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Census 2000 Block Level SF1 Data

An ESRI/MS Access geodatabase containing King County, Washington US Census 2000 Short Form (SF1) responses and block geographies is stored in a zip file (sf1_king_county.zip).

Block geometries are stored in two feature classes, one with and one without water features.
Basic demographic data are in a table called block_basic_demographics.
Full data are in individual tables, numbered 1-39. Use the table called TABLES to browse individual fields and the tables in which they are found.

 

These instructions give a few examples of how to use these data in ArcMap.

  1. Download and unzip the file sf1_king_county.zip.

  2. Add the data source blocks_no_water to the map document. This is the census block geometry with no water features.



  3. Add the table block_basic_demographics to the map document.
    These are the basic block demographic data compiled by ESRI.

  4. Join the block_basic_demographics table onto the blocks attributes by the STFID field. This will allow you to use the basic demographic data for mapping. For example, it is possible to create maps displaying race by block.


    Laurelhurst:





    White Center:



  5. In order to access the full set of data, it is necessary to first find the field you want to work with. A list of fields is in the TABLES table in the geodatabase. The variable descriptions are in the field called TEXT_ and the field names are in the field called FIELDNUM. For example, the total number of housing units is stored in the field H001001. The SEG value refers to the table number within the geodatabase. Following this example, H001001 is in table 37.



  6. Add table 37 to the map document.



  7. Joins between the block attributes and the full data are done using the logrecno field.



    Indexing will speed up performance.



  8. Now you can access the data in any of the fields from table 37.




    Total housing units per block:


Phil Hurvitz, GIS Specialist
phurvitz@u.washington.edu

Copyright © Phil Hurvitz