Census Bureau Releases 5-Year ACS data

Below is the official news release about the 5-Year ACS estimates released today:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THURSDAY, DEC. 8, 2011


Census Bureau Releases New Set of 5-Year American Community Survey Estimates

Estimates Provide Detailed Look at Every Community Nationwide

The U.S. Census Bureau today released findings from the American Community Survey — the most relied-on source for detailed, up-to-date socio-economic statistics covering every community in the nation every year — for the combined years from 2006 to 2010.

Consisting of about 11 billion individual estimates and covering more than 670,000 distinct geographies, the five-year estimates give even the smallest communities timely information on more than 40 topics, such as educational attainment, income, occupation, commuting to work, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs.

Visitors to the Census Bureau website can find their community's estimates in the <American FactFinder> database.

“These estimates are ideal for public officials to use to make key decisions,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said. “School boards will find them helpful in forecasting demand for classroom space, teachers and workforce training programs, and they will be a tremendous asset to planners in identifying traffic concerns and building roads and transit systems to ease commutes. Local governments will also find them useful in forecasting needs for services such as police and fire protection.”

Today's release is based on completed interviews with almost 2 million housing units each year from 2006 through 2010. By pooling several years of survey responses, the American Community Survey can generate detailed statistical portraits of smaller geographies. The Census Bureau issues new sets of these five-year estimates every year, permitting users to track trends in even the smallest of areas over time.
Two Briefs Using the Five-Year Estimates

In addition to the estimates released in the 940 detailed tables through American FactFinder, the Census Bureau is also releasing today two five-year ACS briefs, which are short, topic-based reports that analyze statistics for a wide range of topics. These new five-year briefs join the series previously only using one-year data and estimates. The five-year briefs take advantage of the very small geography and groups that can only be estimated with five years of data. A complete list of all released Briefs is accessible here: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/2010_acs_briefs/>.
Native North American Language Speakers Concentrated in a Handful of Counties

Sixty-five percent of Native North American language speakers lived in just three states, Alaska, Arizona and New Mexico. Nine counties within these states contained half the nation's Native American language speakers. Apache County in Arizona had 37,000 speakers of a Native American language, making it the highest in the nation. McKinley County, N.M., had the second most speakers at 33,000. Together, about 20 percent of all Native American language speakers in the nation lived in these two counties.

The most commonly spoken Native North American language was Navajo, with more than 169,000 people speaking this language nationally. The number of Navajo speakers was nearly nine times larger than the second and third most commonly spoken languages of Yupik and Dakota, with each having about 19,000 speakers. Although the majority of Native North American language speakers resided in an American Indian and Alaska Native area, only 5 percent of people living in an American Indian and Alaska Native area spoke a Native North American language.
More than One-in-Five Live in “Poverty Areas”

People living in poverty tend to be clustered in certain neighborhoods rather than being evenly distributed across geographic areas. About 67 million people across the nation, or 23 percent of the population, lived in “poverty areas” — that is, census tracts with poverty rates of 20 percent or more. Among states, the percentage ranged from 46 percent in Mississippi to 5 percent in New Hampshire. In 15 states and the District of Columbia, more than one-quarter of the population resided in poverty areas.

Of the 10 million people residing in tracts where poverty was especially prevalent (poverty rates of 40 percent or more), 43 percent were white, 38 percent were black, 3 percent were Asian, 11 percent were some other race, and 2 percent reported two or more races.

Individuals residing in tracts with poverty rates of 40 percent or more were less likely to have completed high school, to work year-round, full time and to own a home, and were more likely to be living in a female-householder family and to be receiving food stamps than individuals living in tracts with low poverty rates (poverty rates of less than 13.8 percent).
More about the American Community Survey

The American Community Survey replaces the “long form” that historically produced demographic, housing and socio-economic estimates for the nation as part of the once-a-decade census. The decennial census program, which includes the American Community Survey and the 2010 Census, along with the U.S. Census Bureau's population estimates program, serve as the basis for the allocation of more than $400 billion in federal funds to state, local and tribal governments every year. These vital estimates also guide planning in the private sector as well as the work done by policy makers at all levels of government and in communities of all sizes. All survey responses are strictly confidential and protected by law. The collection of this information has been directed by Congress or the federal courts.

