Hi, I am Alexandra Barker.
During many interactions with data users,
I have learned about how challenging it can be
to access data for neighborhoods.
The Census Bureau does not publish data for neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods are not official boundaries.
And still
many organizations provide services to neighborhoods
and need to access this data.
Well, the good news is that you can use data.census.gov
to create a neighborhood area or service area
using tracts
and access data from the census
and the American Community Survey for these areas.
Let me show you how.
Hi.
I'm Viviana Garcia
and I work with Alexandra at the Census Bureau.
I will be walking you through how to find neighborhood data
by selecting census tracts on a map.
For this demonstration I want to use an example
of a data inquiry that I received
from an organization in Boston.
They wanted to learn what was the median household income
for the area they served in the downtown Boston area.
But they weren't sure which census tracts make up their area.
In order to help them,
this is how I showed them using data.census.gov.
First,
let's go with the geography that you're familiar with.
And now we know it’s
the city of Boston.
The city of Boston is a larger container of their neighborhood.
So, I'm going to type Boston
city
Massachusetts.
And let's look at the median household income.
Once I've searched for the geography and the topic,
I can move from all
to maps.
Right away the map will pop up for you.
Our issue here
is that we still need to see tracts for Boston.
Let's look for the tables on the left side pane.
I will click on income in the past 12 months for now.
Next,
we need to ensure we view the five-year estimate data table.
Right below the table name,
click on the plus icon
and I want 2021 data.
So, I will select
2021 ACS five-year estimates from the drop-down list.
That way, we can get some data on this map.
I want to note,
for the tract level,
the Census Bureau does not publish
one-year estimates from the American Community Survey.
One-year estimates are only available for areas with 65,000 people or more.
And the tract population will be no more than 8000 people per tract.
Now that I have the service area the way I want,
I can start looking for the data.
Next, we can select a layer.
As you can see, it shows the city of Boston here.
You can click on the Layer icon
from the drop-down menu,
then select census tracts.
Your map will change to
visualize the census tracts in the area.
There are a lot of tracts in this view.
That is why I recommend that you begin this exercise
using the mapping feature.
Now let's zoom into Boston
so we can find our exact neighborhood.
This is the downtown area.
The City Hall for Boston is right in this area,
and this is the service area for our organization.
One important thing to do
is zoom into each census tract
and look at the streets that make up the census tract.
It will help you determine if the census tract is part of your service area.
Once you have decided,
you can start selecting.
So, click on the select tool on the left side and then drag
the mouse on top of the area that you want to select.
Now that I don't need to select anything else in my map,
I will click on the select tool again
to stop using it.
It's essential in order to move around your map
and do other things on this page.
You will notice that sometimes you may select extra tracts
that you don't need
or may leave out some tracts that you do need.
In this case, I need census tract
702.
02
So, I can just click on the census tract
and then click on select.
And let's say I don't
need census tract 9817
so, I can click on that tract
and then click deselect.
So, now let's look at the specific data I am looking for.
In this case,
it's medium household income.
So, click on the variables icon
use the drop-down list
and look for households’ median income.
Once you click on it, the entire map will adjust
as well as the legend to show the median
household income by census tract.
So,
we also showed them how to look at the table for the same
data by clicking on the table feature and then clicking on
"View full table".
In this table
they can see different ranges of income
it shows median income,
mean income for households and families for each census tracts
that are part of our selection area.
To toggle between tables and maps
click on the maps icon again
One thing I recommend
to organizations looking at census tract-level data
is to take note of each census tract that
makes up your neighborhood
or your service area once you are on this map.
Have it saved because you don't need to
recreate this map next time you're in the system.
All you have to do is start your search by going to the main page
on data.census.gov.
Clicking on advanced search,
then you select geographies,
and now you can select census tracts.
You select your state;
in this case, we will go to Massachusetts,
and Boston is in Suffolk County.
And then you can look at the individual tracts.
So, if you know the census tracts you're looking
for now
you have a list ready to go.
Now you can select them individually and go straight into the data.
This feature is for sure very useful
for anyone looking to access data for service area.
For more videos like this
visit census.gov/academy
and subscribe.
Thank you.