Census 2010: Not Your Grandmother’s Census

By Kathy Kelly, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Photo by Chris Zammarelli, NOAA

Census 2010: Not Your Grandmother's Census discussed the differences between the upcoming census and past censuses, and the American Community Survey (ACS), which has replaced the long form of the decennial census.  The session, which was moderated by Elana Broch, an Assistant Population Research Librarian at Princeton University, also reviewed geographic aspects of the census, and the implications of geographic changes for people who use census products.

Dan Weinberg, assistant director for Decennial Census Programs at the U.S. Census Bureau, gave an overview of key operations differences of the 2010 census from the 2000 census, such as the 2010’s short-form only nature, its local update of census addresses, the use of bilingual questionnaires, and the introduction of quality assurance operations into the enumerators’ work.  He also noted a new version of American FactFinder will appear soon, with enhanced search, thematic mapping, and data manipulation features.

Photo by Chris Zammarelli, NOAA

Mike Ratcliffe, chief of Geographic Standards and Criteria Branch of the Geographic Division of the Census Bureau, discussed geographic areas and programs for the 2010 census.  He discussed differences from previous censuses, including an increased reliance on digital and electronic submissions for geographic area updates, new technologies and database structures for geographic area definitions, and changes to geographic entity codes (from FIPS to ANSI codes).

Deborah Griffin, a special assistant to the chief of the American Community Service (ACS) office at the Census Bureau, discussed what users need to know to transition from use of census long-form data to use of the ACS.  She discussed key differences between Census 2000 and ACS, noting the latter provides a continuous stream of updated information yearly, including both single year and multi-year estimates.  She noted some new content in the ACS includes questions about health insurance coverage, marital history, veteran’s service disability rating, and field of bachelor’s degree.

Constance Citro, director of communications of the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies (CNSTAT), gave a perspective on what special libraries need to know to help users best use the ACS and the 2010 Census.  She noted that CNSTAT has many useful reports on various censuses.  She also discussed some challenges of the ACS, including larger sampling errors for smaller areas, as well as ACS benefits, such as the ability to show statistically significant changes in the country promptly.  She noted a key role for librarians will be helping users navigate multiple estimates being released for various time periods during the 2010 census period.

Census 2010: Not Your Grandmother’s Census was presented by the Social Science Division, Geography and Map Section and co-sponsored by the Government Information Division, the Advertising and Marketing Division, and the News Division.  It was sponsored by LexisNexis, Geographic Research, Inc., and Bernan Press.