This is the third set of statistics from the American Community Survey released this fall. In September, the Census Bureau released single-year estimates for 2010 for all areas with populations of 65,000 or more. In October, a corresponding set of three-year estimates (2008-2010) was released for areas with populations of 20,000 or more.
Methodology

As is the case with all surveys (including the 2000 Census “long form”), statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.

Please consult the data tables for specific margins of error. For more information, go to <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/documentation_main/>.

Changes in survey design from year to year can affect results. See <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/2010_release/> for more information on changes affecting the 2006-2010 American Community Survey results. See <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/guidance_for_data_users/comparing_2010/> for guidance on comparing 2006-2010 American Community Survey results with results from previous years and the 2000 Census.

5-year ACS Estimates for 2010 Census Tracts and Block Groups Released Tomorrow

The first American Community Survey estimates for sub-county data conforming to 2010 Census geographies (tracts, block groups) will be released tomorrow, on December 8, 2011.  Kentucky has 1,115 tracts (up from 994 in 2000 Census) and 3,284 block groups (up from 3,157 in 2000) for which their will be new social, economic and demographic characteristics of the population.  The data were collected during the period of 2006-2010 and are a 5-year aggregated sample.  Also of note, these population characteristics will be available for all incorporated places and counties and not limited to the 20,000 or more people threshold of the 3-year estimates.

Previously, the 2010 Census data had been the only data available for these smaller Census geographical areas.  Copied below are the Census Bureau notes about documentation and links to the new data:
 

U.S. Census Bureau Releases Documentation for the 2006-2010 ACS 5-Year Estimates and 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year PUMS File
 We are pleased to announce the first release of documentation in support of the 2006-2010 ACS 5-year estimates and the 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) file. These data sets are scheduled for release on Thursday, December 8, 2011. The code lists, subject definitions, product changes, and other documentation available now offer ACS data users the opportunity to prepare for next week's data release.

 New and updated documentation related to this release is available now on the 2010 Data Release page.

This page includes links to the following pages:

Summary File FTP site: Includes the Summary File Technical Documentation, Sequence Number Table Number Lookup and table shells

Product Changes page: Explains new, modified, and removed tables.

Documentation page: Includes code lists, subject definitions, group quarters definitions, and instructions for applying statistical testing.

PUMS Documentation page: Includes code lists, subject definitions, group quarters definitions, and instructions for applying statistical testing.

If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.

Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau

New Forecasts of Households and Household Size for Kentucky, ADDS and Counties

As a compliment to recently released population projections, KSDC has released forecasts of the number of households (occupied housing units) and household size (persons per household) for the state, ADDs, and counties. To produce these projections, the reliable cohort-headship method was employed with the KSDC projections of the population in households. Launched from 2010, projections are given at five-year intervals to 2050.
All of the new forecasts are available on the Kentucky State Data Center Projections site.

Census Bureau Announces Two More Releases

The last week of October has been a busy one at the Census Bureau, with the release of the 2008-2010 3-Year Estimates (for Census geographies that have 20,000 or more people) and the Decennial Census Summary File 1 National Update for areas that cross state boundaries. Below are the Census Bureau release notes for these two new data sets:

---

2008-2010 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates
The U.S. Census Bureau will release findings from the 2008-2010 American Community Survey, the most relied-upon source for up-to-date socioeconomic information every year. The release covers more than 40 topics, such as educational attainment, income, health insurance coverage, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. The estimates are available in detailed tables for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all counties and places with populations of 20,000 or more.Summary File tables

American FactFinder

---

2010 Census Summary File 1 National Update
New geographic levels, including the U.S., regions, divisions and other areas that cross state boundaries, are now available for the 2010 Census Summary File 1. State and lower-level geographies were released during June through August. The summary file provides a number of detailed tables on age, sex, households, families, relationship to householder, housing units, detailed race and Hispanic or Latino origin groups, and on the population in group quarters. More information on Summary File 1 can be found online at <http://2010.census.gov/news/press-kits/summary-file-1.html>.

Internet address: <http://factfinder2.census.gov>.

