Census data by Race and Age and/or Race of Family Characteristics
September 19, 2022 11:57 AM Subscribe
Says on tin: Where can I find 2020 data at a granular level (zip? census tract, block or block group?) either of the following: number of people of a certain race and split by age and/or race of householders by # of families with children? What table/data set provides this? Census site is confusing.
The more granular data (by census tract or zip) you are looking for about race & age is definitely available in American Community Survey (on the Census site), which happens more regularly than the census. I don't know about # of families with chlldren, although that seems likely to be in there.
Social Explorer is one of the easier tools to manipulate Census / ACS data. You can usually get a free account (or at least a trial). Check that site out and see if it helps you find what you are looking for.
posted by RajahKing at 1:28 PM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Social Explorer is one of the easier tools to manipulate Census / ACS data. You can usually get a free account (or at least a trial). Check that site out and see if it helps you find what you are looking for.
posted by RajahKing at 1:28 PM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: r_n has it right - you want the DHC product.
You can get race alone from the PL product: Link
You can get age x race from the American Community Survey products, but probably not for areas as small as you seem to want because ACS only goes out to ~1% of households. There is a different detailed table for each broad race category, for example tables B01001A through B01001I all count age by race: Link
RajahKing is right that ACS collects information about "children in household." There are several ways to slice this and it's not something I know a ton about but here's one example that comes with an income breakdown: Link
Since you said "Census site is confusing" (and you are right) I also want to point out the "Geos" button in the little bar of icons above the table in these links, which you can use to select geographic areas. Sorry if you already knew that. It looks like you can get ZCTAs and tracts in ACS, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get blocks.
posted by doubleozaphod at 1:44 PM on September 19, 2022
You can get race alone from the PL product: Link
You can get age x race from the American Community Survey products, but probably not for areas as small as you seem to want because ACS only goes out to ~1% of households. There is a different detailed table for each broad race category, for example tables B01001A through B01001I all count age by race: Link
RajahKing is right that ACS collects information about "children in household." There are several ways to slice this and it's not something I know a ton about but here's one example that comes with an income breakdown: Link
Since you said "Census site is confusing" (and you are right) I also want to point out the "Geos" button in the little bar of icons above the table in these links, which you can use to select geographic areas. Sorry if you already knew that. It looks like you can get ZCTAs and tracts in ACS, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get blocks.
posted by doubleozaphod at 1:44 PM on September 19, 2022
IPUMS is a great reference for ACS data and a lot of other data sources/surveys collected regularly in the US (and internationally): https://www.ipums.org/
posted by knownfossils at 2:30 PM on September 19, 2022
posted by knownfossils at 2:30 PM on September 19, 2022
Keep this in mind, census takers had to enter what answers they were given. My paternal uncle by marriage went from full blooded Cherokee in Oklahoma, to white in California, in the 1940s. People could talk through their doors to census takers.
posted by Oyéah at 6:58 PM on September 19, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 6:58 PM on September 19, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by restless_nomad at 1:18 PM on September 19, 2022