# Presentation: 095300

## Data Basics

- Phil Vidal
- Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office
- U.S. Census Bureau
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- Washington, DC 20233

## Data Topics

- Collection methods
- How data are derived and tallied
- Terms
- Economic programs
- Additional Economic Programs

## Collection Methods

- Three basic methods of collection
- Censuses
- Surveys
- Administrative records

**Notes:**

There are three basic methods of collection:

We will go over these three methods of data collection in more detail in the following slides.  

## Types of Censuses

- Definition: Canvass of a given area, resulting in enumeration of entire population or universe of collection units such as housing units or businesses
- Decennial: population and housing
- Economic: business and industry
- Governments: local and state governmental units

## Survey Types

- Definition: Data collected from sample of population, that represents the full population
- American Community Survey
- Current Population Survey
- Survey of Income and Program Participation
- American Housing Survey

## Administrative Records

- Some programs that use administrative records are:
- Population Estimates and Projections
- County Business Patterns
- Exports/Imports

## Uses of Census Data

- There are several uses for Census data, some of them are:
- Apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Distribute over $ 300 billion annually in federal, state, local, and tribal funds
- Draw state legislative districts.
- There are 7 basic questions on the Census questionnaire.

## American Community Survey

- The ACS is a survey conducted in every county, American Indian and Alaska Native Area, and Hawaiian Home Land.
- The ACS questionnaire replaces the decennial census long form
- Total of 53 questions (including the seven short-form questions)
- Produces annual and multi-year estimates of characteristics of the population and housing
- Surveys 3 million households continuously throughout the year.
- Produces information for small areas

## Census Terms and Explanations(determined by OMB)

- Race
- Ancestry /Ethnicity
- Census Tracts
- Household
- Types of Households
- People Without Conventional Housing
- Income
- Poverty

## Race 

- Race - is a self-identification data item in which respondents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify.
- The race categories are determined by the Office of Management and Budget.

## Race Categories

- They are:
- 		- American Indian or Alaska Native
- 		- Asian
- 		- Black or African American
- 		- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific 	 	  Islander
- 		- White
- 		- Some other race
- 		- Two or more races

## Ancestry/Ethnicity

- 	Ancestry refers to a person’s ethnic origin or descent, “roots,” heritage, or the place of birth of the person, the person’s parents, or their ancestors before arrival in the United States.
- Examples: Italian, Jamaican, Mexican, Polish, Spanish, Hispanic, Latino.

## Census Tracts 

- Small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or a statistically equivalent entity.
- Relatively consistent boundaries over time
- Size: optimally 4,000 people; range between 1,000 and 8,000
- Proposed change in minimum threshold to 1,200 people
- Approximately 65,000 census tracts in U.S.
- Defined nationwide for the first time in Census 2000; however Block Numbering Areas (BNAs) and tracts covered the entirety of the United States in 1990

**Notes:**
Through this manner we come up with a couple issues to consider.  Misreporting occurs when some proxy respondents may not know the precise age of all the household members.  Age heaping [or estimating] occurs at ages ending in ‘0’ and ‘5’.  

## Household

- Household: all persons who occupy a housing unit
- Householder: member of a household who lives at the housing unit and owns or rents the living quarters

## Types of Households

- Family Household: householder plus all persons in the household related by blood, marriage, or adoption
- Can also include:
- Subfamily  Ex: householder’s son and daughter-in-law
- Nonrelative  Ex: roomers, boarders
- Nonfamily Household: persons living alone or with nonrelatives only

## Household: Unmarried Partner

- Can be family or nonfamily household
- Same-sex unmarried partner estimates NOT comparable between 1990 and 2000 Censuses due to changes in data processing
- In Census 2000 same-sex “married” couples allocated to unmarried partner
- In the 1990 Census same-sex “married” couples were allocated through a complex statistical method

## Living Quarters

- Housing unit: unit occupied as separate living quarters, or, if vacant, is intended for occupancy as a separate living quarters
- Group quarters
- Institutionalized population (such as correctional institutions, nursing  homes, and juvenile institutions)
- Noninstitutionalized population (such as college dormitories, military quarters, and group homes)

## People Without Conventional Housing

- Emergency Shelters (people experiencing homelessness; shelters for children who are runaways, neglected, or without conventional housing)
- Transitional Shelters (hotels and motels used to provide shelters)

## Income of Households: householder and all other persons 15 years old and over in the household
Income of Families and Persons: all members 15 years and over summed and treated as a single amount
Median Income: divides income distribution into two equal parts above and below the median
Mean Income: divide total household income by total number of households

- Income of Families and Persons: all members 15 years and over summed and treated as a single amount
- Median Income: divides income distribution into two equal parts above and below the median
- Mean Income: divide total household income by total number of households

- Income

## Poverty

- Three criteria for developing poverty threshold
- Size of family
- Number of children under 18
- Age of householder for 1-person and 2-person households
- Thresholds are based on national level cost of living

## Economic Census

- Provides a detailed portrait of the Nation’s economy every five years (years ending in 2 and 7)
- Data from National to local level
- Industry codes are primarily based on the 2002 NAICS

## 2002 Economic Census Published Data

- Detailed data are issued sector by sector
- Industry series
- Geographic series
- Subject series
- Zip Code statistics

## Additional Economic Census Programs

- Survey of Business Owners
- Business Expenses
- Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey
- Commodity Flow Survey
- Island Areas

## Derived and Computed Items

- Some items in census tabulations are not collected directly
- Poverty rate: derived from comparison of respondent income to poverty level
- Persons per room: computed from data on persons in the housing units and number of rooms
- Mean and medians: computed from data for particular group or geographic area

## Imputation Substitution

- Edited questionnaires produce omissions, inconsistencies, and coverage issues
- After follow-up, remaining incomplete information assigned values
- Imputation is the computer assignment of acceptable responses
- Consistent with entries from persons or housing units in the same sample site with similar characteristics

## Questions/Feedback

- E-mail: ask.census.gov
- URL:  www.census.gov
- Online Glossary:
- www.census.gov/dmd/www/glossary.html
- General Questions: 301-763-4636