2010 ACS Single Year Estimates Released

New estimates of economic, housing and social characteristics from the American Community Survey are available today. The sample data were collected in 2010 and are available for geographic areas with at least 65,000 people.  In Kentucky there are 13 counties that meet the threshold and have new estimates available. Louisville and Lexington are the only two cities in Kentucky that meet the requirements to be included in this data release.
The Kentucky State Data Center has posted the profiles for Kentucky counties and cities from this release on its web site.  This is also the first release of ACS data on the New American FactFinder.  The legacy AFF hosted the previous releases and is slated to be deactivated by the end of 2011. If you want to look at other geographic areas or detailed tables, please check out the new AFF.

Counties (Boone, Bullitt, Campbell, Christian, Daviess, Fayette, Hardin, Jefferson, Kenton, Madison, McCracken, Pike and Warren)

Selected Economic Characteristics for Counties
Selected Housing Characteristics for Counties
Demographic and Housing Estimates

Cities (Lexington and Louisville)
Selected Economic Characteristics
Selected Housing Characteristics
Demographic and Housing Estimates


Here is the link to the Bureau's official  news release about this new data.

New Kentucky Population Projections Released

The Kentucky State Data Center has released new population forecasts based on the 2010 Census for state of Kentucky, the 15 Area Development Districts, and the 120 counties. Projections are provided for the total population and the population in households by sex and age. Launched from 2010, projections are given at 5-year intervals to 2050. Population pyramids displaying persons in households and group quarters are also provided for the 2000 Census, the 2010 Census, and projections in 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050.

The household population and the group quarters population age 65 and above were projected using the demographic cohort-component method. County-specific assumptions about future mortality, fertility, and migration were derived from the latest demographic patterns and trends of the 2000-2010 decade. The group quarters population under age 65 was projected to remain constant at their 2010 Census counts. Projections of the group quarters population above age 65 were based on their share of the 2010 Census total population.

Demographic Profiles Released for Tracts, Zip Codes and School Districts

The Census Bureau has released 2010 Census Demographic Profiles for  lower-level geographies - including ZIP code tabulation areas, school districts and census tracts.  The new profiles for these smaller geographic areas were released August 25.  The same demographic profiles were released by state down to the place level in May and provide statistics on topics such as age, race, Hispanic origin, sex, household relationship, household type, group quarters population and home ownership.

The new geographies for the demographic profiles arre available on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder website at <http://factfinder2.census.gov> . The files are also available for FTP download at <http://www2.census.gov/census_2010/03-Demographic_Profile_with_SF1geos/> . More information about the 2010 Census Demographic Profiles can be found at <http://2010.census.gov/news/press-kits/demographic-profiles.html> .

Kentucky's 2010 Census Summary File 1 Data (released July 21, 2011)

Summary File 1 tables provide the most detailed information available so far from the 2010 Census, including cross-tabulations of age, sex, households, families, relationship to householder, characteristics of owners and renters, detailed race and Hispanic or Latino origin groups, and group quarters. The Census Bureau has several data access tools available and KSDC will be compiling Area Development District profiles and other data from this release in the coming weeks. Below are some useful links to the new SF1 data:
Census Bureau SF1 Release Page

American FactFinder 2 (search and query for SF1 tables)

Technical Documentation (pdf)

Data Dictionary Table Matrix (.doc)

Summary Level Sequence Chart (pdf)

FTP site (download the data sets)

.

Available Now at KSDC are 2010 Block Shapefiles with Redistricting Data

2010 BLOCK SHAPEFILES WITH POPULATION AND HOUSING UNITS

Several people have requested KSDC make available the block level redistricting data for use in GIS applicatons.  Below is a link to the 2010 Public Law 94-171 TIGER Shapefiles for tabulation blocks with Table P1 (Total Population by Race) and Table H1 (Housing Units by Tenure) joined in the attribute tables. This ia a large zipped file (153 megabytes) containing all 161,672 blocks in Kentucky. There is a "County" field available to select out blocks by county. For more information about using this data, visit the Redistricting Data web site. You can find the Technical Documentation here.

The shapefiles can be downloaded here from the KSDC Census data page.

Group Quarters Population Totals Released

The Kentucky State Data Center has 2010 Census Group Quarters data at the county, tract and block level available for download on the KSDC web site.  This advance release from the Census Bureau contains total population counts and does not include any characteristics of the population.  The release was  intended to help redistricting efforts by denoting where large group quarter populations reside in voting districts. You can find more information about this data release  from the Advanced Group Quarters News Release.

