Census Home
Data by Source
Data by Subject
Tools
Tools Overview
Rotch Library
MIT GIS lab
Social Science Data Services
Government Documents at MIT
Geolytics
Social Explorer
MIT Census Tool in ArcGIS
Census Website
ICPSR
Mapping Tools
Simple to use
Easy to bring maps into GIS system.
Simple online mapping interface
Simple tool inside ArcGIS
Limited pre-set web tools in American Factfinder
Prior GIS knowledge required to join data.
None
Data available - format types
Table, Shapefile, MapInfo
Table, (maps cannot be downloaded)
Table, shapefile, any format built into ArcGIS
Table, shapefile (no tools to help join the numeric and spatial data for you)
Table (ASCII, sometimes SAS or Stata)
Data available - geography
USA
Massachusetts, New York, and Louisiana
Data available – geographic detail
National - Census Block & Zip Code (ZCTA)
National - Tract
County – Census Block & Zip Code (ZCTA)
All Census Boundary Types
National - Census Block and Zip Code (ZCTA) (varies by study)
Data available – dates/time
1970- present [1]
1790- present
2000
Many years
Data available -
Population and Housing Decennial Census, Surveys, Estimates, Projections, Consumer Expenditures
Population and Housing Decennial Census, American Community Surveys
Census 2000, Summary File 1 (Short Form) and Summary File 3 (Long Form)
Population and Housing Decennial census, American Community Surveys, Economic Census, and data from many other surveys
Tools for Demographic Comparisons Over Time
access
Available on 1 machine in GIS lab
Online tool
MIT created tool that runs on ArcGIS software
Online web pages
Online repository
[1] A. Neighborhood Change Database makes it easy to map and compare data from 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 census (tract level only) B. 1980 data in 2000 boundaries C. 1990 data in 2000 boundaries (more geo variables)
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