Research Guides: Census: Home

About Census

The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution and takes place every 10 years. The data collected by the decennial census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities. The 2010 Census represented the most massive participation movement ever witnessed in our country. Census 2020 is nearing.

The Census Bureau's mission is to serve as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy.

Source:Census Bureau

Census 2020
Census 2020 - The 2020 Census counts every person living in the 50 states, District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories.
Census.gov
The Census Bureau's mission is to serve as the nation’s leading provider of quality data about its people and economy.
2020 Census Research, Operational Plans, and Oversight

Key Sites

American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year -- giving communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $400 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.
Census.gov
The Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy. We honor privacy, protect confidentiality, share our expertise globally, and conduct our work openly.
Census Reporter
"Census Reporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easier for journalists and other data users to write stories and grants using statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Place profiles and comparison pages provide a friendly interface for navigating data, including visualizations for a more useful first look. Census Reporter offers tools for data comparison and makes it easy to create exports for further analysis in tabular or GIS formats."
Hathitrust - Census Documents
"HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world...Federal documents [including historic Census documents] are a significant portion of the overall HathiTrust collection."
PolicyMap - Dig Deeper
"From data layers to Reports to Uploading and Downloading Data to Widgets, PolicyMap offers many ways to interact with data."
ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S.*
"The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political and economic conditions of the United States."
Social Explorer
Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. The easy-to-use web interface lets users create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change. In addition to being a comprehensive data resource, Social Explorer also offers features and tools to meet the needs of both demography experts and novices...
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Key content

Provides easy access to current and historical demographic data:
Including over 40 billion data elements, 200,000 variables and more than 18,000 interactive maps from 1790 to 2010.
The entire US Census from 1790 to 2000, plus the first 2010 census data release.
All annual updates from the American Community Survey.
InfoGroup data on religious congregations for the United States for 2009, including maps for counties, and special census areas, as well as point maps of the actual congregation locations (to be updated yearly).
The Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) from 1980 to 2000. (To be updated in 2012.)
Carbon Emissions Data for 2002 from the Vulcan Project.
Creates thematic and interactive maps that make it easy to visually explore all historical and modern US census data across the centuries and even down to street level detail where available.
Creates reports at all geographic levels including the state, county, census tract, block group, zip code and census place (where the data exist).
U.S. and World Population Clock
"The U.S. population clock is based on a series of short-term projections for the resident population of the United States. This includes people whose usual residence is in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These projections do not include members of the Armed Forces overseas, their dependents, or other U.S. citizens residing outside the United States."

Statistical Abstracts

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Online Edition*
The ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political and economic conditions of the United States.
Statistical Abstracts Series (Census)
The U.S. Census Bureau terminated the collection of data for the Statistical Compendia program effective October 1, 2011. The Statistical Compendia program is comprised of the Statistical Abstract of the United States and its supplemental products—the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book and the County and City Data Book. To access the most current data, please refer to the organizations cited in the source notes for each table of the Statistical Abstract.

Statistical Abstract data present here ranges from our most recent edition to the historical abstracts compiled throughout the decades. Some of the data were scanned as an effort to make historical abstract information available to the public. The display of data will continue as historical records become available.

Alternative Census Tools

Census Reporter
"Census Reporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easier for journalists to write stories using information from the U.S. Census bureau. Place profiles and comparison pages provide a friendly interface for navigating data, including visualizations for a more useful first look." The American Community Survey (ACS) is the Census Reporter's data source.
PolicyMap
"From data layers to Reports to Uploading and Downloading Data to Widgets, PolicyMap offers many ways to interact with data."
SimplyAnalytics*
"SimplyAnalytics is a web-based mapping application that lets users quickly create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using demographic, census, business, and marketing data for the United States."
Social Explorer*
"Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to current and historical census data and demographic information. The interface lets users create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change..."