Census webinar walks users through QuickFacts, data.census.gov profiles, DP tables and narrative profiles
Loading...
Summary
The U.S. Census Bureau’s “No Data Degree Required” webinar demonstrated four entry-level tools for accessing Census data — QuickFacts, profiles on data.census.gov, ACS data profile (DP) tables and narrative profiles — and pointed users to Census Academy resources and follow-up support.
Crystal Jimmerson, a training specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau, opened a webinar titled “No Data Degree Required: Your Census Data Starter Kit,” and introduced a session that would demonstrate four tools for basic users. Kimberly Davis, a data dissemination specialist in the Census Bureau’s Data Dissemination and Training Branch, led live demonstrations of QuickFacts, profiles on data.census.gov, ACS data profiles (DP tables) and narrative profiles.
Davis said QuickFacts is “an ideal tool” for quick, recent lookups and showed how users can enter a geography and compare up to six places side-by-side. She noted QuickFacts presents a mix of sources on a single page with source notes and ‘what’s new’ / FAQ links to indicate data vintage; QuickFacts returns place-level population data for places of 5,000 people or more and offers CSV download and simple charting.
Moving to data.census.gov profiles, Davis demonstrated how to search by geography and open a single-geography profile that displays maps, the most-searched facts and subject tabs (population, employment, housing, income, education, health, race and ethnicity). As an example she pulled the Broomfield County, Colorado profile and read the 2020 decennial population figure shown on the profile.
Davis explained ACS data profiles (DP tables) as broader tabular summaries organized by topic (DP02 social characteristics, DP03 economic characteristics, DP04 housing, DP05 demographic). She showed how to select 1-year or 5-year profiles, emphasized that ACS tables publish margins of error alongside estimates, and demonstrated action menu options to download data, cite a table or access the API.
Davis described narrative profiles as short analytic reports derived from ACS 5-year aggregates that combine explanatory text and graphs across about 18 topics. In a place-level example for Aurora, Colorado, she read a narrative sentence saying an estimated 66.5% of workers drove alone to work and — while demonstrating — verbally corrected an earlier readout, saying “28.1 or, excuse me, 6 minutes” when discussing average commute time (the transcript records both figures and the presenter’s self-correction).
Davis closed by summarizing recommended uses — QuickFacts for quick checks; profiles for focused geography summaries; DP tables for detailed, table-based analysis; and narrative profiles for ready-made community summaries — and reminded participants that Census training and assistance are free. She and Caitlin Sperling directed users to census.gov/academy for on-demand videos and courses, and to census.askdata@census.gov for additional help; the webinar recording and supplemental materials will be posted to the Census Academy site within 30 business days.
The session concluded with a brief Q&A and a request that attendees complete a short evaluation after the webinar.
