Census Data Tutorial For Beginners

Census Data Simplified

US Census data is vast and complicated.
The most useful parts can be very simple.
By learning just a few concepts you can start doing extremely useful analysis

Concepts we'll learn

What is a census block group?
How is simple census metrics organized for census block groups?
How to do a very simple demographic analysis using census data at block group level?

A simple tutorial

This map shows census block groups within 2 miles Phoenix, AZ city center. It shows income for each census block group in a color coded heatmap. Reds-> low income. Greens High income.

Census Block Groups

A census block group is a geographic area used by the United States Census Bureau for the purpose of presenting statistical data. It's a smaller subdivision within a census tract, which is itself a geographic area defined by the Census Bureau for analyzing populations. Block groups typically contain between 600 and 3,000 people, with an optimal size of 1,500 people. They are used to provide more detailed demographic information than larger geographic units like census tracts or counties. Block groups are often used for planning, research, and analysis purposes by governments, businesses, and researchers.

Census Block Group Data

Here we are looking at data for 5 census block groups. These are block groups within 1 mile of Phoenix, AZ city center

Each census block group has an id. Column A
Latitude and longitude are map coordinates for locating and mapping the CBG. Column B and C.
Distance_1 is the distance in miles from Phoenix, AZ city center. We show how to calculate distance for other location in another tutorial. Column D.
income, age, population are the census metric estimates. This is what you are trying to get at for an area. Columns E, F, and G

Your first demographic analysis

Here we are looking at data for 12 census block groups. These are block groups within 1 mile of Phoenix, AZ city center

We take the average of the income column and we can conclude that average income within 1 miles of Phoenix, AZ city center is around $39K
We take the average of the agecolumn and we can conclude that average age within 1 miles of Phoenix, AZ city center is around 36 years.
We take the average of the income column and we can conclude that total population within 1 miles of Phoenix, AZ city center is around 5300 people.

That was pretty simple wasn't it?

What's next?

Even though this was a very simple analysis we still got some usefull results that can used for some business decisions.

We can compare age and income with another area and decide which one fits our customer profile better?

Are we trying to serve the right people?

In other tutorials we show how to perform this analysis for different areas

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