ACS Data Users Group

I am looking for the population density (e.g. persons per square mile) over all US census tracts. Would anyone be able to point me to a link to find this? I have spent many hours looking through the ACS and Census sites and am unable to find this data.

I alternatively would be able to compute population density by getting population count and area for all census tracts but am finding it hard to get the latter at the census tract level. Thanks!

You can get area for census tracts from the Census TIGER site: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html (Unfortunately, tracts are only downloadable by state, so you'll have to have to download a bunch of files.)

PolicyMap has population density at the tract level, though you need to be a subscriber to download the data (though you may have access through a university if you're affiliated): https://plcy.mp/xDLxtjG

whoops, forgot you can't reply to this board via email...

IMHO both Bernie's and Joe's solutions are an overkill. You can get the land area and population count variables in the Census Planning Database -- https://www.census.gov/topics/research/guidance/planning-databases.html, the tract level data are 60Mb in one file for all states. (Where do you think Policy Map got their data from?? ;) )

This link and associated dataset are great - thank you for sharing!

That was super useful Stas, thanks.

I managed to get the population density at the tract level for 2010 Census thanks to your guidance, however downloading the Census Planing Database for the 2000 census, doesn't allow to get the population density estimates (missing the area land variable) and I also need to get that info.

I've been spending some hours looking for it, but cannot find a simple method to do so. Any ideas?

acsdatacommunity.prb.org/.../geocorr2000.zip

Here's a file with 2000 census tracts and their land areas, if it helps

That's fantastic Glenn. Thanks very much. Just one more thing, since I need the data for a research paper, I need to get the source of the data. Could you pass me a link to the source?

I used our MCDC Geocorr 2000 application to generate this list. The app is at https://mcdc.missouri.edu/applications/geocorr2000.html. Source geography is entire universe; target geography is 2000 tracts; weighting variable is land area. The full request URL is very long, since it contains all the states:

https://mcdc.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/broker?_PROGRAM=apps.geocorr2000.sas&_SERVICE=MCDC_long&_debug=0&state=Mo29&state=Al01&state=Ak02&state=Az04&state=Ar05&state=Ca06&state=Co08&state=Ct09&state=De10&state=Dc11&state=Fl12&state=Ga13&state=Hi15&state=Id16&state=Il17&state=In18&state=Ia19&state=Ks20&state=Ky21&state=La22&state=Me23&state=Md24&state=Ma25&state=Mi26&state=Mn27&state=Ms28&state=Mt30&state=Ne31&state=Nv32&state=Nh33&state=Nj34&state=Nm35&state=Ny36&state=Nc37&state=Nd38&state=Oh39&state=Ok40&state=Or41&state=Pa42&state=Ri44&state=Sc45&state=Sd46&state=Tn47&state=Tx48&state=Ut49&state=Vt50&state=Va51&state=Wa53&state=Wv54&state=Wi55&state=Wy56&g1_=_us_&g2_=tract&wtvar=LandSQMI&nozerob=1&title=&csvout=1&namoptf=b&lstfmt=html&namoptr=b&oropt=&counties=&metros=&uaucs=&places=&latitude=&longitude=&locname=&distance=&kiloms=0&nrings=&r1=&r2=&r3=&r4=&r5=&r6=&r7=&r8=&r9=&r10=&lathi=&latlo=&longhi=&longlo=

Suggested citation: Missouri Census Data Center. (2020). Geocorr 2000 [dataset application]. Available from mcdc.missouri.edu/.../geocorr2000.html.

This is awesome. Thanks very much again Glenn.