Census Information: Data Sets

The United States Constitution includes directives for carrying out a census of the population every 10 years.

Finding Data Sets Online

Sources of current and historical census data:

Data.gov
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
Data Sets Available State-By-State (University of Oregon)
Federal Statistical Research Data Centers
Federal Statistical Research Data Centers are partnerships between federal statistical agencies and leading research institutions. They are secure facilities providing authorized access to restricted-use microdata for statistical purposes only.
National Historical Geographic Information System
The NHGIS provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2010.
Statistical Abstract of the US - Historical
The Statistical Abstract of the United States has been published since 1878. It is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other federal agencies and private organizations

IPUMS USA digitized published census volumes
The Census Bureau regularly releases published books of tables within a few years of the enumeration of each census. These books usually contain regular data series tabulated for the entire country and usually all states, counties, and major cities. This site contains links to scans of all available published census volumes in PDF format.

TIGER

TIGER/Line
(Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system)

The TIGER/Line files are a digital database of geographic features, such as roads, railroads, rivers, lakes, political boundaries, census statistical boundaries, etc. covering the entire United States.

The database contains information about these features such as their location in latitude and longitude, the name, the type of feature, address ranges for most streets, the geographic relationship to other features, and other related information. They are the public product created from the Census Bureau's TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) database of geographic information. TIGER was developed at the Census Bureau to support the mapping and related geographic activities required by the decennial census and sample survey programs.

Note: These files are not graphic images of maps, but rather digital data describing geographic features. To make use of these data, a user must have mapping or Geographic Information System (GIS) software that can import TIGER/Line data.

Data Sets Online: US Census Bureau - TIGER

PSU Library has TIGER/Line Census files for the following years:

1990
1992
1994
1995
1997
1998
2000
Census Tract Street Index

TIGER/Line Census Files 1990

Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (Snyder-York), Rhode Island. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:C 76/990/CD
Kentucky. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:K 41/990/CD
Louisiana. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:L 93/990/CD
Mississippi. [CD-ROM-MISSING]: C 3.279:M 69i/990/CD
Oklahoma, Texas (Wichita-Zavala). [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Ok 4/990/CD
South Dakota. [CD-ROM-MISSING]: C 3.279:So 8d/990/CD
TIGER questions and answers. [PAPER]: C 3.279:T 62

TIGER/Line Census Files 1992

Alabama. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Al 1B/992/CD
Alaska. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Al 1S/992/CD
Arizona. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Ar 4I/992/CD
Arkansas. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Ar 4K/992/CD
California. In 3 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:C 12/992/CD
Colorado. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:C 71/992/CD
Delaware-D.C.-Virginia. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:D 37/992/CD
Florida. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:F 66/992/CD
Georgia. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:G 29/992/CD
Illinois. In 2 Discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:Il 6/992/CD
Maine-Massachusetts-New Hampshire-Vermont. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 28/992/CD
Maryland-W. Virginia. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 36/992/CD
Michigan. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 58/992/CD
Minnesota. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 66/992/CD
Mississippi. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 69I/992/CD
Missouri. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 69O/992/CD
Montana. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:M 76/992/CD
Nebraska. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:N 27/992/CD
New Mexico. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279N 42M:/992/CD
New York. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:N 42Y/992/CD
N. Carolina. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:N 81C/992/CD
Ohio. In 2 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:OH 3/992/CD
Oregon. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:OR 4/992/CD
Pennsylvania. In 2 discs.[CD-ROM]: C 3.279:P 38/992/CD
Tennessee. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:T 25/992/CD
Texas. In 4 discs. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:T 31/992/CD
Washington. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:W 27/992/CD
Wisconsin. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:W 75/992/CD
Wyoming. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:W 99/992/CD

TIGER/Line Census Files 1994

TIGER/Line 1994. In 6 CD-ROMS. All states and territories are represented.[CD-ROM]: TD 1.56/5:CD 94-TGR-no.

TIGER/Line Census Files 1995

TIGER/Line 1995. In 6 CD-ROMS. All states and territories are represented. [CD-ROM]: TD 1.56/5:CD 95-TGR-no.

TIGER/Line Census Files 1997

TIGER/Line 1997. In 6 CD-ROMS. All states and territories are represented. 97-04, 97-05, 97-06 also available in reissued versions. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:CD-TGR 97-no.

TIGER/Line Census Files 1998

TIGER/Line 1998. In 7 CD-ROMS. All states and territories are represented. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279:CD-TG 98-no.

TIGER/Line 2000

TIGER/Line 2000. Redistricting Census 2000. [DVD]: C 3.279/3:2000

TIGER/Census Tract Street Index

Version 2 (1994-1995). In 6 CD-ROMS. Covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279/2:CD-CTSI-V2-no.
Version 3 (1999). In 8 CD-ROMS. Covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. [CD-ROM]: C 3.279/2:CD-TGR 97-CTSI-V3-no.
Version 4 (2000). [DVD]: C 3.279/2:DVD-TGR-2000-CTSI-V4

Finding US Documents: SuDoc Call Numbers

Government Documents are assigned call numbers based on the agency or department printing the information, called the SuDoc Classification (Superindent of Documents). It is a bit different from the regular Library of Congress or Dewey systems. Find the collection on the 4th Floor of the library. Can't find what you need? For assistance, ask at the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor or Ask Us Online