Now that the forms have been returned and the enumerators have gone home, what’s next for the U.S. Census? Well, the next round of Census activities involves scheduling data delivery, and at a recent Census Advisory Committee meeting, the U.S. Census Bureau released a tentative schedule of delivery of various Census products. This schedule can be found at http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/c2kproducts.html on the Census Bureau Web page.

State population counts, by law, are due on the desk of the president within nine months of the Census Date (on or before Dec. 31, 2000.) These are the population counts that will be used by the Congress to reapportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition, the Voting Rights Act requires that the race and ethnic data for small geographic areas be provided to the states by April 1, 2001. Since the 2000 Census is the first time that individuals could select more than one race as part of their response to the Census, the agency will release data for all 63 racial categories for persons 18 years and older. The Census Bureau made the decision to release the race data in this form after numerous discussions with stakeholders and the Department of Justice.

Many local county planners are interested in how the data will be made available. Ultimately, much of it will be available through a data retrieval system on the Census Bureau Web site (www.census.gov) called “American Factfinder.” As the various data products are released, they will be made available on CD-ROMs that can be purchased, but will also be released simultaneously on the Internet.

According to the proposed schedule, the products will be available, not only through CD-ROMs and the Internet, but also through the 1,800 State Data Centers, the 1,400 Federal Depository libraries and other private organizations, libraries and universities across the country.

In addition to the redistricting data summary due in April, the Demographic Profile, which includes selected population and housing characteristics, will be released for census tracts between June and September 2001. Congressional District Demographic Profiles, which will include similar data for congressional districts will be released during that same period.

The first data that will be released for places (including counties) is the Race and Hispanic/Latino Summary file that will be available on CD-ROM in July 2001. More data for census tracts and places will be released throughout the rest of 2001 and into 2002.

The first opportunity that counties will have to assess the accuracy of their local Census reporting will be with the release of the housing counts for each jurisdiction. These housing counts are currently scheduled to be available during summer 2001. However, NACo, has strongly urged the Census Bureau to make these counts available for review by counties as early as possible.

For additional information about data products and the release of other 2000 Census data contact your regional Census office or NACo’s Research Division at (202) 942-4285.

(Research News was written by Jacqueline Byers, director of research.)