HIGICC Data Discovery Forum September 25, 2009 LInda Akers Smith and Timothy McMonagle U.S. Census Bureau

1. Census Geographic and
Data Products
2010 HCPO/HIGICC Conference
Data Discovery Session
Sept 23 - 25, 2009
Linda Akers Smith and Timothy McMonagle
Los Angeles Regional Census Center - Geography
U.S. Census Bureau
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2. Topics
2009 TIGER/line Shapefiles
Future TIGER/line Shapefile release schedule
American Community Survey Data
2010 Decennial Census release schedule
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3. 2009 TIGER/Line Shapefiles
• Release date October 2009
• Additional Shapefiles available
– More State-based files
• Changed Topological Faces
Relationship file to a Shapefile
• Improvement in clean-up of feature
distortion
• Improved Documentation
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4. Future TIGER/line Release
Schedule
• 2010 TIGER/line shapefiles
– Contains census 2010 geography
– State by State in early 2011
– National in early-mid 2011
• Post 2010 TIGER/line shapefiles
– 113th Congressional Districts
– Urban/Rural, Urban Areas, Metropolitan
– TAZ, ZCTAs,SLDs

5. Most Frequently Asked Questions
• Where are the streets?:
– The streets are in the county-based All Lines
(edges) file. There is a Road Flag attribute which
indicates if the feature is a road or not
• Where is the demographic data?
– The TIGER/Line® Shapefiles do not contain
demographic data but have all of the necessary
information to join the data to them. American
FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov) is the
best resource for electronic survey data from the
Census Bureau

6. Changes Under Consideration
• In addition to the all lines layer:
– Roads only shapefile
– Rail only shapefile
– Linear hydrography shapefile
• In the metadata:
– Unique description for each file type
– Including the file layout inside the metadata
– providing direct links to the file on the Census Bureau’s
website
– Provide link to the technical documentation on the Census
Bureaus website

7. Questions about the TIGER/Line®
shapefiles?
geo.tiger@census.gov
301.763.1128
• Free public download from our website (see
handout):
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/index.html

8. Census Demographic Data
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9. Census Bureau Demographic
Data
• Decennial Census
• American Community Survey
• Other Surveys and Censuses
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10. Census Geography
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12. American Community Survey
• A large, continuous demographic survey goes
to 3 million addresses every year, covers every
county in U.S.
• Produces annual and multi-year estimates
of the characteristics of the population and
housing
• Produces characteristics, not a population
count
• Produces information for small areas including
tracts, block groups and population subgroups
• Full implementation began January 2005
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13. ACS Data Product Release Schedule
Data products are released in the year following the single-year
or multi-year period in which data are collected.
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14. Current ACS Data Release
• 2008 ACS data released Sept 22, one year
estimates, for the first time includes estimates on
health insurance coverage, marital history, and
veterans’ service connected disabilities
• 2006-2008 ACS Data will be released Oct. 27, three
year estimates.
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15. Hints (Warnings)
• Know what level of geography you
need data
• Know what tables you want
• Download size limit when using Excel
format option
• Use the “Down Load Center” for large
downloads- up to 50 tables
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16. Contact Information
Linda Akers Smith
linda.kane.akers.smith@census.gov
Timothy McMonagle
Timothy.william.mcmonagle@census.gov
Los Angeles Regional Census Center
9301 Corbin Av. Ste 1000
Northridge, CA 91324
818-717-6701