U.S. Department of Commerce

Educational Resources

Tutorial

Educational Attainment

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SCRIPT

  1. Hello! Welcome to this Data Access Tool tutorial, brought to you by the U.S. Census Bureau.
  2. In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to access data on Educational Attainment from a variety of sources including the American Community Survey or ACS.  
  3. We will find the number of people, 25 years and over, and by sex, who have a doctorate degree in the states of California, Illinois, and Wyoming.
  4. The ACS data for 1-year estimates (also called ACS 1 year estimates) are available for areas with at least 65,000 people.
  5. The ACS 3 and 5 year data estimates are used for smaller level geographies that have populations less than 65,000.
  6. To begin, let’s go to census.gov.  From the banner line, select “Data,” then, from the drop down menu, click American FactFinder. The American FactFinder page displays.
  7. Then, from within Quick Start, in the topic or table name field, type “education”. In the state, county or place field, type “California”.       Then, click GO.
  8. Now, let’s add our other states.     On the left side, select the Geographies tab.   The Select Geographies window displays.
  9. In the Geography Results box, on the right, expand your per page to 75, to show all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Your page refreshes and now displays 75 items in the Geography Results.
  10. From the Geography Results box, check Illinois and Wyoming.   
  11. Then, click Add.
  12. Your Selections now also include Illinois and Wyoming.
  13. We can now close your Select Geographies window.
  14. To refine your search results further, click on the Topics tab, then, select People. The People category expands, and displays related sub-categories.
  15. From the People category, select Education.   The Education category expands, and offers an even more refined sub-topics list for selection.
  16. Under the Education category, select Educational Attainment.
  17. To refine your search further, select Dataset from the Topics tab. The Dataset category expands, and the ACS 1, 3 and 5 - year estimates datasets display.
  18. The number shown beside each category selection indicates the number of search results to display.
  19. Since we are looking at the state level for the most current data results, select the 2010 ACS 1-year estimates.
  20. Now close your Select Topics window, to review your search results.
  21. Your Search Results pane refines to show just the tables for the 2010 ACS 1-year estimates.
  22. Your search results will reflect data on the educational levels completed by the population.
  23. Now from the Search Results box, select table B15003 “Educational Attainment for the Population 25 Years and Over” to view the number of people with a doctorate degree.
  24. Also, check table B15002 to view the same information by sex.
  25. Click the View Tab to see the information for both tables.
  26. Your Results displays the two tables on two pages.  The table on page 1 displays B15003 results, and the table on page 2 displays B15002 results.
  27. To go back and forth between tables, go to the upper right and click the arrow next to Result 1 of 2.   Both tables show the geographies selected.
  28. To down load a table as an Excel file, click on the Download button from the Actions: line.   A progress window displays and prompts you with options to down load that particular table as an Excel or as a PDF file.
  29. If you want to view both tables, click “VIEW ALL AS PDF” towards the top of the screen.   Again, a progress window will open and prompt you.  Click on Open, to view the tables as a PDF document.
  30. The objective of this tutorial was to demonstrate how to access data on the number of people 25 years and over, and by sex, who have a doctorate degree in the states of California, Illinois and Wyoming.
  31. The demonstration results show in Table B15003 the number of the people with a doctorate degree in 2010, living in the states of California is 346, 531, in Illinois is 97,422 and in Wyoming 4,290.
  32. In table B15002, you can see the same data for the same year, the number of females compared to males, who have a doctorate degree in all three states.
  33. Congratulations!   You have successfully completed this data access tool tutorial on 2010 ACS 1-year estimates on Educational Attainment.
  34. For additional Census Bureau sources on Educational Attainment data, refer to census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education.
  35. In addition to the ACS, you can access the data reports and table packages from other Census Bureau sources, such as Current Population Survey (CPS), Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and previous decennial census and historical tables.
  36. Another source for education related data is the National Center for Education Statistics located at their website nces.ed.gov.
  37. For additional assistance, contact the Customer Service Center at 1-800-923-8282, or, to ask a question online, go to ask.census.gov.
  38. The U.S. Census Bureau.   Measuring America – People, Places and Our Economy. 
Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office | 301- 763-4308 or clmso.training@census.gov |  Last Revised: April 04, 2012