Living Cities Census Series

Census Plus User Guide


Census Plus, an interactive data tool sponsored by Living Cities, enables users to access a wide range of demographic indicators for all 50 states as well as the 100 largest cities, counties, and metropolitan areas in the United States. Data come from Census 2000 as well as the 2005 and 2006 American Community Surveys (ACS) and cover a variety of subject areas, including population trends, education, work, immigration, and housing. The site allows users to view and download a wealth of information about their community, to compare how it ranks against others of its type on a certain attribute, or to view how it performs across multiple indicators. This guide explains how to use the website, and provides a glossary for many of the terms used in the presentation of the data.

Navigating the Census Plus Website

Click on the following links to learn about the resources available on this website, how to access the data, and for details on data sources and comparability across years.

What’s available on Census Plus

Census Plus contains a wide range of demographic information for hundreds of different geographies. Users can search for data on all 50 states, the 100 largest metropolitan areas, 100 largest counties, 100 largest cities, and the 25 Living Cities. For each geography, a number of indicators are available in the following categories: Population, Race and Ethnicity, Immigration, Age, Households and Families, Education, Work, Commuting, Income and Poverty, and Housing.

Users can also select the year for which they want to view the data. Census Plus uses three data sets to give users information on how their communities may have changed over time.

  • 2000 data set—presents key statistics from Census 2000, along with a number of 1990-to-2000 trends that draw on data from the 1990 census
  • 2005 data set—presents key statistics from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS), including 2000-to-2005 trends that draw on Census 2000 data
  • 2006 data set—presents key statistics from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), including 2000-to-2006 trends that draw on Census 2000 data

Note: As future years of the ACS are released, new data sets will be added to the Census Plus website.

While both Census 2000 and the ACS provide a similar range of data on demographic, economic, and social characteristics, there are key differences between the two surveys that influence the kinds of comparisons that can be made across years. Users should be aware of these differences and the ways in which they are reflected in the reports available on Census Plus in order to make the best use of the data resources on this website.

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Census versus ACS: Important differences between the data sets

The ACS is an annual survey carried out by the U.S. Census Bureau. About 3 million households are surveyed each year on a range of demographic, economic, housing, and social questions. It will replace the “long form” survey in the decennial census as of 2010. The annual release of the ACS provides a rich resource for tracking changes in the make-up of the population over time. There are, however, two main differences between Census 2000 and the ACS, particularly the 2005 survey, which users should take into account.

Group Quarters

First, the 2005 ACS did not survey the “group quarters” population, meaning that individuals living in college dormitories, prisons, nursing homes, and the like are not included in the 2005 estimates.

The absence of the group quarters population can complicate comparisons of certain characteristics. For example, 2005 ACS estimates on the educational attainment for the population 25 and over are based only on the population in households. However, educational attainment estimates from Census 2000 and from the 2006 ACS are based on the total population in both households and group quarters, so education data from the two years are not directly comparable.

Where possible, we removed the groups quarters population from the 2000 data in order to present selected trends from 2000 to 2005. (See, for example, Age and Race and Ethnicity in About the Data 2005.) In some cases, it was not possible to separate the household population from the group quarters population, so we did not present 2000-to-2005 trends on these characteristics. This is one reason why certain trend reports are available in the 2000 data set (showing trends from 1990 to 2000) and not in 2005 (showing trends from 2000 to 2005).

Note: Group quarters are only excluded from the 2005 ACS. The 2006 ACS includes group quarters, which generally facilitates comparison to Census 2000. Census Plus only calculates trends from 2000 to 2005 (where possible) and 2000 to 2006. Users who wish to compare 2005 and 2006 ACS data should exercise caution due to the different treatments of the group quarters population. Visit the American Community Survey site for more information.

