DOI: 10.6077/tv5z-nq12
title: Census 2010 SF2 Download Center

description: &lt;p&gt;This page was developed to serve as an alternative to the Census Bureau’s FTP Site for the 2010 SF2 files.&lt;/p&gt;
description: enhancements: We’ve made some enhancements to the Census 2010 SF2 files available from this page.

We combined all files (including the geo header) for each state into one file and made it available in four (4) ready-to-use formats –SAS, SPSS, Stata, and CSV (with headers and quoted strings). We also provided setup files for the CSV files in SAS, SPSS, Stata, and R. Each file here contains all records (tables/variables) for each state and for all 50 states.

In addition, we’ve created a population group data availability reference guide. This guide will show you in which States you can find SF2 data on the population groups you are interested in. This table can answer questions like in which States can I find SF2 data on Apaches alone, Arapaho alone, etc…? You can download the reference guide here.; 
technical_notes: All files were created in SAS and then exported to SPSS, STATA, and CSV using Stat/Transfer
 SAS Users: Make sure to download and run this PROC FORMAT program first before using the SAS dataset.
 The four (4) setup files below are applicable to the CSV files (NOT YET AVAILABLE).
 SAS Setup File
 SPSS Setup File
 STATA Setup File
 R Setup file
 
 To guide you in your analysis, read the following:
 Census 2010 SF2 Technical Documentation
 Data Field Descriptors (the Codebook in Excel)
 For questions, clarifications, corrections, comments, and suggestions, please e-mail Florio Arguillas at foa2@cornell.edu.; 
rationale: When you download 2010 SF2 files for each State at the Census Bureau’s FTP site, it comes in a zip file each containing a Geo Header file, and 11 file segments per population group (iteration). The segments comprise 47 population and 14 housing tables down to the census tract level, and 10 population tables down to the county level. When combined these segments total to 1,621 variables. The segments are iterated for 331 population groups, but most States will not have 331 population groups as segments are created only for population groups comprising of 100 or more people i.e., if there are fewer than 100 people in a specific population group in a specific geographic area, their population and housing characertics are not available for that geographic area.

Much work has to be done in order for you to process this package. First, the files are mixed format. The Geo Header file is a fixed format file and two of its variables (AREALAND and AREAWATR) have to be converted to string. The 11 segment files for each population group are comma-delimited, with no headers, and has an .sf2 extension. You have to use a Microsoft Access shell on all files in order to properly read and assign the correct type to the variables in each file. In addition, you also have to change the extension name of all files from .sf2 to .txt. If you decide to import the comma-delimited files directly into a spreadsheet or statistical package (instead of using the MS Access shell), they won’t have variable names (because there are no headers) and the values corresponding to the CHARITER and CIFSN variables may be read in as numeric because there are no indications that they are string (i.e., the values of what are supposed be string variables are not enclosed in quotes to indicate they are string).; 
slug: census-2010-sf2