Working with Census 2000 data

1
Working with Census 2000 data

• John Q. Murray
• Murray Information Services, Inc.

2
Why do we conduct a census?

• U.S. Constitution requires it
• Representation in the House depends on
  population, so we recount every 10 years
• Article I, Section 2 Representatives shall be
  apportioned The actual Enumeration shall be made
  within three years after the first meeting of the
  Congress of the United States, and within every
  subsequent term of ten years

3
Census geography

• County
• Division
• Place
• Tract
• Block group
• Block

Already oriented to location useful for many
types of other data
4
FIPS code

• Census codes often used as geocodes in GIS
• Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)
• State code for Montana - 2 chars 30
• County code - 3 characters
• 061 Mineral, 063 Missoula
• Place code - 5 chars
• Class code - 2 chars
• Identifies place type

5
TIGER line data

• Street and road data for entire U.S.
• Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and
  Referencing System
• http//www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tiger2k/tgr200
  0.html
• Missoula County tgr30063.zip
• Mineral County tgr30061.zip

6
Get Tiger data for Missoula Co.

• See list.htm, pictured here
• Missoula County zip file tgr30063.zip
• Roads line file tgr30063lkA.shp
• Census blocks file tgr30063blk00.shp

7
Add the Tiger roads

• Roads have the name lkA.shp
• For Missoula Co., tgr30063lkA.shp

8
Label Frenchtown roads

• Zoom in on Frenchtown

From the Theme menu, select Auto-label
9
Select Fename as the label
Uncheck Scale Labels
10
View the underlying data

• Click on the Open Theme Table button

• Each segment includes addresses along that road
  segment From and To addresses on left and right

11
Add census blocks blk00.shp
The census block file for Missoula County is
Tgr30063blk00.shp

• After adding the census block data, click the
  Theme menu Auto-label command

12
Frenchtown census blocks
13
Geocode value from FIPS code

• State 2 digits (30)
• County 3 (063)
• Tract 4.2 (001600)
• Block group 1 (2)
• Block 3 (152)
• Geocode present in the Tiger files is the
  combination 300630016002152

14
Missoula County census map

• Missoula County map Frenchtown area appears in
  grids 24 and 25

15
Frenchtown area tract map

• Division 91302
• Frenchtown CDP (census-designated place) 29350

16
Frenchtown census blocks (1 of 2)
17
Frenchtown census blocks (2 of 2)
18
Huson area census blocks

• State 30, county 063, tract 001600
• Block group 2, census blocks 155-160

19
Population of the fire district

• Create a version of the fire district theme that
  has only one polygon
• Spatial join of the census block theme and the
  fire district theme

20
Get the population data

• Tables from www.census.gov website
• Join population data with the spatial data

21
Look up your census block

• http//factfinder.census.gov
• Click on the link Enter a street address to
  find Census 2000 data

• Enter the street address, city, state, and zip
  code, then click Go

22
Census blocks interesting

• Marketing companies crunch the U.S. Census data
• Though people move from place to place, they are
  likely to seek out a "cluster" similar to the
  onethey lived in before You Are Where You
  Live
• Within a cluster, people have similarincomes,
  tastes, purchase similar items, etc.
• Claritas identifies 62 neighborhood types at
  http//yawyl.claritas.com

23
Five clusters in Frenchtown

• Click and read about each of the 5 groups
• Is this a good way to characterize our community?