Some details from the Bureau's news release:

2010 Census Advance Group Quarters Summary File

The Census Bureau, in response to Federal and state officials, as well as other data users, is providing an early version of Table P-42 from the 2010 Census Summary File 1, showing the seven types of group quarters. No characteristics of the group quarters are provided. The institutionalized group quarters categories include correctional facilities for adults, juvenile facilities, nursing facilities/skilled-nursing facilities and other institutional facilities; while the non-institutionalized group quarters categories include college/university student housing, military quarters and other non-institutional facilities. Data are provided for states, counties, census tracts and blocks. This table is only available via the FTP, so will not be found in the American Fact Finder.

This early release of data on the group quarters population may be beneficial to many data users including those in the redistricting community who must consider whether to include or exclude certain populations in redrawing boundaries as a result of state legislation. It will permit state and local redistricting officials to overlay this file with the 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File data. Three states (Delaware, Maryland and New York) have legislation requiring use of group quarters data in their line drawing. Other states exclude military, and Kansas reassigns intrastate college students back to their home town.

In addition, this product may be useful in determining if a geocoding error has occurred. The Count Question Resolution (CQR) Program provides state, local, and tribal governments the opportunity to challenge their 2010 Census housing unit and group quarters counts. The CQR program begins June 1, 2011, prior to the release of the Summary File 1.

2010 Census Advance Group Quarters Summary File Technical Documentation [PDF] 4.85 MB

2010 Census Advance Group Quarters Summary File FTP Data

2010 Census Advance Group Quarters Microsoft Access Shells -- These shells (MS Access 2007 and MS Access 2003 versions) contain the file import specifications, example tables, an example block level query, and a brief data dictionary extract, to assist you with importing and extracting the data. These shells are used similarly to the ones in the instructions titled How to use Access Shells.pdf [PDF] 880 KB

New Kentucky Demographic Profiles from the 2010 Census Released

The U.S. Census Bureau today released the Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 for the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. The demographic profiles provide 2010 Census data on age and sex distributions, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, household relationship and type, the group quarters population, and housing occupancy and tenure (whether the housing occupant owns or rents). Throughout May, these profiles are being released on a rolling basis for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The profile includes more than 150 data items in all, plus percentage distributions. Highlights from the state data released today include:

Kentucky

The median age was 38.1.

• The average household size was 2.45 people per household.
• Among the state's occupied housing units, 68.7 percent were owned, compared with 31.3 percent that were rented.

In addition to the state-level data, demographic profiles are available for other areas down to the place/functioning minor civil division-level. Profiles for the nation, regions and divisions will be available at the end of May with the final states' releases.

The characteristics data found in the demographic profiles will be available for additional levels of geography, such as census tracts or blocks, as part of the next 2010 Census data product, Summary File 1, to be released on a state-by-state flow basis between June and August.

Accessing the Data

The demographic profiles can be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder website at .

A summary file version of the profile data is also available for users who want to download the data set for all of the geographies within the state and run their own analysis and rankings. The summary file contains two parts: a file with the geographic headers (in fixed-length ASCII format) and the data file (in comma-separated ASCII format). The summary file is available for download at <http://www2.census.gov/census_2010/03-Demographic_Profile/>.

For local context, contact your State Data Center: <http://www.census.gov/sdc/network.html>.

Block Level Kentucky Data Products Available on KSDC Web Site

The Kentucky State Data Center made available several new data products on the web site that may help you work with the new 2010 Census Redistricting Data.  Available for download are Excel workbooks with County, City, and even Tract and Block level population, race, Hispanic  and housing unit data from the recently released data set. KSDC has also calculated change from the 2010 Census for many of these tables.

You can access the new data on the Census Page at the KSDC web site.

Interactive map available for 2010 Census data

The Census Bureau and the Kentucky State Data Center are not the only places to find tools for accessing census data. The New York times has created a United States Map application that offers county level census data for all counties in the United States by moving you computer mouse over any county.

You can find and use this neat tool at:
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map

2010 Census Redistricting Data Released

On March 17 the Census Bureau released the 2010 Census Redistricting Data for Kentucky. You can read the press release and access the Bureau's data at this news release site.

