5/2/2011 American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau)

A subtitle should be “Working with Census Data: BE CAREFUL!”

This morning, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission hosted a Census Data Workshop at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, MA. Laura Medrano represented the U.S. Census Bureau, and showed us how to access both Census 2010 data and American Community Survey data through the Census Bureau web site. For this demostration, we will examine Social Characteristics from the American Community Survey for Andover, MA.

Go to the Census Bureau Home Page, and click on the “American FactFinder” text:


You currently have both factfinder and factfinder2 available.
Click factfinder.census.gov
At the FactFinder screen, type Andover for City, select Massachusetts from the drop-down list, and click GO


Unfortunately, three listings appear:


We know that North Andover is a different city/town from Andover, so we can ignore it. But what is the difference between Andover CDP and Andover town, Essex County?
And is there any difference in the data?

Click the link for Andover CDP (CDP stands for Census Designated Place), and the Fact Sheet appears:

Print this page (or take a screen-shot), then go back to the Andover listings and select the link for Andover town, Essex County, and the Fact Sheet appears:

Well, you can see that there is a huge difference between the two listings!

Unfortunately, the Glossary is confusing (click on Glossary and find "Census designated place" and "Town").
Which means we must go to the map for clarification. Close the Glossary window.
On the left, click MAPS > Reference Maps


In the REFERENCE MAPS window, select Massachusetts from the State pull-down menu, and click GO. A Big Messy map appears:

If we zoom-in on Andover, and adjust the Boundaries being displayed, we see a pink Andover - Census Designated Place within the Town Boundary of Andover:


Which gets us back to our first line:

If you are Working with Census Data (“Andover, MA”): BE CAREFUL!

To download a 10-page expanded document (with extensive screenshots), click herehttp://www.dixonspatialconsulting.com/AmerCommSurvey.doc