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The U.S. Census Bureau is the official source of statistical data tracking the national economy.
Business is a large part of America's diverse economy. This section provides key information about businesses in your community.
This section provides information on a range of educational topics, from educational attainment and school enrollment to school districts, costs and financing.
We measure the state of the nation's workforce, including employment and unemployment levels, weeks and hours worked, occupations, and commuting.
Our statistics highlight trends in household and family composition, describe characteristics of the residents of housing units, and show how they are related.
Health statistics on insurance coverage, disability, fertility and other health issues are increasingly important in measuring the nation’s overall well-being.
We measure the housing and construction industry, track homeownership rates, and produce statistics on the physical and financial characteristics of our homes.
Income is the gauge many use to determine the well-being of the U.S. population. Survey and census questions cover poverty, income, and wealth.
The U.S. Census Bureau is the official source for U.S. export and import statistics and regulations governing the reporting of exports from the U.S.
The U.S. Census Bureau provides data for the Federal, state and local governments as well as voting, redistricting, apportionment and congressional affairs.
Geography is central to the work of the Bureau, providing the framework for survey design, sample selection, data collection, tabulation, and dissemination.
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The Geographic Support System Initiative will integrate improved address coverage, spatial feature updates, and enhanced quality assessment and measurement.
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Metropolitan and micropolitan areas are geographic entities used by Federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal statistics.
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Definitions of geographic terms, why geographic areas are defined, and how the Census Bureau defines geographic areas.
We conduct research on geographic topics such as how to define geographic areas and how geography changes over time.
Official audio files from the Census Bureau, including "Profile America," a daily series of bite-sized statistics, placing current data in a historical context.
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This is the 2020 Census redirect
This is the 2020 Census redirect
National and state population totals from the 2010 Census were released on December 21, 2010
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a mandatory, ongoing statistical survey that samples a small percentage of the population every year.
The AHS is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Economic Census is the U.S. government's official five-year measure of American business and the economy.
Basic enumerations of population, housing units, group quarters and transitory locations conducted by the Census Bureau at the request of a governmental unit.
Collects data and measures change for many topics including: economic well-being, family dynamics, education, assets, health insurance, and childcare.
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The first recorded instances of the delineation of small geographic entities based on population, topography, and housing characteristics were the sanitary districts ― nested within city wards ― of a special vital statistics study associated with the 1890 census. The Census Office, predecessor of the Census Bureau, worked with local officials in a number of cities to delineate a network of small geographic areas.
These sanitary districts were then used to analyze and compare the effect of population, topography, and housing on the mortality rate of the inhabitants. The delineation of these sanitary districts was an important step in the evolution of geographic statistical entities. This may have been the first instance of federal and local cooperation in designing a set of small geographic units based on population and housing characteristics.
In 1906, Dr. Walter Laidlaw, director of the Population Research Bureau of the New York Federation of Churches, published an article putting forth the idea of delineating and using small geographic areas as a method of studying neighborhoods in New York city. Dr. Laidlaw had been studying neighborhoods by using the 1900 census data for assembly districts (subdivisions of New York city's boroughs) together with information from other sources.
In 1905, the state of New York changed the boundaries of the assembly districts, thereby altering the geographic framework and impairing the usefulness of all his information. In search of a solution, Dr. Laidlaw proposed a scheme that did away with both ward and assembly districts as data tabulation units. Instead of these, he suggested the delineation of permanent small areas that would retain their boundaries from census to census. His plan was to subdivide each square mile of New York City into quarter sections of about 160 acres.
Prior to the census of 1910, Dr. Laidlaw divided the city of New York into 40-acre tracts called "districts." In 1909, he persuaded the Census Office to adopt the concept, and to extend the plan of tract tabulations to the seven other cities have a population of 500,000 or more (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis). While the tabulation was done by tract for these cities, the data were not used anywhere but New York City and St. Louis.
The 1920 census data were also tabulated by tract for these cities, and Dr. Laidlaw published the figures for New York. Others followed: Chicago and Cleveland purchased and published their census tract data. By the end of the decade, 18 cities (the same eight from 1910, along with Los Angeles, Columbus, Nashville, Berkeley, Syracuse, and Yonkers) were reviewing or delineating census tracts for the 1930 census.
This increased interest in census tracts was largely due to the promotional efforts of Howard Whipple Green, a statistical consultant working in Cleveland, Ohio. Having experienced data problems similar to those faced by Dr. Laidlaw, he found that census tracts were a solution.
In 1931, the American Statistical Association appointed Mr. Green chairman of its newly formed Committee on Census Enumeration Areas. Along with this appointment came the unofficial assignment to promote the delineation of census tracts in large cities throughout the country. Over the next 25 years, he worked hard at this task, contacting interested people in other cities, encouraging the formation of local committees, and publicizing uses for census tract data in a newsletter. In 1955, upon Mr. Green's retirement, the Census Bureau assumed the functions of promoting and coordinating the delineation of census tracts.
After the 1930 census, the Census Bureau saw the need to standardize the delineation, review, and updating of census tracts and published the first set of census tract criteria in 1934. The goal of the criteria has remained unchanged over time; that is, to assure comparability and data reliability through the standardization of the population thresholds for census tracts, as well as requiring that their boundaries follow specific types of geographic features that do not change frequently.
For the 1940 census, the Census Bureau adopted the census tract as an official geographic entity to be included in data tables of the standard publications of the decennial census. This relieved the census tract committees of the need to purchase the data tabulations and to fund their publication. In 1940, the Census Bureau also began publishing census block data for all cities with 50,000 or more inhabitants. Census block numbers were assigned, where possible, by census tract, but for those cities that had not yet delineated census tracts, ''block areas'' were created to assign census block numbers. The block areas were renamed block numbering areas (BNAs) in 1960.
In 1970 and 1980 there was an increase in the number of jurisdictions receiving data by census block under the BNA program. Additionally, beginning with the 1980 census, the BNA criteria were changed to make BNAs more comparable to census tracts.
For the 1990 census, census tracts and BNAs together covered the entire nation, and all counties contained either census tracts or BNAs. For Census 2000, the BNA concept was retired and census tracts were defined nationwide.
The 2010 Census marks the 100th anniversary of census tracts. A century of census tract use has shown that census tracts continue to be an important geography for the tabulation of decennial census data and other statistical programs, and that census tract boundary continuity and the resulting census tract data comparability over time are of considerable significance to data users.
For more information, see:
Census Tract Manual: 1934 Edition Download PDF [861KB PDF]
Census Tract Manual: 1937 Edition Download PDF [647KB PDF]
Census Tract Manual: 1947 Edition Download PDF [2.96MB PDF]