Introduction

Why bother with Census data?

• high quality, used for many governmental purposes (revenue sharing? other forms of aid?)
• research and testing of grand theories
• legal proof
• apportionment of seats for House of Representatives (cf. current legal challenges)
• state redistricting (PL 94-171).

Decennial census

• mandated by Constitution¹.
• every 10 years, since 1790; data collected ~ 1 April
• short form (questions answered by all households); long form (sample; about 1 in 6 housing units)
• What are:
  • housing units ("intended for occupancy as separate living quarters" GUIDE 16);
  • households ("occupied housing unit; all persons who occupy housing unit" GUIDE 10);
  • householder ("reference person in column 1");
  • family households ("at least one person related to householder by blood, marriage, or adoption")
  • family ("related to householder by blood, marriage, or adoption")
• data tabulated by Census Bureau at various levels of aggregation (US, states, counties, places, tracts, block groups, blocks, ...)
  • printed tables
  • summary tape files (STF1A, ...); CD-ROMS; online via WWW
• documentation: eg. Definitions of Subject Characteristics for 1990 STF1

Sampler of Census data

HOME PAGE for Stat 233/533

Notes