InfoGuides: EDUC 887: Neighborhood Geography and Education Policy: Find Data & Mapping Resources

U.S. Census Data

data.census.gov : Explore everything related to the U.S. Census information (Population and Housing and Economic Census). It is a new platform of the U.S. Census explorer (replaced American Factfinder in April, 2020). See the short guide on how to use this site. Click on "Geography" tab for "Census Hierarchy Diagrams" to understand Census Geography entities (Census blocks, Census Tracts, etc) and "Terms & Concepts" to understand the methods to collect information for each Census geography entities. See also the difference between Decennial Census (every 10 year survey) vs American Community Survey (on going survey since 2010).
Census Data Overview: A brief overview about Census data including summary files (STF1 or STF3).
ACS Guidance for Data Users: Covers topics and geography entities associated with 1 yr, 3yr or 5yr survey Estimates.
Census Quick Facts: Find your community demographic profile (a zipcode or a town more than 5000 populations).
Relationship Files (via the U.S. Census): Get the relationships between places in 2010 and places in 2000 or get the relationships between congressional districts and places.
HUD USPS ZipCode CrossWalk Files: Available for the 2010 Census Geographies. You can find which census tracts belong to which zipcode.
ARDA (Association of Religion Data Archive) GIS and Map tool: Allow you to get a community profile data up to a US Census Block Group Level.

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Access current and historical census and American Community Survey data plus U.S. public data on a variety of topics such as crime, health, education and more. Includes data from Canada, UK, and Eurostat. Create maps and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change.
SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
Enables users to quickly create professional-quality thematic maps and reports using demographic, business, and marketing data. Data includes Census (1980 - Present), American Community Survey, and both Simmons and MRI Consumer Survey Data. Users may create accounts to save their work. Access is for 5 concurrent users. For more information, see the SimplyAnalytics InfoGuide.

data.census.gov: infoguide provided by Digital Scholarship Center, the University Libraries, Mason
Social Explorer : Look for "Getting Started " Under Maps
SimplyAnalytics: Infoguide on SimplyAnalytics (via Mason) and see this tutorial also to delineate a neighborhood area with SA.

The guides above include citation examples for data and maps created from each tool.