Demographic Statistics

In the Census Bureau’s web site you can link to State & County data by clicking on QuickFacts which has business information at the national, state and county levels.

Once you select State and County QuickFacts, a map gives you the option of selecting a State or “View more USA QuickFacts”. For example, let’s take a look at the entire country by selecting “View more USA QuickFacts”, which generates a listing of People, Business and Geography QuickFacts.

At the top of the page you see People QuickFacts which gives you basic demographic data for the United States. Scroll down to the middle of the page to see Business and Geography QuickFacts.

Notice that you have data on Business and Geography for the United States. If you want data for a particular state, go to the top of the page and find the state in the pull-down menu.

At the top of the page, from the pull-down menu we select Arizona.  The page format is the same, so we will see the same listing of People, Business and Geography QuickFacts but for the state of Arizona. The only difference is that on the Arizona page, we have the option to “Browse data sets for Arizona”.

When we click on “Browse more data sets for Arizona” we get all the datasets available for People, Business and Geography for Arizona in greater detail.

The Arizona QuickLinks page is divided into four sections, People, Business, Geography and Other QuickLinks. Right now we are interested in the “General Demographic Characteristics” under People QuickLinks. Click on that.

Notice that you have gone from QuickFacts to the American FactFinder and the table for the “General Demographic Characteristics” is displayed. If you are interested in saving this as an Excel file, we move the cursor to “Print/Download” on the menu bar and click “Download”.

We then select the “Comma Delimited Format” and click “OK”.

Once we save the table, we can open it as an Excel file.  This file will contain all the items tied to the “General Demographic Characteristics” for the State of Arizona, including total population, sex and age, Hispanic or Latino, race, and housing occupancy.

Now we go back to the table in American FactFinder and click on “Related Items”.

On the related items menu box, set the “Show me” box to “Thematic Maps”, and the “about” box to “Hispanic or Latino (including Types of Hispanics)”, then click on “Go”.

Under the “Show me” and “about” boxes will appear a listing of Thematic Maps. Let’s look at the first one, “TM-PL003H”, which is “Percent of Persons Who Are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 2000”, click on that.

This is the Thematic map for Arizona with the percent of persons who are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) for 2000. The map displays in color the percent of Hispanics. By clicking on a county, we get specific information about that county. Let’s click on the lower right hand corner county.

We see that 30.7 % of persons in Cochise County are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) and a red arrow points to Cochise County.

We noticed that QuickFacts put us into Ameican FactFinder, but American FactFinder is another tool available in the Census Bureau’s web page. American FactFinder allows you to build a table to your specifications. It contains population, housing, economic, and geographic data.  Its Thematic Maps plot statistical data to illustrate facts about specific areas by using colors or patterns. Click on American FactFinder.

This is the American FactFinder home page. We want information about the population in the Allegany Reservation in NY.  There are various ways of getting the data. The easiest way is to click on “American Indian and Alaskan Native data and links”.

This is the American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) Data and Links page. Scroll down the page to where you will find,”Reservations and other AIAN areas”.

Under Reservations and other AIAN areas, click on “Tables and Maps”

Pick the information you want from the tables available, DP-1 through DP-4. To the right of each table you can see the variables that it contains. We want DP-1. Select DP-1 and scroll down the page to the American Native/Alaskan Area pull down menu.

Notice that there is a “Find” box. You type in “allegany” and click on the “Find” button and it highlights “Allegany Reservation, N.Y.” on the “American Indian/Alaska Native Areas” menu. All you have to do is click “Go”.

The table we built contains data about total population by age and gender; race breakdown; Hispanic or Latino data; household information; housing occupancy and tenure for the Allegany Reservation in New York.

To create our Excel file, we move the cursor to “Print/Download” on the menu bar and click “Download”.

We then select the “Comma Delimited Format” and click “OK”.

Once we save the table, we can open it as an Excel file.  This file will contain all the items tied to the “General Demographic Characteristics” for the Allegany Reservation, including total population, sex and age, race, Hispanic or Latino and housing occupancy.

Where to go for more help?

Help with statistics is available via telephone, e-mail, or mail:

Call 301-763-INFO

“Ask the Experts” website http://www.census.gov/main/www/ask.html connects you to several sources of information.

Find services and resources where you can get all the help you need in using the Census Bureau’s products and data by going to http://www.census.gov/main/contacts.html

Write to Customer Services, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233-0800

Help regarding starting or expanding your business is available at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) http://www.sba.gov/. You can also contact the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800-8-ASK-SBA (1- 800-827-5722)