Sample Sizes and Margins of Error

Second, the ACS draws from a much smaller sample than Census 2000 (3 million versus about 17 million for the Census 2000 long form). The smaller sample size provides less certainty that the ACS estimates capture the “true” value for the population in question. Therefore, the ACS reports a margin of error alongside each estimate to tell the user the range in which the true value most likely lies.

Reports from the 2005 and 2006 Census Plus data set account for margins of error. We include a margin of error for each indicator derived from ACS data, and for all comparisons between 2000 and 2005 (or 2000 and 2006) data we use standard statistical tests to determine whether the difference between the two years is statistically significant.

Example: In 2006 the metropolitan area of Modesto, CA had a poverty rate of 14.3 percent with a margin of error of (+/-) 1.7 percentage points. That represents a decrease of 1.7 percentage points compared to the Census 2000 poverty rate of 16.0 percent. But once we take into account the margin of error, we find through statistical testing that there was not a significant change in metropolitan Modesto’s poverty rate from 2000 to 2006.

In addition, sample size issues in the ACS (e.g., the related error, confidentiality concerns) leads the Census Bureau to suppress certain estimates, particularly for smaller geographies (e.g., at the city level) or for smaller subsets of the population (e.g., the population that is two or more races). Thus, the user may find that some indicators are missing for certain geographies in the 2005 and 2006 reports.

Not all reports available in the 2000 data set have a corresponding report in the 2005 or 2006 data sets. A report will not be available in the 2005 or 2006 data sets if: (a) more than half of the geographies within a geography type (e.g., 100 largest U.S. cities, 100 largest U.S. counties) are missing data on a certain indicator; or (b) fewer than half of the geographies within a geography type experienced a statistically significant change from 2000 (for trend reports).

To learn more about the ACS, view the Census Bureau’s guides for 2005 (Using Data from the 2005 American Community Survey) and 2006 (The American Community Survey 2006 Data Users Handbook) or visit our page on Other Census Resources.

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Search Options

Census Plus gives users three different ways to access the data of their choice. Users can search by topic, look for a particular geography, or download complete data sets depending on their data needs. For instance, users can choose to “Browse by Topic ” to see how their city, county, metro area, or state compares to others on a certain characteristic. Users interested in finding out how their area performs on a number of different indicators within a topic can choose to “View a Specific Geography.” Or students and researchers interested in creating their own indicators for these subject areas can choose the “Download Full Data Sets ” option to access the raw data used on this site.

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Browse by topic

The Browse by Topic option allows users to choose a type of geography (e.g., the 100 largest U.S. cities) and compare how the geographies rank on a certain characteristic in a given year.

The Browse by Topic tab presents users with a series of dropdown menus. First, users can choose the geography type and subject area of interest. Next, users select the year for which they wish to view the data. Depending on the geography type, subject area, and year selected, a list of available reports appears in a new dropdown menu.

Note: Not all reports are available in each year. See Census versus ACS: Important differences between the data sets to learn more about variations between the two data sets.

After completing the selections in all four dropdown menus, users can click the “View Report” button to complete their request or the “Start Over” option to change their selections. Choosing the “View Report” option causes the requested report to appear in the window below the dropdown menus.

All reports in the Browse by Topic section contain the following information: the list of geographies, the selected indicator, the raw data used to calculate the indicator, and the rank. (Reports from the 2005 and 2006 data sets also include the margin of error associated with the indicator.)

Example: A user selects the following combination from the four dropdown menus:

  • Geography type: 100 Largest Counties
  • Topic: Immigration
  • Year: 2000
  • Report: Share of Foreign-Born Population from Asia

The resulting report shows the following values for each county: the foreign-born population; the foreign-born population from Asia; the percentage of the foreign-born population from Asia; and the rank of each county based on that percentage.

Users may sort reports by rank, geography, the indicator, or the raw data by clicking on the appropriate column header. In addition, the report can be emailed, printed, or downloaded as a spreadsheet (xls format), where the data can be further manipulated.

