Free 2022 ASDC Fall Data Conference
- October 10th, 2022
The Alabama State Data Center (ASDC), housed in the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) hosted a Census data conference this fall on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 from 8:30am to 1:00pm CST. The virtual conference included presentations on the latest updates from Data.Census.gov; the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS); how to access PUMS data and make custom tables using the Census Bureau’s MDAT tool; an update on the urban and rural classification; and an overview of local geographic news. The speakers came from the Census headquarters as well as from the regional office in Atlanta.
Click on the red, bold titles below to view the slides for the presentations. For recordings of the webinars, reach out to Susannah Robichaux, CBER socioeconomic analyst and lead for the ASDC, at scrobichaux@ua.edu.
Alabama State Data Center Fall 2022 Conference
Wednesday, November 9, 2022: 8:30am – 1:00pm
Welcome and Introductions | Susannah Robichaux, ASDC Lead / Socioeconomic Analyst, The University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research; and Devon Reed, Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office, Data Users Branch, U.S. Census Bureau.
Data.Census.Gov Updates| Kanin Reese, Chief, Dissemination Outreach Branch – Center for Enterprise Dissemination, U.S. Census Bureau. Data.census.gov is the Census Bureau’s primary data search tool. This new platform allows users to spend less time searching for data and content by accessing available data from one centralized place. Since the platform is driven by user feedback, enhancements and upgrades to the tool are being implemented regularly. This webinar featured a how-to training for the tool, an overview if it’s latest functions, and upcoming enhancements and data releases.
Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)| Monica Dukes, Alabama Data Dissemination Specialist, Data Dissemination and Training Branch, U.S. Census Bureau. Are you a data user that can’t find what you are looking for in the pre tabulated ACS data products? Then the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) may be what you are looking for. The PUMS files are a set of untabulated records about individual people or housing units, which allow data users to create custom estimates and tables free of charge. This presentation provided an overview of PUMS files and their usage.
Microdata Access Tool (MDAT)| Kanin Reese, U.S. Census Bureau. The Microdata Access Tool (MDAT), available through data.census.gov, allows users to create custom tabulations with various available Public Use Microdata sets and vintages. This webinar covered the basics of using the MDAT tool, including how to access microdata, and a demonstration on how to access data, and create custom tabulations, for topics like sex, age, race and ethnicity, income and poverty, and more.
Urban and Rural Classification and Criteria | B. Rush White, Geographer, Geography Division, U.S. Census Bureau. This webinar offered a review of the 2010 Urban and Rural classifications as well as the 2020 criteria by discussing changes in approaches to interpreting and understanding the growth of urban areas, improved technology making it easier to manage large amounts of data, and increased spatial resolution of statistical and geospatial data.
Geographic Partnership Updates | William Curry, Geographer, Atlanta Regional Census Center/Field Division, U.S. Census Bureau. *No slides were used.* This presentation touched on the various geographic updates using these helpful flyers: Count Question Resolution Program, 2020 Post Census Group Quarters Review, and 2023 Boundary and Annexation Survey.