About Demographic Census Data

The 2000 U.S. Census of Population and Housing is the most valuable data resource available to business, government, and education. It is a detailed breakdown of US demographics that allows you to make accurate and informed decisions based on diverse demographic and economic information. There are two primary sets of Census data available: 

• Summary File 1 (SF 1): The 100-percent data, compiled from the questions asked of all people (The Short Form) and about every housing unit, such as sex, age, race, Hispanic or Latino, household relationship, and tenure
• Summary File 3 (SF 3): The sample data, based on questions asked of about one household in six (The Long Form), such as income, education, occupation, and mode of travel to work

SF 1 is tabulated down to the block level, and has 286 tables in 8113 fields for census tracts and above, and 227 tables (3060 fields) for block groups and blocks. SF 3 is even bigger, with 405 tables (16,520 fields) for census tracts and above, and 281 tables (5558 fields) for block groups. There are also diverse summary levels, with the number of areas for each ranging from states (50 plus DC and territories) to blocks (over eight million).

Census Profiles from SF 1 AND SF 3
All of the summary levels that are included with TransCAD and Maptitude contain four demographic profiles (click on a profile to see a complete list of fields included with that profile):

• The Profile of General Demographic Characteristics, also called DP-1, contains 69 population and 25 housing variables. The variables describe sex, age, race, Hispanic or Latino household relationship, household type, group quarters population, housing occupancy, and housing tenure. Two variables (V51 and V59) duplicate other counts and have been left out of the original 96 variables in this profile.(From SF 1)
• The Profile of Selected Social Characteristics, also called DP-2, contains 99 population variables that describe school enrollment, educational attainment, marital status, grandparents as caregivers, veteran status, disability of the civilian noninstitutionalized population, residence, nativity and place of birth, region of birth of the foreign born, language spoken at home, and ancestry. Three variables (DP2046, DP2063, and DP2073) duplicate other counts and have been left out of the original 102 variables in this profile. (From SF 3)
• The Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics, also called DP-3, contains 107 population variables that describe employment status, commuting to work, occupation, industry, class of worker, income, and poverty status. (From SF 3)
• The Profile of Selected Housing Characteristics, also called DP-4, contains 97 housing variables that describe units in structure, year structure built, rooms, year householder moved into unit, vehicles available, house heating fuel, occupants per room, value, mortgage status and selected monthly owner costs, selected monthly owner costs as a percentage of household income, gross rent, and gross rent as a percentage of household income. Three variables (DP4001, DP4029, and DP4052) duplicate other counts and have been left out of the original 100 variables in this profile. (From SF 3)

These profiles are a useful subset of the 8113 variables available in Summary File (SF) 1, the 100-percent tabulations, and the 16,520 fields available in Summary File (SF) 3, the sample tabulations. If you need those more detailed data, they are available by state/territory for purchase from Caliper Corporation on the SF 1 Data CD and the SF 3 Data CD.The first profile, DP-1, is available for all summary levels. The other three profiles are available for all summary levels except blocks.

A fifth profile has been created by Caliper Corporation and is available for tracts and block groups on version 2 of the State Data CD.

• The Caliper Transportation Profile(TM) is a subset of the over 400 tables available in the tabulation of the sample questions in the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. The Transportation Profile is useful for transportation planning and analysis. It contains over 500 variables that describe workers, mode of transportation to work, travel time, time commute begins, size of carpool, vehicles available, age of population by sex, household size, family size, income, population in school, population over 65, housing unit value, and rent

About Profile Data Fields

Each field has an internal name, which is the Census Bureau's data dictionary reference name. The variables in the Profile of General Demographic Characteristics start with the letter "V" and have a two-digit sequence number, such as V04 or V95. The other three profiles have internal names based on their profile code ("DP2", "DP3" and "DP4" respectively) plus a three-digit sequence number, such as DP2012, DP3057, or DP4100.

Each field also has a descriptive name, which is the default name in a dataview. The balloon description of each field in a dataview, viewed by holding the cursor over the column heading, contains a full description of the field. For example, the field White has the following description: