ACS Data Users Group

The new 2020 population numbers are out and I am seeing different numbers/percentages from news articles than what I have from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2010-2020/metro/totals/ . To be on the safe side do I compare CENSUS2010POP to POPESTIMATE042020 or POPESTIMATE2020 to get the correct percentage growth?

Thanks in advance.

Robin

I think those are estimates and the new numbers are in the PL94 release https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/rdo/summary-files.html

which can be compared to pl94 data from 2010 — i downloaded from NHGIS https://www.nhgis.org

That explains it - thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I am not proficient in PUMS (I need to be). Can I get the 2020 census population via excel or csv format?

They say more user-friendly files are due in early September -- you can use these, they're not microdata, just text files that need to be joined together and coded field names need to be interpreted, there's SAS and R code to do that in the Census page, but I like this R library from somebody at Harvard github.com/.../PL94171

Thank you so much! You've been a huge help to me.

NHGIS is part of the IPUMS family of websites, but it's not "PUMS". NHGIS provides summary tables and GIS shapefiles. As an NHGIS project manager, I'm biased, but I'd like to say it's the most user-friendly source of the 2020 census data currently available!

On NHGIS, you can select any combination of the six tables from the redistricting data release and for any of the 97 geographic summary levels (states, counties, places, tracts, blocks, etc.) NHGIS doesn't display the data within the website. Instead, the system creates custom data files that you can download and open in Excel or other programs.

Most NHGIS files have nationwide coverage, so you can't get data for, say, just one city; instead you'd get data for all cities, and within that file, you could find the data for whichever city interests you. But NHGIS does support state-specific files for blocks and block group data.

wow so you have 2020 pl94 data already? That's a huge help, definitely more user friendly than all the text files!

Yes, released last week! We plan to announce it in an email to our users very soon.

Jonathan, I just downloaded the county data. Thanks for putting this together - time saver for me. Does IPUMS also have the data for CBSA (MSA) level?

All US CBSAs: mcdc.missouri.edu/.../broker

Yes, CBSA is one of the 97 summary levels in the redistricting data, and we have all of those on IPUMS NHGIS. If you have questions about how to find what you're looking for, feel free to email us at nhgis@umn.edu or post a question on the IPUMS Forum.

If you need data for a specific state and would prefer not to get a huge file for all blocks in the USA, MCDC's collection has it. https://mcdc.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/uexplore?/data/pl942020

Filter on summary level = 750 for blocks

[quote userid="3406" url="~/discussion-forum/f/forum/795/quick-census-data-question/1970#1970"]early September[/quote]

Late September, according to the Bureau

I stand corrected! "By September 30" it says here, thanks Glenn "By September 30, the Census Bureau will make the same data available online in a more user-friendly format on data.census.gov." although is anything really user friendly on data.census.gov? I hope so!

www.census.gov/.../upcoming-release-of-2020-census-redistricting-data-paint-clearer-portrait-of-america.html

The Census Bureau has told us it will announce next week a more specific date for release of the user-friendly (smile) P.L. 94-171 files. I think the release likely will be before September 30.

MCDC also has the data, although not necessarily "user-friendly".

mcdc.missouri.edu/.../uexplore

I think I might attempt downloading the files in MS Access or wait (per Tim) on the user-friendly files in September which is just around the corner.

Thanks everyone!

You can also get easily downloadable files for all counties in the US, all places, all tracts, and all county subdivisions from Big Local News: https://biglocalnews.org/#/open_projects They have data for 2020 and 2010.

Thank you Rebecca!

So many people have been asking me about it that I've made a 2020 block population file for the whole USA. In the interests of keeping the file sizes reasonable, these include population and HU totals only (not race / ethnicity), and only blocks (sumlevel 750).

CSV format: https://mcdc.missouri.edu/data/pl942020/USA_block_totals.csv

SAS dataset: https://mcdc.missouri.edu/data/pl942020/usa_block_totals.sas7bdat

FYI: Esri's Living Atlas Policy Maps team (aka my team, full disclosure!) also released layers for block, block group, tract, county, and state earlier today. Here's our announcement blog: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/state-government/pl-94-171-2020/.

Thank you Diana! Love Esri's maps!