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Frequently Asked Questions About Social Explorer
Frequently Asked Questions
Social Explorer is a web based demography research and learning
tool.
Social Explorer allows users to visually analyze and understand the demography of any part of the United States with access to the following:
Social Explorer is growing! We are continuously adding data to Social Explorer, with the goal of having all historical and current census data available for easy navigation, extraction and viewing to registered users and a subset for public use.
2. What is the
difference between the Public and Registered
The public version is a free, but scaled down, version of Social Explorer. Registered users have access to a much larger pool of data and more tools. For a complete list of available data please click here. Registered users will soon have access to special analytical tools as well. For more information about registering please click here. Data availability list is available here.
3. What is the difference between Social Explorer and Census' American Fact Finder tool? Social Explorer differs in a number of ways:
Coming soon to Social Explorer:
The Census Bureau releases demographic data about the country at a variety of different geographic levels to meet the needs of a range of different research questions. Some of these geographies, such as states, Congressional districts, or zip codes, are familiar to most users of the data, while others, such as census tracts and block groups, are specialized divisions created by the government specifically for the purposes of census enumeration. A census tract is a small statistical subdivision of a county established by the Census Bureau and designed to be homogenous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. Tracts usually have between 2,500 and 8,000 residents, and in urban areas, they usually correspond to familiar neighborhoods. County and tract maps in Social Explorer are historically accurate for the census year in which they appear: if a county or tract did not exist in a given census year, it will not appear on the Social Explorer map. Note that prior to 1990, tracts were not complete-coverage (tracts do not exist for the entire country): only certain areas of the country-generally large urban areas-were divided into tracts and assigned data by the Census Bureau. More information about census geographies is available from http://www.census.gov/geo/www/.
Federal Information Processing Standards Codes (FIPS codes) are a standardized set of numeric or alphabetic codes issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities through all federal government agencies. Every census geography is assigned a unique FIPS code so it can be quickly identified and associated with census data. Social Explorer automatically displays the corresponding FIPS codes when a user generates a report. In addition, users who know the FIPS codes of the geographies they are interested in can input these codes directly into the Social Explorer reporting tool to expedite the production of reports. This feature is particularly useful for generating reports about a large number of geographies simultaneously. More information about FIPS codes, including lists of codes for several major geographies, is available at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/fips/fips.html.
6. What is the American Community Survey? The American Community Survey (ACS) is a new nationwide survey conducted by the Census Bureau that replaces the "long form" in the decennial census. The ACS collects demographic, housing, social, and economic data on a 3-million household sample of the United States. Data from the ACS are being released on a rolling basis, and the full program will be implemented by 2010. Social Explorer is committed to rapid processing and deployment of the American Community Survey to ensure its registered users have access to the most current demographic material. Currently, data is available for all cities, counties, and metropolitan areas with more than 65,000 people. These data will be available shortly to registered users in the same easily-accessible format as decennial census data. ACS data is scheduled to appear on Social Explorer on Dec 1, 2006.
7. What does "compatible data" mean? Today, census data is consistent across geographies: the set of data available at the state level, for instance, is the same as the set of data available at the tract level. Between 1910 and 1950, however, the Census Bureau generated independent data for tracts and counties, each with a somewhat different set of variables. To facilitate historical analysis and simplify research, we have created a "compatibility set" that represents all the variables that appear at both the county and tract levels. Registered users have the option of viewing all county and tract data sets, while the public version includes only a subset of the compatibility sets.
8. What are Social Explorer's system requirements? Any computer with an Internet connection and a supported web browser can use Social Explorer. Officially supported browsers include:
Social Explorer also requires Adobe Flash version 6 or above, which may
be downloaded here.
Users must turn JavaScript and cookies on, and the reporting engine requires
that popup blockers are disabled or configured to permit Social Explorer to
launch popup windows.
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