CENSUS DATA

David Pollard
Spring 1999


An introduction to some of the many uses for data collected by the Bureau 
of the Census.  The decennial census: printed tables, summary tape files, 
microdata (PUMS), census geography, the TIGER database.  Maps and 
geocoding.  Patterns across time.  How accurate is a sample?  Estimation 
and inference from census data.  Undercount and the possibility of 
adjustment--what the Supreme Court has to say about statistics.  What is 
race?  What is Hispanic?  What does the Bureau do for the other nine years?  
Why all the fuss over Census 2000?

Students should bring to the course a basic understanding of statistics 
(sampling, means and variances, normal approximations) and the ability to 
work with some statistical computer package, such as Splus.  The course 
will focus on data for New Haven.