FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2001
Decennial Media Relations CB01-CN.57
301-457-3691/301-457-3620 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: 2000usa@census.gov
Sandra Rowland
301-457-2312
Census Bureau Touts New Data Delivery System
American FactFinder, the latest innovation in Census Bureau data
delivery via the Internet, is in final testing and will be fully
operational when state redistricting data are released in March, the
Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today.
"Our goal is to make the voluminous demographic and economic statistics
collected by this agency easy to find and use for everyone, from novices
to experts, by putting them all in one place," said Paula Schneider, the
agency's principal associate director for programs. "We are launching a
new era in the dissemination of Census Bureau statistics."
On the Internet since March 1999, American FactFinder
http://factfinder.census.gov,offers easy access to Census 2000 data,
the latest economic census, the American Community Survey and the 1990
population census.
American FactFinder revolutionizes the way the Census Bureau publishes
decennial results. About 90 percent of the census results were in print in
1990, but only 10 percent of Census 2000 data products will be available
in that form. American FactFinder will allow the Census Bureau to
disseminate more data to more users faster than in 1990.
The first results from Census 2000 (the apportionment population counts
issued last Dec. 28) soon will be joined by massive amounts of data in
March that could be used to redraw federal, state and local legislative
districts.
The data sets will show population counts for 63 race categories, which
include those who reported in 57 categories of two or more races, as well
as counts for the Hispanic population and the population not of Hispanic
origin cross-tabulated by the same 63 race categories. These tabulations
will be repeated for people 18 and over. All the tables will be available
for the nation's 50 states, 3,232 counties and county equivalents, 50,161
places and county subdivisions, 66,304 neighborhoods (census tracts) and
8.3 million blocks.
This information is just the first wave. Later, there will be data on
everything from ancestry to the type of fuel used for home heating.
"The best may be yet to come," said Schneider. "For example, we're
working on a feature that would allow a user to type in their address,
find their census tract number, then get a demographic profile and map for
the tract, which is the equivalent of a neighborhood."
American FactFinder has:
-a "Basic Facts" section with data for commonly asked questions, and
an interface in Spanish for Census 2000 data on Puerto Rico;
-a thematic and reference map section;
-a "Kids' Corner" designed for children ages 7 to 11;
-a keyword or place name search engine; and
-a "data sets" icon to access detailed tables
American FactFinder was developed under contract with the Census Bureau
by IBM Global Services Corp., principal contractor (responsible for
systems architecture, design, data warehouse and integration) and
Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (mapping applications).
available free from Adobe.
