and date of birth of each person
- Does each person sometimes live or stay elsewhere? (Dorm,
military, jail, etc.)
8. Race
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- Black or African American
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- Asian (country of origin)
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- American Indian or Alaska Native (name tribe)
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- Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (name origin)
- Hispanic or non-Hispanic (country of origin)
- Starting in 2000, respondents could pick more than one
race
9. Where are the other questions?
- American Community Survey has replaced it
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- Ongoing survey of 3 million per year
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- Combine data for small areas
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- Three years for greater than 20,000
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- Five years for smaller areas
10. Whats NOT Asked
- Political party affiliation
- Number of miles commuting to work
11. Census geography
- 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
- 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:
17. American Factfinder (new!) 18. American Factfinder
- Integrated access to census 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.