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Ability to speak English
For a respondent who speaks a language other than English at home, refers to his/her assessment of his ability to speak English, from "very well" to "not at all."

Related term:
Language spoken at home

Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.)
A survey designed to measure the undercount/overcount of the census.

Adopted child
A child legally taken into a family to be raised by that family.

Related terms:
Foster children, Own children, Related children

Advanced query
A planned capability that will enable users to prepare tabulations online using the full database of individual responses from Census 2000, subject to restrictions and filters required to protect the confidentiality of individual responses. The availability of this function is subject to policy decisions on access and confidentiality.

Related term:
Microdata files

African
Refers to people who identified their ancestry as "African," and does not include those who identified as "African American."

Related term:
Ancestry, Subsaharan African

Age
Age is generally derived from date of birth information, and is based on the age of the person in complete years.

Age dependency ratio
A measure derived by dividing the combined under 18 years and 65 years and over by the 18-64 years population and multiplying by 100. (American Community Survey and Population Estimates Program)

Related terms:
Child dependency ratio, Old age dependency ratio

Aggregate
The sum of the values for each of the elements in the universe. For example, aggregate household income is the sum of the income of all households in a given geographic area. Aggregates are frequently used in computing mean values (mean equals aggregate divided by universe count).

Related terms:
Universe, Mean

Alaska Native race/ethnic categories
Self-identification among people of Alaska Native descent. These are the five detailed Alaska Native race and ethnic categories used in displaying data from Census 2000:
  • Alaska Athabaskan
  • Aleut
  • Eskimo
  • Tlingit-Haida
  • All other tribes
In 1997, the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised the standards for how the Federal government would collect and present data on race and ethnicity. The new guidelines reflect "the increasing diversity of our Nation's population, stemming from growth in interracial marriages and immigration."
These new guidelines revised some of the racial categories used in 1990 and preceding censuses and allowed respondents to report as many race categories as were necessary to identify themselves on the Census 2000 questionnaire.

Related terms:
Census (decennial), Race

Alaska Native Regional Corporation (ANRC)
A corporate entity organized to conduct both business and nonprofit affairs of Alaska Natives pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Alaska Native village statistical area (ANVSA)
A statistical entity that represents the densely settled extent of an Alaska Native village, which is a local governmental unit in Alaska. An ANVSA is delineated for the Census Bureau by officials of the Alaska Native village or Alaska Native Regional Corporation in which the ANVSA is located for the purpose of presenting decennial census data.

All Other Hispanic or Latino
Refers to people who reported their origin as "Hispanic," "Spanish," "Latino," or other variations of Hispanic general terms without identifying a specific country of origin in the Hispanic origin question.

Related terms:
Ancestry, Hispanic or Latino origin, Spanish/Hispanic/Latino

Allocation
The process by which a characteristic (for example, age, race or rent) is assigned to a person or housing unit in the absence of an acceptable entry on the census or survey questionnaire. The general procedure for inserting omitted entries or changing unacceptable entries is to assign an entry for a person that is consistent with other entries for that person or entries for other persons with similar characteristics. The procedure is similar for missing entries.

American
Refers to people who identified their ancestry as "American", "United States", as a region such as "Southerner", or as a U.S. state such as "Texan".

Related term:
Ancestry

American Community Survey (ACS)
The American Community Survey is a large, continuous demographic survey conducted by the Census Bureau that will eventually provide accurate and up-to-date profiles of America's communities every year. Questionnaires are mailed to a sample of addresses to obtain information about households -- that is, about each person and the housing unit itself. The survey produces annual and multi-year estimates of population and housing characteristics and produces data for small areas, including tracts and population subgroups.

Questions asked are similar to those on the decennial census long form.

Related term:
Continuous Measurement System

American FactFinder (AFF)
An electronic system for access and dissemination of Census Bureau data on the internet. The system offers prepackaged data products and user-selected data tables and maps from Census 2000, the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, the 1997 and 2002 Economic Censuses, the Population Estimates Program, annual economic surveys and the American Community Survey. The system was formerly known as the Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS).

American Indian Area, Alaska Native Area, Hawaiian Home Land (AIANAHH)
A Census Bureau term referring to these types of geographic areas: federal and state American Indian reservations, American Indian off-reservation trust land (individual or tribal), Oklahoma tribal statistical area (in 1990 tribal jurisdictional statistical area), tribal designated statistical area, state designated American Indian statistical area, Alaska Native Regional Corporation, Alaska Native village statistical area, and Hawaiian home lands.

American Indian off-reservation trust land
Lands held in trust by the federal government for either a tribe or an individual member of that tribe. They may be located on or outside of the reservation; the Census Bureau recognizes and tabulates data only for the off-reservation trust lands because the tribe has primary governmental authority over these lands.

American Indian reservation
Land that has been set aside for the use of the tribe. There are two types of American Indian reservations, federal and state. These entities are designated as colonies, communities, pueblos, ranches, rancherias, reservations, reserves, tribal towns, and villages.

American Indian Reservation - federal
Areas with boundaries established by treaty, statute, and/or executive or court order recognized by the federal government as territory in which American Indian tribes have primary governmental authority. The U.S. Census Bureau contacts representatives of American Indian tribal governments to identify the boundaries. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) maintains a list of federally recognized tribal governments.

