U.S. Census of Population and Housing Basics : Missouri Census Data Center

While this site has an emphasis on Missouri, it provides access to data for all the U.S., from the national to the block level.

The Missouri Census Data Center main page states "The MCDC data archive, which includes many national collections as well as Missouri-specific data, is one of the premier sites in the country for accessing census and other public, machine-readable demographic and geographic data. Data may be accessed directly, via the public machine readable data archive, or by using one of the custom applications."

The MCDS does NOT have mapping applications.

List of all MCDC Applications and Data Products. 

The MCDC has easy-to-retrieve Census profiles going back to 2000.  

• Profiles are available at multiple geographic levels, including census tract, and, in some cases, Census block.
• A profile contains statistics on multiple variables on a given theme.
• Look in the upper right or bottom of a display to see what other formats a profile or other product is available in.  Depending on the product, other formats may include one or more of the following:
  • Available for Export to Excel
  • PDF
  •  Available for data extract via Dexter

Profile tools include

• ACS [American Community Survey] Profiles Menu
  • Four types of profiles: demographic, economic, social, and housing. Each profile contains statistics on multiple subtopics 
    • Each section within a profile has links to the base tables on the Census Bureau website
  • Has 1-year estimates starting with 2006; 3-year estimates from 2005-2007 through 2011-2013; and 5-year estimates starting with 2005-2009
    • For guidance on when to use which data set, see the Census Bureau's page When to use 1-year, 3-year, or 5-year estimates. 
  • Areas include all locations and geographic types (states, counties, etc.) available for a given data period
  • See the section on Sample data/American Community Survey on this page to learn what data the ACS collects

• Census 2010 Profile Report 
  • Demographic profiles for a variety of geographies, from nation to Census block groups, and including Congressional districts, urban areas, and zip code tabulation areas
  • Data from the 2010 Census Summary Tape File 1 (also known as 100% data)
  • Each section within a profile has links to the base tables on the Census Bureau website  (for tract level and above)

• Census 2000 Profiles Menu
  • Demographic profiles for a variety of geographies, from nation to Census block groups, and including Congressional districts, urban areas, and zip code tabulation areas
  • Data is from the 2000 Census Summary Tape File 3 (STF3)
    STF3 contains sample data gathered from a subset, or sample, of the population. In the 2000 Census, about 17% of U.S. households were asked to fill out a long-form survey, going into more detail about demographics, education, income, employment, and housing. These samples are weighted to be representative of the larger population. The sample size varies with the density of population in a given area. The data items in the sample data are:

     

    Population items
    Ancestry Citizenship, and year of entry Class of worker Disability Educational attainment Grandparents as caregivers Income in 1999	Industry Journey to work Labor force status Language spoken at home Marital status Occupation	Place (state or foreign country) of birth Place of work Residence 5 years ago (migration) School enrollment Veteran status Work status in 1999
    Housing items
    Farm residence House heating fuel Kitchen facilities Number of bedrooms Plumbing facilities	Rent paid Rooms in unit Selected monthly owner costs (shelter costs) Telephone service available	Units in structure Value of home Vehicles available Year moved into unit Year structure built

   

You can download/extract data from the MCDC public data archive.  

This public data archive uses an extraction tool called "Uexplore/Dexter."  

• What is Uexplore/Dexter?
• Uexplore/Dexter tutorials