Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Services Frequently Asked Questions:

_{How do I navigate the American Factfinder website?}

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Using American Factfinder to Explore and Download Data from the Census of Population

American Factfinder provides online access to Census data. In addition, the site provides excellent documentation about the census data. This helpsheet is intended to assist patrons using American Factfinder to explore the data available from the census, and to extract tabular data.

Using Factfinder to Explore Data

1. Go to American Factfinder: http://factfinder.census.gov
   On the left side of the page, click on the Data Sets link. Note that American Factfinder has data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses.
   Select the Data Set you want to use. A brief description is provided for each data set. Note that some Data Sets are culled from 100-Percent Data, while others use Sample Data.
   • 100-Percent Data Sets are based on the short form questionnaire. The short form is made up of basic questions and is given out to every household.
   • The Sample Data is based on the long form questionnaire. The long form is made up of detailed questions and is given out to one in six households.
   If you are searching for information on education, income, employment, or detailed housing data, you will need to use one of the Sample Data Sets (many patrons use Summary File 3).
   Click on the radio button beside the appropriate Data Set.
   In the options on the right side of the page, select Detailed Tables.
   
2. Select a Geography.
   For this example, we are interested in all counties in North Carolina.
   
   • Click on the "geo within geo" tab.
   • Select the following options:
   • Show me all: Counties
   • Within: State
   • Select a state: North Carolina
   • Select one or more geographic areas and click 'Add': All Counties
   • Click the "Add" button.
   • Click the "Next" button.
3. Select Tables of Interest
   Use this page to search the data available in the data set you've chosen. By clicking on the tabs at the top of the page, the tables of census data may be viewed in a list (show all tables), searched by keyword, or searched by subject.
   For additional information on any of the tables, click on the table and then click the "What's This?" button on the right side of the page. The "What's This?" button is perhaps one of the most useful functions on the site. By using this tool, you can see what the census table will look like without having to wait for the data to be returned from the database. By clicking this button, a page with a blank table will be returned, which will provide the layout of the data table. The page will also contain numerous links to information about each table - a very useful tool when determining which census tables are most pertinent to you research.
   After determining which census tables will be useful, the data may be extracted from Factfinder, or from one of the CensusCDs.
4. If you are using Factfinder simply to determine which tables are most appropriate for your research, make a note of which tables you would like to extract from the CensusCD.
   If you are using Factfinder to download the data, after identifying the tables of interest, click "Add", and "Show Result".
   After clicking "Show Result", the requested data appears. You can print or download this data by going to the Print / Download menu at the top of the page.

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For more GIS assistance,
Please contact Amanda C. Henley, GIS Librarian
amanda.henley@unc.edu
(919) 962-1151

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