U.S. Census of Population and Housing Basics : Data.Census.gov

Data.census.gov is the Census Bureau's platform to access its data and digital content.

• Free of charge.
• No limit on how many people can use it at one time.

• Can retrieve both tables and maps from this site.

• The default search box at data.census.gov searches across many Census products for statistical tables about people and about the economy.

• The advanced search asks you to use filters from the start, and to make choices about
  • Topics (variables)
  • Geography (see this research guide's page on Census geography)
  • Years
  • Surveys (see this research guide's page on surveys and data sets)
• Some detailed data can only be retrieved using the advanced search.

Written guides from the Census Bureau:  How-to Materials for Using data.census.gov

• These are PDFs with lots of screen shots.  Some were made when data.census.gov was first released in 2019. The Census Bureau has revised the appearance of data.census.gov's home page slightly since then, but the site still works the same way.
• Topics include

  Advanced search All-results page

  Download Export a table

  Mapping

Video tutorials from the Census Bureau. Some of the videos include:

• DATA GEMS: How to Navigate data.census.gov (2019):  a short overview of the basic and advanced searches.
• DATA GEMS: How to Visualize your Data Using Thematic Maps on data.census.gov (2021): demonstrates retrieving a table using advanced search, and mapping a variable from that table. I recommend this as a good overview of the tool.
• DATA GEMS: How to Select Your Area to Access Data Using data.census.gov (2019)
• DATA GEMS: How to Access Data for Your Neighborhood in Just a Few Clicks (2021)