Hi, my name is Sam and today I want to show you how to export and download data from the
2020 Island Areas Censuses, which includes data for American Samoa, the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
I also want to show you how to access this data using the File Transfer Protocol, or
FTP, site.
The 2020 Island Areas Censuses provide a wide range of demographic, social, economic and
housing information to meet the Island Areas’ data needs.
Other surveys, such as the American Community Survey (ACS), are not conducted in the Island
Areas.
Therefore, the Census Bureau used a long-form census questionnaire similar to the ACS questionnaire
used in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The data that we are looking at today come from the Demographic Profile tables, which
are available for each of these Island Areas.
The Demographic Profile tables include information on a variety of subjects, including age, educational
attainment, language spoken at home, employment status, marital status, and housing data.
As I mentioned, we want to focus on how you can export or download the data that you find
in data.census.gov, as well as how you can access this data using the FTP site, so let’s
get started.
Let’s say that we need to find all four of the Demographic Profiles for the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands.
We’ll start by going to data.census.gov.
For this search, we’re going to use our Advanced Search, so click on the Advanced
Search button found right beneath the search bar on the landing page.
I always like to select the geography first, so on the lower left side of the screen, click
on Geography, State, check the box for Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Now let’s add the filter for the Demographic Profiles.
From the lower left side of the screen, click on Surveys, Decennial Census of Island Areas,
check the box for the third option, the Northern Mariana Islands Demographic Profile.
With these selections made, click on the Search button in the lower right corner of the screen.
All four Demographic Profile tables return.
We have DP1, General Demographic Characteristics; DP2, Selected Social Characteristics; DP3,
Selected Economic Characteristics; and DP4, Selected Housing Characteristics.
For this example, let’s click on DP2, Selected Social Characteristics.
We can see that this table has a lot of different data available—school enrollment, marital
status, veteran status, and disability status, just to name a few.
If we want to get this table in a presentation-friendly format, it would be best to export it.
We can do this by clicking on either the Excel or the CSV buttons located in the ribbon above
the table.
If we click on the Excel button, we can see that a file opens that has two different worksheets
in it.
The first provides information on the search that was done and other relevant table notes.
The second sheet provides the actual table.
You can see that it’s in a very presentation-friendly format.
If we close this out and click on the CSV button, we’ll find the same table in a CSV
format.
If we want to get this table as a flat, machine-readable file, or we want to get the GEOIDs for the
geographies used, it’s best to download it instead.
We can do this by clicking on the ZIP button located in the ribbon above the table.
Once you click on it, a new panel will pop up.
Confirm that the table you want to download is selected and click on the Download .CSV
button.
You can track the progress of the download in the popup in the lower right corner of
the screen.
Then open the ZIP file that appears.
For every table that you download, you’ll receive three different files—one for the
metadata, one for the table notes, and the last for the data itself.
Click on the file with “Data” in the name.
You’ll see that you have a flat, machine-readable table.
This also includes the GEOID, which can be especially handy.
Let’s close this out so I can show you the way that you can download all these Demographic
Profile tables at the same time.
If you look right above the list of tables, you’ll see a button that says “Download
Table Data.”
When you click on that, a checkbox will appear next to each of the four tables.
For this example, let’s check the box next to each one.
Once your selections are made, click on the Download button found right above the tables.
Then confirm that the tables you want are selected and click on the Download .CSV button.
From here, you’d follow the same process that you did earlier for downloading the single
DP2 table.
Let’s go ahead and close this out and take a look at how you can access this data through
the FTP site.
Go back to the table and click on the More Data button found in the ribbon.
A box will appear that lets you know that you are being directed to an FTP or census
website to download larger data files.
Click on the Continue to Site button.
The FTP site appears, where the larger Island Area ASCII files are available.
I hope this tutorial has helped in learning how to export, download, and access additional
data from the Island Areas Demographic Profiles.
For more guidance on using our site, please visit our Resources page in the link provided
below and in the description of this video.
Thank you.