Release of 2014 U.S. and State Population Estimates

July 1, 2014 population estimates are now available for the nation, states and Puerto Rico on American FactFinder. The annual estimates include components of change (births, deaths and net migration) in the previous year and since the April 1, 2010 Census. The estimates were originally released on Dec. 23, 2014, on the Population and Housing Unit Estimates website (http://www.census.gov/popest).

In addition, new monthly estimates are now available for the nation for April 1, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2015. These monthly estimates are for the resident population, resident population plus armed forces overseas, civilian population, civilian noninstitutionalized population and household population.

Find information about what's new on American FactFinder

Can't keep track of what new information is available on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder portal? Go to NEWS AND NOTES. You'll see:

Dec 17, 2013
The 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year estimates are now available for every state, county, city, town, place, American Indian Area, Alaska Native Area, and Hawaiian Home Land, as well as for census tracts. Block group estimates are available only in the ACS Summary File. This is the first 5-year data release to include health insurance coverage, disability, marital history, and veterans' service-connected disability status and ratings.

Sep 26, 2013
Data from the 2012 Census of Governments: Organization are now available. The data include detailed information about the number and types of governments that exist, including school districts and special districts. Statistics are shown at the national level, for individual states, and for county-level areas. More information on the 2012 Census of Governments, including other data products, is available at http://www.census.gov/govs/cog2012/.

And MUCH MORE.

Finding geographies with geographies in American FactFinder

Someone asked "Is there a way on American Factfinder to get info for census tracts within Census Designated Places? In other words, Geo within a Geo?

I knew how to do this on the old FactFinder, but not on the new one. Fortunately, one of the other Data Detectives did!

If you go to Geographies, click “all geography types” and then select summary level 080 “Census Tract (or part)”. You can then walk down your selections and select, for example, “New York”, “Suffolk”, “Babylon”, “West Babylon” and at the bottom all the tracts and part of tracts within West Babylon CDP.

If you go to the “Name” tab you can do something similar (don’t forget to select “all geography types”). I find it easiest to start with opening the “Summary levels” instead of the “geography types”. You can select tracts for more places at once using this route.

The first option worked for me; still haven't mastered the second...

Virtual tour of the Census Bureau's new American FactFinder features

Census Bureau published a virtual tour of the new AFF features due to be released next week, January 29.

Please note that the “Advanced Search” option gets you to a slightly enhanced version of the current FactFinder with access to all available data.

Using the New American Fact Finder, Version 1.1

American FactFinder (AFF) is the Census Bureau’s primary dissemination tool for many Census Bureau Programs, including:
Decennial Census
American Community Survey
Population Estimates
Economic Census of the United States
Economic Census of the Island Areas
Survey of Business Owners
Commodity Flow Survey
County & ZIP Code Business Patterns
Nonemployer Statistics
Annual Survey of Manufacturers

These programs listed above account for more than 60 datasets and publish data for over 12 million different geographies.
To accommodate this large amount of data, AFF follows a topic based approach. You build a search by selecting keywords and filters from different search menus. As you add additional keywords and filters, the search results become limited to only the tables that meet the criteria. Once you have refined the search results to a suitable level, you can either download or view one or more tables. The table(s) will display the data selected.

New Files Make American FactFinder Your One Stop for Key Census Bureau Data

The new American FactFinder, the U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics and information search engine introduced one year ago, has been updated with files formerly found in its “legacy” version. Users now have access to more than 60 important data sets in the new FactFinder English interface and 14 data sets in the Spanish interface.

“Users no longer have to navigate between two Web tools,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said. “They now have one stop for the most important data sets from the Census Bureau.”

Nearly all of the information from the older version has been uploaded to the new American FactFinder website. At your fingertips, you now will have access to more than 250 billion data cells and statistics for more than —

- 40,000 tables
- 1,500 population groups and tribes
- 80,000 business and industry codes
- 12 million geographies for each decennial census

The new American FactFinder provides users with one-stop access to results from the decennial census (2010 and 2000), the economic census (2002 and 2007), American Community Survey, population estimates and key annual economic surveys. American FactFinder has statistics on a variety of topics, such as income, poverty, education, and housing.

