Using American FactFinder

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Using American FactFinder

• John DeWitt
• Project Manager
• Social Science Data Analysis Network
• Lisa Neidert
• Data Services
• Population Studies Center

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What is American FactFinder?

• http//factfinder.census.gov
• Main portal to most popular data from U.S. Census
  Bureau
• Decennial census
• American Community Survey
• Puerto Rico Community Survey
• Population Estimates
• Economic Census and Surveys
• Multiple data products
• Several indicators across geographies
• Many indicators for a single geography
• Occasionally difficult to link data to
  information
• Trends
• What product to use?

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• American FactFinder
• Fact Sheets?quick stats for a town, county or zip
  code
• Get data links?many of AFFs data products
• Download center?quick downloads of detailed
  tables for all available states, counties, metro
  areas, etc.

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• Fact Sheets (Data Profiles)
• Quick lookup
• Many common indicators
• Includes U.S. numbers for comparison

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Aggregate Products are the most commonly used
data products available from the ACS. These
include the tables and maps in the American
Factfinder, which describe the distributions for
basic and detailed population and household
queries.
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Detailed Tables

• These are where experienced journalists go ?rst
  to ?nd the estimates they need. In the American
  FactFinder, these tables are known as the
  detailed and custom tables and include the most
  descriptive and detailed data. These tables
  feature simple frequency estimates for individual
  variables and estimates for combinations (such as
  poverty status by sex and age). Many variables in
  the detailed tables, such as age, are subdivided
  into several categories (such as ages 017,
  1864, 65 and older, and so on). Detailed tables
  can also be obtained through FTP. automatically
  inserted into a preformatted text.

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Detailed Tables
Select multiple geographies.
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Detailed Tables
Select multiple tables.
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Detailed Tables
See multiple geographies side-by-side
Scroll to see other selected tables.
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Detailed Tables

• Collapsed table
• A detailed table with a reduced amount of detail
  shown to comply with data release rules.
  Specifically, it is a detailed table with a "C"
  prefix for which two or more lines of data from
  the corresponding "B" prefix table have been
  collapsed into a single line in the "C" table.
  Not every B table has a collapsed version.

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Downloading from AFF
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FIPS Codes A slight diversion

• FIPS
• Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
• Issued by National Institute of Standards and
  Technology (NIST), now updated by American
  National Standards Institute (ANSI)
• Useful for mapping and databases

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Subject Tables
These are summarized, topic-specific tables based
on data from the detailed tables. They are
easier to navigate and can be a better choice if
you just need a quick overview, or if youre new
to the ACS. Subject tables provide data for some
of the most popular topics, such as finances,
households, and occupational characteristics for
a single geography. If your questions is simple,
subject tables may provide the data you need with
a minimum of fuss.
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Subject Tables
Select only one geography.
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Subject Tables
Browse by subject or select a table below.
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Subject Tables
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Ranking Tables
These tables compare the 50 states, the District
of Columbia, and Puerto Rico according to various
characteristics and rank them from highest to
lowest. Ranking tables present state data from
nearly 100 different characteristics. These
tables can also be viewed as charts, using a link
on the page. The charts show the 90-percent
confidence limits around each estimate as an
indication of which rankings may be statistically
different (meaning the two estimates probably are
truly different.)
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Ranking Tables
Browse by subject or select a table below.
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Ranking Tables
Sort alphabetically by State or numerically by
Ranking.
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Geographic Comparison Tables
These are similar to ranking tables but are
available for geographical levels that extend
below the state level. Unlike ranking tables,
they provide margins of error for the estimates
but do not tell you whether or not the
differences in rankings are statistically
significant.
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Geographic Comparison Tables
Select a geographic area (Nation or State), and
then the table format, or the geography you want
to compare. Here we are choosing to compare all
of the counties in Michigan.
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Geographic Comparison Tables
Select only one Comparison Table.
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Geographic Comparison Tables
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Data Profiles
This product offers tables that provide summaries
of several basic social, economic, housing, and
demographic characteristics for each geographic
unit. While they are less sophisticated than
detailed tables, data profiles do a good job of
describing the broad characteristics of a
geographic area.
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Data Profiles
Select only one geography.
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DataProfiles
Select different profiles to see economic,
housing, or demographic data tables.
Scroll to see more information.
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NarrativeProfiles
Accessible through data profiles are narrative
profiles, which present the data in plain
language and use graphics, similar to a news
article. These products contain data that are
automatically inserted into a preformatted text.
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Selected Population Profiles
Population profiles are ready-made tabulations
for specific groups of interest, such as a
specific ancestry or race. While other ACS
profiles provide general information for a
geographic area, the selected population profiles
use a similar format to provide basic information
for a specific segment of the population.
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Selected Population Profiles
Select multiple geographies.
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Selected Population Profiles
Select the specific population group you want to
look at. You can choose from Race or Ethnic
groups, Ancestry groups or Country of Birth.
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SelectedPopulationProfiles
Scroll to see more information.
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Thematic Maps
The maps include two important features in
addition to their categorical color schemes.
First, users can quickly identify which other
geographic units have a significant statistical
difference from the selected unit for a
particular characteristic. Also, tabular
interfaces to the data are readily available as a
link on the left of the page.
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Thematic Maps
Select only one geography.
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Thematic Maps
Select only one Thematic Map.
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ThematicMaps
Use the zoom feature to see a more detailed map.
Change the geography displayed. Other options
include Congressional Districts, Metropolitan and
Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Public Use
Microdata Areas.
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Comparison Profiles
The comparison profiles show data side-by-side
from the 2006 ACS and the 2007 ACS, indicating
where there is a statistically significant
difference between the two sets of estimates.
Comparison profiles are only available for 1-year
estimates.
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Comparison Profiles
Select only one geography.
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ComparisonProfiles
Select different profiles to see economic,
housing, or demographic data tables.
Compare data across the years. Some data is not
able to be compared accurately, in this case the
2007 and 2008 3-year estimates.
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DownloadCenter
Use the download center to quickly download large
amounts of data. The download center allows
users to download up to 50 tables for a single
geography at a time, or you can download all the
summary file extracts for all the tables. The
individual tables download as zip file with
pipe-delimited text files.
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Download Center
Select only one geography at a time.
Select the aggregate product, or data
visualization, you want to download.
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Download Center
Select up to 50 different tables to download.
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Download Center
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Sample Tasks

• How could you get a demographic overview of your
  local county, city, or state?
• What FactFinder product would allow you to look
  at median age of first marriage for your multiple
  counties, a state, and the U.S. all at once?
• What state has the largest percentage of
  population that has completed high school?
• Which FactFinder product allows a user to
  download multiple files for all available
  geographies of specific summary level (e.g.
  counties, metropolitan and micropolitan areas,
  etc)

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Questions?