Using CensusCD+Maps

Introduction: CensusCD+Maps is a unique software package which combines a large amount of demographic statistics with the power to select, map, and export the data. This one CD-ROM is the most complete source for detailed information about the people, housing, and economy of the United States.

The Data on CensusCD+Maps provides details about the population and housing of the United States. It has demographic information down to the neighborhood level (block groups) from the most recent US 1990 Census (STF3 A,B,C and D), along with more current estimates (1997) and projections (2002). It also has estimates and projections of consumer spending at the neighborhood level. CensusCD+Maps combines this rich set of demographic data with statistics going back to 1969 on Agriculture, Banking, Births & Deaths, Building, Crime, Employment, Federal Spending, Industry Earnings, Local Government, Marriages and Divorces, Payrolls, Personal Income, Retail Businesses, and Service Businesses for every county in the US. GeoLytics has even added the historical population counts by county back to 1790.

The data: CensusCD+Maps 2.0 is a single CD-Rom with almost all of the 1990 Census data plus more current demographic data (1997 estimates and 2002 projections), a rich set of US County statistics, complete geographic boundaries for 15 levels, and integrated data mapping software.

CensusCD+Maps combines the following Data and Software on one CD-ROM.

* 1997 Estimates and 2002 Projections (130 variables) for 5 levels of geography

* 1997/2002 Consumer Expenditure Data. (64 variables) for 5 levels of geography

* 1990 US Census Data ( 3,400 variables) for 16 levels of geography

* County Time Series Data (3000 variables) for Crime, Industry, Federal spending and much more.

* Historical Population from 1790 to 1990 by county.

* Boundaries for all geographies.

This handout covers the basics only, and the database is fairly sophisticated. Please ask for the "Quick Start Guide" at the Reference Desk or view the Introduction and "Getting Started" under Help. Help is also quite helpful! Geolytics also has a website for information on this product at www.geolytics.com.

At the top of the screen you have pull-down written menus and then the "picture buttons" which basically duplicate the menu options. The bar at the bottom of the screen is your "micro help" and it helps direct you in setting up your report or map. As you complete each step the bar then "suggests" the next step for you, so check this bar if you're not sure what to do next.



THE BASICS:

These are the five basic steps you will use from the main menu:

1. Select Area to select the overall geographic area for which you want data.

2. Select Subarea to determine how area/data are broken into geographic units.

3. Select Counts to choose the demographic data of interest.

4. Select Run to create a report or map.

5. Select View to allow you to view the output:

(.RPT) - Summary report

(.DBF) - Dbase file

(.TXT) - List Report

(.REQ) - Request file

(.DOC) - Counts Description Report.

(.FOT) - Footnote report for County Time Series data.

GETTING SPECIFIC:

1. First select an Area. Under Area, your choices are Geographic (nation, region, division, states, counties, etc.); Neighborhood (type in a zip and street address); and Radius (radius by zip code, latitude/longitude, place, or address. If unsure of your area or if you're not finding exactly what you want to find under Area, you can hit Search and do a search for the area option you are looking for.

2. Choose a Subarea. Under Subarea, your choices are Summarize and Smaller Area. Summarize allows you to go immediately to run a report; Smaller Area allows you to set up a smaller geographic area.

3. After you've set up your Area and Subarea, set up your Counts. Counts are the information you are interested in; the specific demographic data that you want to know (social characteristic, income, poverty, education, ethnicity, etc.) Anything other than a snapshot report will require you to select at least one count. There are two ways to select counts: Tailored Counts or Standard Counts. (A file called "allstf3.txt" contains full descriptions of all STF3 demographic data (3770 variables) available in Tailored Counts. A file called allcnty.txt contains full descriptions of all county time series data (3100 variables) These files can be found on the root directory of the CensusCD+Maps CD- ROM.)

Tailored Counts allows a Summary Report, List Report, Delimited ASCII,or Dbase file to be defined by selecting up to 240 statistics from the more than 6600 available. The 6600 Counts are divided into 18 groups. The 18 groups are further divided into 300 Tables. There are three steps to selecting the Counts needed:

(1) First, tag the Count Groups from which Counts are needed. Each Count Group Tagged will cause the tables belonging to that Count Group to be displayed in the tables window.

