Not ready for prime time: zip codes and census tracts. Using census tract data from census 2000 January 2011

Transcription

1 Not ready for prime time: zip codes and census tracts. Using census tract data from census 2000 January 2011 One of the more compelling reasons to use summary tables is to get tabulations at small levels of geography, such as census tracts or zip codes. Neither of these geographies is available from the American Community Survey yet. However, we can walk through examples using the 2000 Census. Go to the portal for accessing data from American FactFinder: The more popular tabulations come from summary data, which include all the sample items (income, education, marital status, occupation, ancestry, etc.). This is what the ACS is now collecting. While these are useful if you are interested in a table for the Mexican population or the Black/Asian population, the examples we will examine will be for the total population.

2 As a note, many of the race-specific tables end up with no data for some geographies as there are many census tracts with no Black/Asians or too few Mexicans. This example we will do will allow one to look at vacancy status across census tracts in Cleveland, OH. The overall vacancy rate in the Cleveland PMSA in 2008 is 11.5 percent, but it is likely that there is a great deal of variation by census tract. Starting in 2010, researchers will be able to get census tract data on an annual basis. To start a geographic search, click on the geographies tab in the left navigation bar. An internal window should open showing all of the geography choices.

3 From within that window scroll down and expand the Summary Level choice by clicking on it. Of those listed choose 140 Census Tract. To the right of that window, tracts within a state listing will pop up. Scroll to the bottom of the window and choose page two to advance the listing. Tracts within Ohio will be in the middle of the page. Choose that box. Next click add at the bottom of window. Once you see 140-Census Tract added to your Geography Filter box you are ready to limit it to Cleveland Tracts. There is a search box at the top of the page. It is there that you type the area that you are interested in Cleveland Ohio. The result should show two tables listed concerning tracts. The first will include all partial or whole tracts in the Cleveland area. Choose that then click add at the bottom of the page. With that done you should see it echoed in the upper left hand corner. Now that you have narrowed it down to the area you are

4 interested in close the interior window. You should now see a smaller search box on the left side. It is in this box that you type the characteristic you are interested in. Vacancy will display six choices. SF3 is what you want to work with. Make that choice and click view. The table will display with every tract within Cleveland. It is at this point that you can download the data. Choose Download from the middle part of the window. Choose coma delimited (csv) for your download choice. Save the zip file to the desktop with a name that makes sense, e.g., Vacancy2000_Cleveland_censustracts.zip Click on zip file If you save the file with a csv extension, you can click on it and Excel will recognize it. However, that prevents you from identifying certain fields as text, which is relevant for mapping. Below is a file I created, which you can manipulate: There are 6 census tracts in the Cleveland metro area with vacancy rates of 40 percent or more and another 12 that range between 25 and 39 percent. All but one of these are in Cuyahoga county: Census Tract 1073, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 56.76% Census Tract 1131, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 47.48% Census Tract 1076, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 47.17% Census Tract 1144, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 46.63% Census Tract 1189, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 43.63% Census Tract 1037, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 43.35% Census Tract 1071, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 38.45% Census Tract 1078, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 33.17%

5 Census Tract 1138, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 30.24% Census Tract 1514, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 29.17% Census Tract 1097, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 28.20% Census Tract 1143, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 27.52% Census Tract 1133, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 27.05% Census Tract 1123, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 26.67% Census Tract 1148, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 26.30% Census Tract 1042, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 25.93% Census Tract 1082, Cuyahoga County, Ohio 25.48% Census Tract , Lorain County, Ohio 25.26% On the other end of the spectrum, over 400 of the census tracts in the metropolitan area have vacancy rates below 5 percent. Here s a map of the 2000 vacancy rates using data from Census 2000: Starting in 2010, we will be able to map communities at a detailed level, on an annual basis. One last note about vacancies, which is relevant to the American Community Survey. Recall that the ACS data are collected year round. This means that in areas of the country where there is seasonal housing, the vacancy rates may fall and/or the proportion of vacant houses that are seasonal houses may fall. This is because the seasonal residences are being lived in during some of the sample time period. Here s a map of vacancy rates for counties based on the 2000 Census.

6 Starting in 2010, we will be able to map communities at a detailed level, on an annual basis.

7 One last note about vacancies, which is relevant to the American Community Survey. Recall that the ACS data are collected year round. This means that in areas of the country where there is seasonal housing, the vacancy rates may fall and/or the proportion of vacant houses that are seasonal houses may fall. This is because the seasonal residences are being lived in during some of the sample time period. Here s a map of vacancy rates for counties based on the 2000 Census.