Redistricting News from the Legislative Council  Includes links to REDViewer, a graphic viewing system that displays the state's redistricting plans (House, Senate, Congressional, etc.), demographic information and election reports.

Census 2000 Texas Redistricting Data.  Just want to look at your county's data? Profile data at the County and State level from the Texas State Data Center can be found at this link.

Census Tutorial  Learn about the 2000 Census in this series of tutorials from the Alaska State Library.

THE BASICS
Data:  Texas Redistricting Data. From the Texas State Data Center. These files provide the greatest detail available from the Public Law data. Total and voting age populations are provided to the census block level, for all 63 race categories and Hispanic/Latino groups. You may also download whole places, or congressional districts. These files can be read into most popular spreadsheet and database applications.

Codes:  The Census Technical Documentation Manual. This document is in Adobe Acrobat format and will tell you what all of those P0010001, etc., codes mean.

Maps: 

• Redistricting Maps for Texas counties made available by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Block Maps (PDF) (from the Texas State Data Center).
• Tract Maps (PDF) (from the Texas State Data Center).
• Voting Tabulation District Maps (PDF) (from the Texas State Data Center).
• TIGER/Line 2005 Files (Census Geography) for each county. These files contain the boundaries of the blocks, tracts, and other features needed to map the Census 2005 data. The data are in ASCII format and are not useable in mapping software without conversion.

GIS Layers: 

• GIS-Ready TIGER Layers available -- FOR FREE -- in .shp file format at the Geography Network. You can easily use these files in a Geographic Information System (GIS). For those of you who do not have a GIS, you can download ARCExplorer, a powerful, scaled-down GIS program that you can use to view the layers -- also FREE from ESRI.
• Other Useful Digital Data from the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS). TNRIS has many products including TxDOT map files for each county, ortho imagery, digital maps, and more.

MORE CENSUS 2000 DATA SOURCES
U.S. Census Bureau

Census 2000 to 1990 Block Relationships.  The Census 2000 Block Relationship files are provided as a tool to help data users compare the universe of 1990 census blocks to the universe of Census 2000 blocks. From these files, data users may determine how 1990 blocks now relate to Census 2000 blocks and vice versa.

Census 2000 PL94-171 Files . These are the raw ASCII files from the Census Bureau's FTP site. They are huge and require some expertise and a strong computer.

Multiple ways to access Census 2000 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171).

Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File  How to use the Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File CD-ROM.

Information on how to import and use the data with MSAccess 97, MSAccess 2000, XBase, and SAS. Pre-prepared databases (without the data) are provided by the Census Bureau. Download the database file structure for your particular database and follow the import instructions in this document. Links to the pre-prepared databases are provided in the document. WARNING: These files are huge and will require a high-end system with a lot of disk space. We killed our systems a couple of times before we finally got the data in and operating.

RACIAL/ETHNIC CATEGORIES
Texas State Data Center

Comparing Race/Ethnicity Between the 2000 Census and Earlier Censuses. For the first time, census respondents were allowed to select multiple racial categories. This raises several issue with regard to using the Census 2000 data for certain purposes. This is a technical paper from the Texas State Data Center that discusses some of those issues.

Office of Management and Budget
Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. This document, from the Office of Management and Budget explains the racial and multiracial categories that are contained in the Census 2000 data.

SOURCES FOR REDISTRICTING GEOGRAPHY
Census Bureau Geography (TIGER)

TIGER 2000 Files (Census Geography) for each county. These files contain the boundaries of the blocks, tracts, and other features needed to map the Census 2000 data. The data are in ASCII format and are not useable in mapping software without some conversion. However, ESRI has made several of the TIGER layers available -- FOR FREE -- in .shp file format at the Geography Network so you can easily use them in a Geographic Information System. For those of you who do not have a GIS, you can download ARCExplorer, a powerful, scaled-down GIS program that you can use to view the layers -- also FREE from ESRI.

TIGER\Line Technical Documentation. The 308-pager TIGER Technical Documentation Manual in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) format. This document provides information on the codes used in the TIGER files and their relationship to the Census data.

Errors in TIGER files. User notes and errata are contained here. Be sure to check this page before using any of the TIGER files. Go to the ARCExplorer download page.

Census 2000 Tract, Block, and Voting District Maps. From the Census Bureau's FTP server in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) format. Texas wasn't available on March 15th but check back from time to time.

Census Maps from the Texas State Data Center.

Texas Legislative Council REDViewer. A graphic viewing system that displays maps and demographic and election reports for current districts. Public redistricting proposals will be available when they are under consideration.

Count Question Resolution Program
The Census 2000 Count Question Resolution Program  A Census Bureau Notice posted on January 22, 2001, in the Federal Register by the U.S. Census Bureau invited comments. This notice provides information concerning the Census 2000 Count Question Resolution (CQR) program. This program will become effective on June 30, 2001, and will end on September 30, 2003. Comments must be received by March 23, 2001.

Count Question Resolution Program  A "planned administrative review program that will handle external challenges to particular official Census 2000 counts of housing units and group quarters population ..." From the Census Bureau.

Other Sites Relating to Redistricting
Census 2000 Count Question Resolution  Federal Register notice on the Census 2000 Count Question Resolution program. The notice was published on January 22, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 14).

Census 2000 Public Law 94-171 County Block Maps  Printed maps available from the Census Bureau. PDF versions are now available for some states.

Census 2000 Redistricting Data Map Products  The Census Bureau has begun to make available copies of the PL 94-171 Census 2000 County Block maps on the Internet in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. This is the web page with the information about how to access and use these individual map sheet PDFs.

Census Watch  Intended to provide you with access to the most recent information on Census related data resources, redistricting, on-line GIS mapping, education and training, as well as news and articles.

Downloading Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line Files  The Redistricting Census 2000 TIGER/Line files are specifically intended to support the needs of the redistricting community. Because of the timing of this release it does NOT include the ZIP Code® Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs^TM) nor updated address ranges based on the final Census 2000 information.

ESCAP Report  On February 28, 2001 the Census Bureau released the Executive Steering Committee Report for Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Policy (ESCAP). They recommended against using adjusted data for redistricting

Strength in Numbers  Your guide to Census 2000 Redistricting Data From the U.S. Census Bureau in .pdf format.

Texas Redistricting 2001  General information about redistricting from the Texas Legislative Council.

USA TODAY  An interactive analysis of statewide and local data from the Census 2000 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171).

PDF Files can only be opened if you have the free Acrobat Reader® program from Adobe on your computer. Select "get Acrobat Reader" if you need to download this software today!