Census 2020: What You Should Know
2020 Census Resources
As Census 2020 data is released, understanding the impacts on our local communities is important. There were many unprecedented challenges to a complete count this census and so responsible data use is even more important. This portal gives easy access to a variety of resources to help you understand the 2020 Census results.
Census Data in Our Community
As new data is released, D3 is analyzing it to understand changes in our community. These blog posts explain some of the work we’ve been doing! If you have questions about Census data in your community, please reach out to AskD3 and we’ll try to answer them.
Data Privacy in the 2020 Census
The first census responses were posted publicly in the town square for review. Since then, privacy has become increasingly protected by legal requirements. Click here to explore more about the history of privacy in the census. Today, the Census Bureau operates with a mandate to ensure people are both counted and protected from data breaches.
Balancing data privacy, the personal information that individuals report, with data utility, the ability for researchers to understand communities, is tricky. Read further about this with Urban Institute’s explanation of the theoretical and practical implications of these issues related to the 2020 Census.
Today, the Census Bureau is using differential privacy to protect individual data. While this causes some fuzziness in the data and we can’t know exactly how it impacts different demographics or communities, it does have a measurable component, called a privacy loss budget, that tells us exactly how much the data has been altered. Many experts consider this an improvement over the data swapping in previous rounds of the census because data swapping has no public-facing metrics.
Responsible Data Use
We love to advocate for smart and responsible use of data! Responsible Data Use requires being thoughtful about how data is presented and analyzed. Our responsible data series started with our first guide about how numbers on the same topic can convey different information. We’ve also explored examples of demonstrating margin of error and confidence intervals, and how they impact the accuracy of data taken from population samples. During the pandemic, we showed people how to understand data in a rapidly shifting environment.
Census 2020 had a number of changes that make it important to put all those tips into practice. For this particular release of Census data, we recommend* the following tips when using the data:
Use the largest possible Census geography
If you absolutely must use smaller geographical data (like blocks) combine as many together as possible
Be careful with smaller demographic groups in a region
Keep an eye out for data discrepancies resulting from the privacy-protection measures taken by the Bureau, especially at the block level
Some common ones noted by other researchers include:
- Occupied housing units but population count of 0
- All vacant housing units but a population count greater than zero
- Children under 18, but no adults in the population
- Blocks with a large number of people and few housing units, making the households appear unusually large
*Many thanks to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, & Budget for their help in developing our understanding of how to analyze Census 2020 data.
Standard Hierarcy of Census Geographic Entities
To learn more about the census spine, read our blog post 2020 Census: Defining Census Tracts and Boundary Changes
Census Background
Our work leading up to the 2020 Census provided blog posts on a wide variety of topics related to the workings of the census in general. They’re still relevant to helping understand the vast amount of time, energy, and planning that goes into executing a complete count.
2020 American Community Survey Data: Margin of Error Analysis
As we’ve covered previously, data collection in a pandemic can be challenging. Similar to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Census Bureau faced multiple challenges collecting data for the American Community Survey (ACS). This resulted in the Census Bureau not...
2020 Census: Who Gets Counted in the Prison Population?
The decennial census counts individual people in their primary residence, but what happens to people who are living in group settings, such as those individuals currently in prison? How do they get counted and included in the census? Where can you find the data? What...
Census 2020: What Questions Can Census Data Answer?
As we’ve discussed in our Census blog series, the decennial Census is a count of the number of people in the United States that’s taken every 10 years. And that count impacts state representation and local and state budgets for various federal assistance programs. ...
The Census’ Effect on State and Local Budgeting
This is the twelfth and final blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. If you’re interested in other subjects related to Census 2020, check out the list of all our blog posts about it at the end of this post. In 2016, the...
The Digital Divide and Census 2020
This is the eleventh blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. If you’re interested in other subjects related to Census 2020, check out the list of all our blog posts about it at the end of this post. The Decennial Census in...
Census 2010’s Hard to Count Outreach Efforts
This is the ninth blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance. If you’re interested in other subjects related to the census, check out the...
Redistricting and the Census
This is the seventh blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance. If you’re interested in other subjects related to Census 2020, check out...
Data Security and the Census
This is the sixth blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance. If you’re interested in other subjects related to Census 2020, check out...
How Does the Census Use Local Administrative Data?
This is the fifth blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance or the first post introducing the census budget. If you’re interested in...
Census 2020 Cost-Saving Innovations
This is the fourth blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the US Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance or the first post introducing the census budget. If you’re interested in...
2020 Census Budget Challenges
This is the third blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the U.S. Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance or the second post introducing the census budget.History of Data Driven...
Introduction to the US Census Budget
This is the second blog post in an in-depth series exploring the history and future of the U.S. Census. Explore our first post introducing readers to the history of the census and its importance. Introduction to the US Census Budget Few people doubt the importance of...
Additional Resources
The 2020 Census data is progressively being released through 2022. Watch this space for more resources about the 2020 Census.
Census 2020 Prep
Leading up to the Census, D3 compiled Complete Count resources with the support of the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan. You can explore those resources on the archived portal.
Disclosure Avoidance for the 2020 Census: An Introduction
In this handbook, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Disclosure Avoidance System is described in the context of the 2020 Census Redistricting Data Summary File because those are the first 2020 Census data protected using the new confidentiality procedures.
Census Mapper
See how the population and racial makeup of each state, county, and census tract has changed.
Census Bureau Mailing List
For regular updates about Census data releases, sign up for the Census Bureau’s mailing list.
2010 – 2020 Census Tract Changes Map
Census tracts get updated before the census. When making comparisons between 2020 and 2010 census data it’s important to consider how the tracts have changed.
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