 Looking at the data in the County and Cities files put together by the KSDC, you may find some  interesting details about change among Kentucky's cities and counties over the past ten years.

1)  Six cities lost over 1,000 population since 2000; Covington (-2,730), Wilmore (-2,219), Frankfort (-2,214), Newport (-1,775), Campbellsville (-1,390) and Paducah (-1,283).

2)  Two cities have grown over 100 percent in total population in this period, with Coal Run Village (Pike County) leading all cities in the Commonwealth by increasing 195.7%, from 577 to 1,706 people. Crestwood  (Oldham County) had a population increase of 126.7%.

3)  Two cities saw a population decrease of over 50%. Blaine decreased from 245 to 47 people (80.8%) and South Park View declined from 196 to 7 people (96.4%).

4)  South Park View's seven people also means that it has the smallest population of all 422 cities.  Dycusburg was next with 26 people in 2010. In all, there were eleven cities with fewer than 100 people.

5)  Foster and Heritage Creek were not incorporated as cities in 2000 and are the only new cities on the list.

We'll be updating this blog and the KSDC web site with more information from this data release in the coming days as we have more time to analyze it.

Are You Ready? Next Week Kentucky 2010 Census Data Are Released

The Census Bureau has announced it will release Redistricting Data for Kentucky next week!  Here is the official release note:

Next week, the U.S. Census Bureau anticipates releasing local-level 2010 Census population counts for Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Tennessee. For each state, the Census Bureau will provide summaries of population totals, as well as data on race, Hispanic origin and voting age. These data will be presented for multiple geographies within the state, such as census blocks, tracts, voting districts, cities, counties and school districts.

According to Public Law 94-171, the Census Bureau must provide redistricting data to the 50 states no later than April 1 of the year following the census. As a result, the Census Bureau is delivering the data state-by-state on a flow basis in February and March. All states will receive their data by April 1, 2011.

Each state's geographic products and redistricting data are first delivered to the state's leadership, such as the governor and majority and minority leaders in the state legislative body. Upon confirmation of delivery to the state leadership, we will release a news release with five custom tables of data. At that time, we will release the full data set to our FTP download site. Within 24 hours, the full set of five detailed tables will also be available to the public online at http://factfinder2.census.gov/.

For more information on the Census Bureau's Redistricting Data Program, visit http://www.census.gov/rdo.

ACS 3-year PUMS data released

The U.S Census Bureau has released the 2007-2009 ACS 3-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files. The PUMS files are individual-level datasets that ACS data users can download and analyze on their own computers.

For access to the 2007-2009 ACS 3-year PUMS files and PUMS technical documentation, please visit the ACS PUMS Data Web page.

Kentucky Redistricting Data from the 2010 Census Available Soon

Redistricting Data from the 2010 Census are being released on a state-by-state basis in February and March 2011. Kentucky data is expected to be released in March. You can keep up with the 2010 Census releases on the KSDC 2010 Census page.

Tthe Kentucky State Data Center will provide quick access tools to the data and custom data products when the data are released. You can visit this Census Bureau web site to see which states have Redistricting Data available and learn more about accessing and using the data sets.

New Public Use Micro Data Sample (PUMS) released

On February 8 the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2005-2009 ACS 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files. The PUMS files are individual-level datasets that ACS data users can download and analyze on their own computers.


For access to the 2005-2009 ACS 5-year PUMS files and PUMS technical documentation, please visit the ACS PUMS Data web page.

Data users can create their own custom tables and analysis using this data.  For Kentucky data users this is useful for state wide analysis not available through the summary tables on the American FactFinder.

New ACS Release of 3-Year Estimates

On January 12 the U.S Census Bureau released the 2007-2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 3-year estimates on American FactFinder. This release covers the same topics included in the previously released 2009 ACS 1-year estimates. The 2007-2009 ACS estimates have a 3-year time frame and are only available for areas with populations of 20,000 or more.  With this new release, all three estimates series contain 2009 data.

The Kentucky State Data Center has direct links to Kentucky profiles from all three ACS estimates series (1-year, 3-year and 5-year) at:
http://ksdc.louisville.edu/1acs.htm

With this new release, all three estimates series contain 2009 data.