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U.S. Census Data for Research

The Census is a publicly available wealth of census, survey, and increasingly administrative data spanning several topics. This guide focuses on the 2020 decennial census and other widely used Census Bureau products including the American Community Survey

Geographies

Census Geographies are the geographic boundaries in which Census reports data. The Glossary of Census Geographies is a good reference for understanding what each geography term means.

Chart shows nation containing Zip Code Tabulation Areas, Urban areas, Metropolitan and Micropolitan areas, and Regions. Regions contains divisions, which contains states, which contains counties, which contains census tracts, which contains block groups.

Pictured: Graphic illustration of the basic Census geographies and their relationships
U.S. Government, Public Domain, via census.gov

The Historical Census section of the LibGuide contains more information on accessing historic Census geographies, as well as crosswalking between them.

Census Geography Mapping Files

If creating your own maps of Census data, you may need Census geography mapping files. The resources below contain information on accessing GIS Census data.

 

An illustrated tiger walking over geographies in the United States

Illustration of the TIGER shapefiles

U.S. Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Glossary of Census Terms

If you have questions about specific Census terms, visit the Census Glossary page to search for the term you would like defined. The Census Glossary can help define information about specific Census variables. For example, the Census Glossary can be used to understand how the Census defines the difference between a "Household" and a "Family household".