Library Guides: Census Research Guide: Data Tools

In the ISU Library

Democracy's Data by Dan Bouk
Call Number: HA181 B58 2022
A lesson in reading between the lines of the 1940 U.S. census to uncover the stories behind the data. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories--you just have to know how to read them.

Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America
Data from USDA Economic Research Service. View statistics by people, jobs, and agriculture.
Census Data Tools & Apps
Find information using interactive applications to get statistics from multiple surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Data for Decision Makers Reports Tool
A tool for using data within the Indicators Portal produced by ISU Extension and Outreach. Free, but requires registration to view the data if not ISU-affiliated. The contents are drawn off census reports for housing, population, demographics, households, education, income, poverty, workforce, energy, environment, agriculture, and health.
DATA USA
A collaboration between Deloitte, MIT and DataWheel to make Cesus data more accessible.
Explore Census Data
Data.census.gov is the platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. The vision for data dissemination through data.census.gov is to improve the customer experience by making data available from one centralized place so that data users spend less time searching for data content and more time using it. For guidance on using data.census.gov, please see our Resources page at https://www.census.gov/data/adrm/what-is-data-census-gov.html.
Historical Census publications
Census of population and housing reports exist in PDF for 1790-2010. Note: more years are available than what show by default on the page...use "more" (on right side of screen) to select earlier years.

Interactive Mapping Tools
From the U.S. Census Bureau.
National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
Provides free, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for 1790-2010.
Social Explorer
Interactive mapping and reporting tools. Contains info from: Census data from 1790 to 2010; American Community Survey (all); Religion data - InfoGroup 2009; Religion data - RCMS 1980 to 2000; Carbon emissions - Vulcan Project.
StatsAmerica
A portal to US government data; a service of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.