Hi, I am Alexandra Barker. If you're looking to access data about your neighborhood
from the 2020 Census, there are a few ways that you can use tracts or blocks
to access and visualize this data.
In this data gem, I will show you how
to use data.census.gov and the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer
to access this data. In just a few clicks, you get data about population, race, Hispanic origin,
housing occupancy, and group quarters population.
So let me show you how to use these resources.
Since the Census Bureau does not produce data for neighborhood boundaries in
order to access data for your neighborhood; you need to use data for the tracts and blocks that
form your area.
Blocks are the smallest geographic areas that the Census Bureau produces data for.
In the hierarchy of Census Bureau geography, a few blocks form a block group.
A few block groups
form a tract, and a few tracts form a County.
You can use data.census.gov to access data for all geographies down to the block level,
or you can use the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer
to visualize data for tracts.
This tool makes it easier for you to
identify which tracts form your neighborhood.
So let's start by visiting the 2020 Census Demographic Data map Viewer.
Click on the link on the right corner of this video or on the description of the video.
Now that we are at the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer,
let's first select the topic that you want to visualize the data your neighborhood.
I will click on Race alone.
I will select Black or African American to visualize.
Now I'm going to conduct an address search. This is a great way to learn in which tract
the address of your organization or service area is located. Let me take you to Boston to
a neighborhood that I'm very familiar with.
I'll type the address, 1 City Hall Plaza in Boston.
Now let's zoom out a little bit so we can see the boundaries of the tract.
So if my neighborhood is the area of 1 City Hall Plaza,
this address is located in Census tract 303.02.
If I click on the map, I can see the exact boundaries of the tract,
and you can see the names of the streets to determine if this is the area of your neighborhood.
If your neighborhood is bigger than one tract, you can keep selecting
different tracts one at a time, and don't forget to take a look at the streets that form the tract.
This will help you determine if the area is also part of your neighborhood.
If you notice once you click on a tract, you get the data for that tract.
Next, let's visit data.census.gov to
access all the Redistricting data tables for blocks and tracts.
To go to data.census.gov,
you can just type the address in your browser. The recommended browser is Google Chrome.
Now that we are at data.census.gov, let's start by going to advanced search.
This is one of the many ways that you can access block and tract data.
First, let's select our geography by clicking on geography from the browse filters.
My geographic level will be block,
but you could do the same thing here for a tract.
Select 'block' next select the 'state' of your block.
I will select 'Maine'.
Next, the 'county' of your block.
I will select Cumberland County, Maine,
and I will select all blocks in Cumberland county in Maine. However, you
could select blocks within a tract.
For instance, if you want to select
census tract 1,
you see now the blocks within the Census tract,
and I can select them all one at a time.
But I'm just going to go back to all blocks in Cumberland County, Maine.
Next, to ensure that we only see data from the 2020 Census,
let's click on the year and select 2020.
You can also click on surveys and select the Decennial Census from the list.
Next, select the tables from the Redistricting Data PL 94171.
Now click search, and your results will show tables from the 2020 Census Redistricting Data set.
Let's open table P1
this system is not able to display the table results because of the large number of columns.
However, to see the table, you can download it.
Another great way to access this data is by visualizing it on a map.
So let's click on maps from the top menu.
Once the map has loaded, I will select table P1
and map the data from table P1.
As you can see, the map for the county is now broken down by blocks, and the data is displayed by blocks.
This can help you identify the blocks for your neighborhood, and therefore you
can see the data for your neighborhood. If you like to switch topics, you can
click on the topic displaying from table P1 on the map and switch from totals to
any of the topics available from the table.
Another neat feature of data.census.gov is the ability to select blocks and tracts using the map to form your neighborhood
and then access data for the area.
Let's click on maps
from the landing page on the top right.
From the map view, just click on 'filter'
and now go to surveys,
click on the Decennial Census and select the Redistricting Data PL 94171 file.
Click done.
Now to see blocks or tracts,
just go to the default geography for the map.
In this case, it's state and change to blocks or census tracts. Depending of how you're planning to form that neighborhood area.
Let's find tracts.
Click on census tracts, and now the map shows all the boundaries for the census
tracts in the nation.
Let me take you to Florida.
Let's say that my neighborhood or service area is located right here. I can use the select feature
to select this area. Just click on the map and drag the mouse.
Now the area you selected will highlight on the map. You can see all the tracts that were selected
by clicking on filter again,
and this is a good way to remove tracts that are not part of your neighborhood but ended up in your selection.
Let's remove a few tracts;
now click done.
The data for this area now can be selected from the tables on the left side menu.
These two resources make it easier for you to access 2020 Census data.
If you'd like to learn more about this data, visit census.gov/academy,
and don't forget to join our community by subscribing. Thank you.