Note: Because margins of error accompany the 2005 indicators, ranks given for 2005 reports should be used as a general guide for comparisons and not as an absolute rank. Multiple geographies can have estimates with overlapping margins of error, so rankings may not reflect the “true” order of each geography.

Also note that in the 2005 and 2006 trend reports (e.g., Percent change in median income, 2000 to 2005) only geographies that experienced a statistically significant change from 2000 are ranked.

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View a specific geography

The View a Specific Geography option enables users to find out how one geography performs on a series of different indicators within a subject area.

Similar to the Browse by Topic search option, View a Specific Geography presents users with a series of dropdown menus. First, users select the type of geography (e.g., 100 Largest U.S. Cities). A list of available geographies within that type appears in the next dropdown menu. Users then select one geography from the list. Next, users choose the subject area of interest and the year for which they want to view the indicators. At this point users can choose to click the “Start Over” button to change their selections or the “View Report” button to submit their request. Once the user submits a request, the selected report appears in the window below the dropdown menus.

Note: Not all reports are available in each year, and not all indicators in the 2005 and 2006 data sets are available for all geographies. See the section on Census versus ACS: Important differences between the data sets to learn more about variations between the two data sets.

Reports in the View a Specific Geography section contain the following information about the requested geography: relevant values for the list of reports in the topic area of interest; the average value of each indicator among all geographies of that type; and where the geography ranked for each indicator. (Reports for 2005 and 2006 also show the associated margins of error for each of the requested geography’s indicators.)

Example: A user selects the following combination from the dropdown menus:

  • Geography type: 100 Largest U.S. Cities
  • Geography: Fort Worth, TX
  • Topic: Education
  • Year: 2005

In the resulting report, the first column shows the list of education reports available for Fort Worth, TX:

  • Share of population 15 and over enrolled in a college or graduate school;
  • Share of the population 25 years and older with a high school diploma;
  • Share of the population 25 years and older with a high school diploma by race (white, black/African America, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian);
  • Share of the population 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree;
  • Share of the population 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree by race (white, black/African America, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian).

The next column displays Fort Worth’s indicator for each report (e.g., percentage of the population enrolled in college or graduate school), followed by a column presenting the margins of error that accompany each percentage. Then the average value for the top 100 cities appears for each indicator. The final column shows where Fort Worth ranks on each report against the other largest cities in the U.S.

Note: Because of the margins of error that accompany the 2005 and 2006 indicators, ranks given for 2005 and 2006 reports should be used as a general guide for comparisons and not as an absolute rank. Multiple geographies can have estimates with overlapping margins of error, so rankings may not reflect the “true” order of each geography.

Also note that in the 2005 and 2006 trend reports (e.g. Percent change in median income, 2000 to 2005) only geographies that experienced a significant change from 2000 are ranked.

From reports under View a Specific Geography, users can link to the underlying detailed reports by clicking on the indicator names. Users can also email, print, or download the specific geography reports as a spreadsheet (xls format).

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Download full data sets

The Download Full Data Sets option enables users to download all reports in a topic area for a selected geography type. In addition, users who want to create their own indicators can select this search option to download the complete set of raw data for a geography type in a given year.

Download Full Data Sets asks users to first indicate whether they wish to “Download all reports by topic” or “Download raw data by year.”

If users choose to download all reports by topic, three additional dropdown menus appear. Users then select the geography type, topic, and year for which they wish to download all reports.

If users choose to download raw data, two additional dropdown menus appear. Users then select the geography type and year they wish to download.

In either case, after completing the dropdown menu selections users can choose to click the Start Over button to change their request or the Download button to submit their selections. All data are available for download as spreadsheets (xls format).

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About the data

Visit the About the Data page for the 2000, 2005, and 2006 data sets to learn more about the sources used in compiling the Census Plus reports and to find helpful definitions and data notes. In addition, users can simply click on the About the Data link while browsing by topic or viewing a specific geography to be taken to source information and any notes for the displayed report.

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