(2) Second, tag the Tables from which counts are needed. Each Table Tagged will cause the counts fields belonging to that table to be displayed in the fields window. (3) Third, tag all the Count Fields needed. Tagging each Count Field will cause its field name to be displayed in the selected fields window (where you can see your own selections).

Counts can also be selected quickly using Standard Counts. Standard counts are fixed selections of counts. Selecting groups of standard counts is faster than selecting each demographic individually. Use the pull down list to select the Standard Counts desired.

4. Run - Once you've set up your Area and Subarea, the next step is running

the report. First, choose your format for your report: snapshot, list, summary, Dbase or Map are your options. Snapshot reports are formatted with the most requested facts and percentages about an area or subarea. The Summary report represents the counts for a single area, or for a summarized group of areas and it provides a complete description of the counts presented in it. List reports, ASCII files, Dbase files are available where the subarea is a smaller area, and Map produces a Dbase file then automatically maps it. Each line/record of output contain the counts

selected. Dbase files are for binary files written in an industrial standard tabular format that can be read by many software packages. The report run is done in a multitasking mode so that you can go on doing other tasks, while the system continues to access the database for the information you requested. You will be signaled when the report is completed by the display of the requested information in either the data viewer, or the map viewer.

HINT: If you're viewing a map and cannot understand all of the abbreviations for it, general a list_report for a single area (or a Sub-area/Summarize) to get the full descriptive name of the demographic variables. Also see the option for Counts Description Report.

View - Use the viewer to Viewer Print any report.

6. Options allows customization of the List reports, ASCII files, and Dbase files.

The Sort option allows you to rank order a selected count in either ascending or descending order. Descending order will be the default. The count you want to sort on must be tagged in the selected counts window of the Standard or the Tailored counts screen.

The Area Name selection places an area name description on each line of the report produced. For example, if the area selected is Nation, and the smaller subareas selected is County, then each line of the report will contain the County name in the Area Name column. Area Name is selected by default.

The Area Key places a geographic key for each smaller area, on each line of output. The area key allows the linking of information in each smaller area to outside data such as the geographic boundaries found in mapping software. You'd use this with other software.

The Area Latitude/Longitude will place the center point coordinates (centroid) for each smaller area on each line of output. The smaller area centroid will allow mapping software to display information for each smaller area without needing to have boundaries for that smaller area geography.

The Radius Bearing can be selected whenever a radial area is broken out by

smaller subareas. The Radius Bearing is a field that contains the distance and direction (bearing) of each smaller area from the Radius center.

Selecting total lines or average lines allows total and average counts to be placed as the last two lines of output. Some fields such as ratios and percentages will not have total or averages.

The Counts Description report documents details about the output such as:

its area, its subarea, a full description of the counts select, and any options selected.

7. The Map Viewer is a simple yet powerful tool designed to create thematic maps. It provides sophisticated features, like the ability to show both water and land boundaries, monitor areas under moving cursor or display virtual, computed columns. You must select smaller areas if you want to create a Dbase file, ASCII file, or a thematic map. If you need to view multiple layers, calculate distances or use various cartographic projections, you can use the Map Viewer`s export features to transport your map to a full-scale GIS package (such as ArcView (tm) or MapInfo (tm)). Save your work to a floppy disk, first, however, since the WSU Library does not have a full-scale GIS package at this time.

When viewing a report your control keys are:

Page Up: Back up one screen

Page Down: Advance one screen

Left Arrow: Move back one character (dbase 1 column)

Light Arrow: Move forward one character (dbase 1 column)

Up Arrow: Move up one line

Down Arrow: Advance one line

Home: Beginning of line

End: End of line

Ctrl Home: Top of listing

Ctrl End: Bottom of listing

The report being viewed can be searched by typing in the word, or phrase to be searched, in the search box located in the upper left hand corner of the view window. Once the search word is found, a next button will appear. Tagging this next button will start a search for the next occurrence of the search string. The search will ignore difference between upper and lower case. For example, when looking for the string -City-, either City, CITY, or city, will be considered to be matches.

8. Name Output Files allows you to name/save files. New request is to start a new series of reports. Open request opens existing, saved requests, and Save request saves the current request parameters.

9. A few terms: (See HELP for complete explanations).

MA = The general concept of a metropolitan area (MA) is one of a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that nucleus. Some MA's are defined around two or more nuclei.







c: Censusguide.wpd. 6/99 GG