Census staff are aware of customer issues with the new American Fact Finder and are working on both short term and long term solutions to address these issues, improve search and navigation, and enhance customer satisfaction

Eventually, the 2010 Census Equal Employment Opportunity File, the American Housing Survey and the census of governments statistics will be released through the new American FactFinder.

This expansion has permitted the Census Bureau to retire the original version of American FactFinder on Jan. 20 after 12 years of service. Several files will be available only on the Census Bureau FTP (file transfer protocol) site.

Any deep links or bookmarks in the older version of American FactFinder no longer work. The Census Bureau held a webinar to discuss the transfer of files to the new American FactFinder and provide guidance on building deep links, searching and bookmarking in the new site, as well as accessing the information that had previously been on the legacy FactFinder through an archived FTP site. For those who missed it, an archived version will be available in the next few days HERE.

If you need a few facts in a hurry, you can look at Quick Facts, which give you fast, easy statistics about people, business, and geography. If you are a new user of census data, this may give you what you need in a simple, easy-to-navigate format.

Legacy Version of American FactFinder will Retire January 20, 2012

What Will Happen?

The Legacy Version of American FactFinder will be discontinued January 20, 2012.

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How will this affect you?

Any deep links into the discontinued system will no longer work.

1. Deep links to specific products from these datasets will not be available:

1990 Census
2000-2004 American Community Survey
2000-2001 Supplementary Survey
1997 Economic Census
2003 Annual Survey of Manufactures
2003 Nonemployer Statistics

2. These products will only be available through an archived FTP format. Instructions on how to access these archived products will be provided in future updates.

3. All other current and previous year data from the American Community Survey, Puerto Rico Community Survey, Annual Population Estimates, Economic Census, and Annual Economic Surveys are available at http://factfinder2.census.gov.

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What do you need to do?

Use the how-to guide for Building Deep Links into the New American Factfinder to create links to the NEW American FactFinder.

Look for additional updates in the coming weeks.

An AFF2 how-to guide

With the Legacy American FactFinder ending by the end of 2011, you may find this how-to guide from Michigan’s Dept of Technology helpful.

Factfinder 2 mystery

One of our Data Detectives entered a New York State address. The American Factfinder 2 system retrieved information for a township in Missouri. Another address in Buffalo NY retrieved data for Buffalo City in
Johnson County Wyoming.

However, the system worked as expected when entering the zip code, with or without the city and state.

The Census Bureau has indicated that FactFinder 2 works best with Firefox
3.5 or greater, and that has shown to be accurate. Using Internet Explorer 8 earlier, though, currently does not work well with FactFinder. Apparently, FactFinder will work with IE 7, but not higher versions. The Census Bureau is working on this problem.

Our Data Detective got good results using Google Chrome, but incorrect results using Opera.

Tips and Tricks for Using the New American FactFinder Webinar

July 28, 2011
2:00-3:30 PM EDT

Register

Are you frustrated by the Census Bureau's new American FactFinder? Can't find the data you want? This webinar will provide a how-to demonstration to get the tips and tricks you'll need to successfully use the new American FactFinder. The webinar will also cover when the Census Bureau plans to move other data sets, such as the American Community Survey, to the new FactFinder.

Presenter:
Nancy Gemignani
Research Specialist, California State Census Data Center
State of California Department of Finance, Demographic Research Unit

Webinar pricing is as follows:
• C2ER Members: Free
• LMI Training Institute Member States: Free
• APDU Members: $25
• All Others: $50

Links for downloading the new AFF Webinars

Still baffled by AFF2? Check out these webinars from State Data Centers.

Simpler Path to 2010 Census Data

The U.S. Census Bureau debuts a reinvented American FactFinder today, making online access to 2010 Census data -- and many more statistics -- easier than ever.

The new American FactFinder offers a fresh look, new tools and easier access to a wide range of Census Bureau statistics. Online today, you will find population estimates for 2008 and earlier years and findings from the 2000 Census. When fully implemented, the new FactFinder is projected to have about 250 billion data cells in more than 40,000 tables.

"Our goal is to give users a simpler path to 2010 Census data," said Census Bureau Director Robert Groves. "With this new and improved incarnation of the American FactFinder, the American people will be able to really understand the value of their participation and learn from it."

The 2010 Census form was one of the shortest in our lifetime, asking just 10 questions and taking about 10 minutes to complete. After conducting a census intended to be so easy for every household, the next step was making the results easy to access.

