Historical data sources
By Neill A. Borowski The Philadelphia Inquirer
My squirrel-like habits of burying historical census data like acorns to be uncovered in the future began in the days of paper.
And my prized "database" is a booklet called Recent Historical Trends, published by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. How "recent" are the trends? The report was published in 1966 and long ago fell apart (it's held together with a binder clip). But that report is packed with detail on population and race in parts of the city going back to 1930.
Should you be as obsessed? If you're so inclined, your newspaper could benefit greatly from historical local census data online - available well in advance of the flood of 2000 data.
Electronic data archives should be easier to build than paper ones. But they aren't. I discovered this recently when I began to ask around about the availability of 1970 and 1980 census data in computer form. A typical answer from one agency in Pennsylvania that hands out such data was "We don't have anything that old."
If you build a historical census archive for your area, you may have the only such archive around. You will be building something useful to reporters and editors that will be around long after you're gone.
However, you may find yourself behind closed doors - as I have been - reconciling an ArcView census tract map on your computer screen with an old paper map from 1950. Yet, imagine how powerful a graphic we'll have to accompany a story on population change in a given Philadelphia neighborhood: 50 years of change, from 1950-2000.
You may not want to get so nerdy that you include every census tract from 1960 in your archive. But you may want to have the populations of minor civil divisions (townships, cities, boroughs) or counties going back 50 or more years.
A few ideas to get started in your quest to pin the wonk-meter's needle:
Visit your local library. Tucked away on shelves you'll often find dusty printed volumes of census results going back decades. Photocopy the pages and have the data input to build a database.
Stop by the "United States Historical Census Data Browser" at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/. You can pull county-level data going back to the first decennial census in 1790.
Purchase the 1980 and 1990 data in bulk from the Census Bureau. Go to www.census.gov/mp/www/rom/ to check out pricing and availability. For example, the 1980 STF-3A file for the nation costs $1,500. However, the cost plunges to $150 if you're after only one state (the CDs contain several states each). The 1990 STF-3A file for the nation costs $4,340. Some single states fit on one CD at $100 each. Larger states, such as Pennsylvania, fill several CDs. Pennsylvania, for example, is a three CD set costing $225. Texas is a four-CD set costing $300. The PL 94-171 file for 1990 costs $550 for the nation (10 CDs) or $100 for a single CD.
"Your newspaper could benefit greatly from historical local census data online - available well in advance of the flood of 2000 data."
Buy the 1970 block-level data from the National Archives at www.nara.gov/nara/electronic/cen1970.html. The price ranges from $90 for a state to $1,315 for the nation.
Purchase 1940 through 1970 tract-level data from the National Archives at www.nara.gov/nara/electronic/bogue.html. This dataset, called the "Bogue File," was created by keypunching paper data as part of research at the University of Chicago. Not all areas of the country are represented, although the largest cities are in the data. Each year is $80 on nine-track tape.
Buy the CensusCD from GeoLytics Inc. (www.geolytics.com/). National data for a full year is available on one CD. This private firm's slogan is "Making Demographics Easy to Use!" and using the CensusCDs is far easier than rummaging through the Census Bureau's data disks. However, queries using the CensusCD set were designed to go through the front end.
You can extract bulk data, but it can be cumbersome. If you can't afford mapping programs, the CensusCD+Maps product does a solid job of making thematic maps (the maps can be exported to ArcView Shape and MapInfo MIF files).
Costs: CensusCD+Maps (to block group geography), $500; CensusCD Blocks, $1,000 for nation; $500 for a single state; CensusCD 1980, $800 each; $400 for a single state. The company also has announced a CensusCD1970, although the introduction date and pricing weren't available at press time.
Other useful sites for census data include Center for International Earth Science Network (CIESIN) at www.ciesin.org/ and Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis at the University of Missouri (OSEDA) at www.oseda.missouri.edu/. Also check the site for your state data center (www.census.gov/sdc/www/) or state, regional and local planning agencies.
Neill Borowski can be reached by e-mail at inborowski@phillynews.com.