ACS Data Users Group

Hello,

I am in a doctoral sociology program and I have a question about which tables would be the best places to find the data for which I am looking. I'm a new user of the ACS, and I've had great difficulty searching on my own, so any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I am looking for data at the ZIP code level from specific counties in Illinois with indicators of:

1. size of the Hispanic/Latino population
2. Change over time to the Hispanic/Latino population over a 5 year span
3. Earnings by race/ethnicity
4. Employment by race/ethnicity

Thank you and please let me know if I can clarify this further.

Hi Nick,

Happy to help. Before guiding you to the right ACS tables, just a couple notes: First, ACS doesn't have data on ZIP Codes, but does have data on ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs), which are made to approximate ZIP Codes, but are not the same. I wrote about this here: www.policymap.com/.../.

Second, small-area data (like for ZCTAs) are calculated as 5-year estimates (in order to accumulate enough survey results to get a decent estimate). So your change-over time calculation will look something like change from the period of 2008-2012 to 2013-2017.

You can find the data you're looking for at the Census Factfinder, which has a reasonable search function. Here, for example, is a link to the Hispanic/Latino population: factfinder.census.gov/.../B03002. You can add in a filter for your desired ZCTA and choose different years.

I also should mention PolicyMap (where I work), which has some of these indicators available. If your university subscribes, you can also download spreadsheets. Here, for example, is Hispanic/Latino population for ZCTAs in Illinois: https://plcy.mp/vZgvqkx. Feel free to reach out offline with any questions about this (I don't want to shill too much on the message board).