"By April 1, the American people will have 2010 Census data for more than 9 million census blocks and more than 74,000 census tracts across the country right at their fingertips," Groves said.

The launch of this revamped tool was timed for the release, starting in February, of local-level 2010 Census data on race, Hispanic origin and the voting-age population that state governments use to redraw the boundaries of their congressional and state legislative districts. Eventually, it will also be the primary means of accessing data from other major data sets, such as the American Community Survey, the economic census and population estimates.

Users should note that American Community Survey, 2007 Economic Census and other economic survey data are not in the new version of American FactFinder at the present. These data sets can be accessed from the American FactFinder homepage and will be loaded to the new American FactFinder during the coming year.

The Census Bureau plans to run the new and old versions of American FactFinder in parallel until fall 2011. You can access 2009 American Community Survey and 2007 Economic Census data from the old system until the conversion has been made.

Among the enhanced features and functions of the new version are:

-- A more robust, powerful search engine, making searches for statistics simpler and more topic-driven. Users can select predefined topics, geographies, population groups or industry codes and then quickly obtain search results, including tables to view or download.

-- Enhanced table manipulation features, allowing users to quickly modify a table, permitting them to show or hide rows or columns, collapse or expand groups of data in the table, rearrange the rows and columns, sort rows in ascending and descending order, and filter rows of a table.

-- Advanced mapping capabilities, permitting users to see geographic patterns in the data by viewing the data on a map, manipulating the map with a zoom tool and personalizing the map by changing colors, displaying boundaries and features, and adding points or text to the map.

-- Enhanced address search functions, allowing users to enter a street address and see all the data available for that area.

NEW American FactFinder available in January 2011

American FactFinder is the primary tool for accessing data on the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey, Population Estimates and eventually the Economic Census.

This link will help you navigate the new version of the American FactFinder page on the Census website. Please take some time to become familiar with the site before it goes live in January 2011.

1990 Census Block Data

Because I was curious, I wrote to Census, and got this reply:

Data from the 1990 census at the block level are available from 1990 Summary Tape File 1B (Tape or CD-ROM). You can contact your local State Data Center (http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/) for assistance or purchase the tape or CD-ROM from our Customer Services Center. Their telephone number is 301-763-4636.

We are in the process of decommissioning the e-mail address . Please submit future request to our "Ask Questions" link at http://www.census.gov. From the center of our web site, select the radio button "FAQs" and then go over to the right and click on the "GO" button. Select "Ask A Question." If you forget your password, please contact the Customer Services Center on 301-763-4636.

Again, we appreciate your interest in our data.

So, no, 1990 block data is NOT available from American Factfinder. 1990 block group data, yes; 2000 block data, yes.

Fun with Numbers: 9/12/07 edition

I went to the ABC News website to see all the stories of interest that were published on September 12. Some, but not all, were generated by the release of new American Factfinder data released on that date.

Life Expectancy of Americans Climbs to 78 Years, Longest in U.S. History, Government Says.

The number of deaths in the United States rose in 2005 after a sharp decline the year earlier.

Housing Costs Devour a Larger Part of Americans' Income, Forcing Cuts Elsewhere

California lawmakers once again have failed to agree on legislation that would strip them of the powerful role of drawing the state's legislative and congressional districts.
***
Hispanic Business' take on the increasing number of Mexicans.

POP Clock Fun

OK, I’m curious: WHY did Census have on the American FactFfinder page:

U.S. Population Clock
10:59 am EST Jan 7, 2005
295,203,830
at 12:55 pm EDT on August 23, 2007?

A minute later, it was all corrected:
U.S. Population Clock
16:56 GMT (EST+5) Aug 23, 2007
302,679,004

Geo within Geo

At the joint SDC Affiliate/Dept. of Labor session last year, I mentioned Geo within Geo on the Census Web Page, American Factfinder. After the session, about a half dozen people noted that they had no idea what I was talking about.

If you go to the Detailed Tables or Quick Tables, the tab on the right is Geo within Geo. You can find all the places within a county, or all the block groups in a place, or any of those designations that don't come up naturally (states in the country, counties in the state, county subdivisions in the county).

Beats the heck out of trying to find all the places in Westchester County on a map, which I once tried to do.