September 9th

Decennial Census Data on the Web

To look up data from short form go to SF1.
For long form information go to SF3.

Website: http://factfinder.census.gov

For a question like: "What is total population?" Go to SF1 table.

For a question like: "What is percent of housing units occupied?" You will be looking for average number of occupants per occupied unit. Occupied unit is defined as housing unit or free standing house.

total population/occupied units (free standing houses)

Example: Illinois total population/# of Illinois housing units occupied = % of housing units occ.
124,923/4591779 = 2.70%

Average number of occupants per unit will almost always be 2 or 3. Consequently, you can estimate populations pretty well by knowing how many occupied units there are.

To find % Asian you will look under "Asian alone."

Self identification is what is being measured by Census.

When dealing with race data if multiple race boxes are chosen single person can be counted more than once.

Glossary available on factfinder site.

Short form data/information is generally constant accross locations

Long form much more variability accross locations.