American Indian Reservation - state
Lands held in trust by state governments for the use and benefit of a given tribe. A governor-appointed state liaison provides the names and boundaries for state reservations. The names of the American Indian reservations recognized by state governments, but not by the federal government, are followed by "(state)" in the data presentations.

American Indian Tribal Subdivision
Administrative subdivisions of federally recognized American Indian reservations, off-reservations trust lands, and Okalahoma tribal statistical areas (OTSAs), known as an area, chapter, community, or district. Internal units of self-government or administration that serve social, cultural, and/or economic purposes for American Indians. Provided in 1980 as "American Indian subreservation areas." These areas were not available in 1990.

American Indian tribe/Selected American Indian categories
Self-identification among people of American Indian descent. Many American Indians are members of a principal tribe or group empowered to negotiate and make decisions on behalf of the individual members. Census 2000 data are available in American FactFinder for 36 tribes or Selected American Indian categories:
  • Apache
  • Blackfeet
  • Cherokee
  • Cheyenne
  • Chickasaw
  • Chippewa
  • Chocktaw
  • Colville
  • Comanche
  • Cree
  • Creek
  • Crow
  • Delaware
  • Houma
  • Iroquois
  • Kiowa
  • Latin American (Aztec, Inca, Mayan, etc.)
  • Lumbee
  • Menominee
  • Navajo
  • Osage
  • Ottawa
  • Paiute
  • Pima
  • Potawatomi
  • Pueblo
  • Puget Sound Salish
  • Seminole
  • Shoshone
  • Sioux
  • Tohomo O'Odham
  • Ute
  • Yakama
  • Yaqui
  • Yuman
  • All other
These tribes were selected based on a 1990 population threshold of 7,500.
Related terms:
Census (decennial), Race

Ancestry
Refers to a person's self-identification of heritage, ethnic origin, descent, or close identification to an ethnic group. Selected ancestry groups include Arab, Brazilian, Canadian, Czech, Irish, Italian, Russian, Subsaharan African, West Indian, etc.

Related terms:
Nationality, Place of birth

Annual payroll (in thousands of dollars)
Payroll includes all forms of compensation, such as salaries, wages, commissions, dismissal pay, bonuses, vacation allowances, sick-leave pay, and employee contributions, to qualified pension plans paid during the year to all employees. For corporations, payroll includes amounts paid to officers and executives; for unincorporated businesses, it does not include profit or other compensation of proprietors or partners. Payroll is reported before deductions for social security, income tax, insurance, union dues, etc. This definition of payroll is the same as that used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Form 941.

Apportionment
The process of dividing up the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U. S. House of Representatives among the 50 states. The Census Bureau's role in apportionment is to conduct the census every 10 years as mandated by the Constitution. Apportionment does not affect Puerto Rico.

Related terms:
Decennial census, Reapportionment, Redistricting

Apportionment population
The total resident population (citizens and non-citizens) of the 50 states. In Census 2000, the apportionment population also includes U.S. Armed Forces personnel and federal civilian employees stationed outside the United States (and their dependents living with them) that can be allocated, based on administrative records, back to a home state. This is the same procedure used in 1990. Private U.S. citizens living abroad, who are not employed by the Federal government are not included in the overseas counts for apportionment.

Related terms:
Population, Resident population

Arab
Refers to people who reported any type of Arab ancestry, including those who reported a specific group such as "Lebanese," "Syrian," or "Palestinian," and those who identified with a more broad group such as "Arab," "Arabic," or "Middle Eastern."

Related term:
Ancestry

Arab/Arabic
Refers to people who reported their ancestry as "Arab" or "Arabic."

Related term:
Ancestry

Area
The size, in square miles or square meters, recorded for each geographic entity.

Asian
Self-identification among people of Asian descent.

In 1997, the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised the standards for how the Federal government would collect and present data on race and ethnicity. The new guidelines reflect "the increasing diversity of our Nation's population, stemming from growth in interracial marriages and immigration."

These new guidelines revised some of the racial categories used in 1990 and preceding censuses and allowed respondents to report as many race categories as were necessary to identify themselves on the Census 2000 questionnaire.

These are the 17 detailed Asian race and ethnic categories used in displaying data from Census 2000:
  • Asian Indian
  • Bangladeshi
  • Cambodian
  • Chinese, except Taiwanese
  • Filipino
  • Hmong
  • Indonesian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Laotian
  • Malaysian
  • Pakistani
  • Sri Lankan
  • Taiwanese
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • Other Asian
Related terms:
Census (decennial), Race

Average
The number found by dividing the sum of all quantities by the total number of quantities.

Related terms:
Mean, Median

Average family size
A measure obtained by dividing the number of members of families by the total number of families (or family householders).

Related term:
Family

Average household size
A measure obtained by dividing the number of people in households by the total number of households (or householders).

Related term:
Household

Average household size of owner-occupied units
A measure obtained by dividing the number of people living in owner-occupied housing units by the number of owner-occupied housing units.

Related term:
Owner-occupied housing unit

Average household size of renter-occupied units
A measure obtained by dividing the number of people living in renter-occupied housing units by the number of renter-occupied housing units.

Related term:
Renter-occupied housing unit