University of South Carolina Libraries

Freedemographics.com provides interactive access to U.S. census data. American Factfinder is recommended for all users who do not require the special features or data on Freedemographics.

Reasons to use Freedemographics.com instead of American Factfinder:

o Save a report for future reference.
o Retrieve some data from the 1970 and 1980 Censuses.
o Ranks different states, counties, tracts, etc (rank reports) and add totals for multiple areas (summary tables).
o Provides statistics on DMAs. See below for more explanation of this non-Census Bureau designated area.

Getting Started

1. URL: http://www.freedemographics.com
2. Register and provide a user name and password (free).
3. Once logged on, you are taken to a page with a central box for new geography, with the datasets 70,80, 90 Census, 2000 Census SF3, and 2000 Census SF1 above it.
In the top left corner there are choices for home, site help, contact us and view account. Particularly useful are: "review about this site" and "sample reports."

Help

SITE HELP (in the top left hand corner) will give you information on topics such as ABOUT THIS SITE, GLOSSARY, CENSUS 2000 INFO, SAMPLE REPORTS, SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS, CONTACT US.

DMAs

DMA: designated market areas - The formal term for what is more commonly known as a TV or broadcast market. DMA's are selected by totaling the viewer hours of TV stations whose signals reach a particular county with total hours, then converted to a percentage share of all viewing hours. DMA's are named for the market of origin of the station(s) with the largest share of viewer hours, and all counties whose largest viewer share is given to stations in that same market of origin are grouped together under that DMA. (From Glossary)
NOTE: Because of the reach of broadcast signals, DMA's don't always conform to whole-county geography like metro markets or newspaper markets. In certain cases, Nielsen splits counties, treating each portion as if it were a separate county. Each county, or portion thereof, is allocated to a single DMA, eliminating any geographic overlap. DMA's cover the whole U.S., except for parts of Alaska.

Using Datasets and Creating Reports

1. Select a dataset: Click on 70, 80, 90 Census, 2000 Census SF 3 or 2000 Census SF1 icon at the top.

2. Select a geographic area type from the box in the middle of the screen: ie: state, county, county subdivision by county, census tract by place, etc. Select "continue".

4. Choose the desired geographic area(s) and click "add". Click "continue". Depending on the geographic area(s) selected, several geographic area selection screens may appear.
Multiple geographic areas can be selected but only 16 areas can be selected for comparison reports.

5. You will come to a page with icons for SAVE, EDIT, and NEW on the upper screen.

EDIT will send you back to the last geographic selection screen so that you can choose different subgeography.
NEW will send you back to the main New Geography screen where you can choose a different type of geography.
SAVE will allow you to name your geography and save it for future reference and creating new reports.

6. On the lower screen, select the report type required by clicking "Summary Report", "Comparison Report", or "Rank Report". Report options for each report type will appear in the screen below. Options vary depending on the data set selected. See the table below for available reports and explanation of report types.
Select the desired report and click "View Report".

7. You can save this report and download it by clicking "Make RTF" or "Make CSV". CSV will allow import into MS Excel and other spreadsheet programs.

Report Types

Summary Report: percentages for all the geographic areas selected.
Comparison Report: lists each area separately.
Rank Report: ranks the areas chosen, from the highest percentage and number to lowest.

Quick Guide to tables and geographies available

Dataset	Geographic Areas Available	Report Types	Tables Available
1970, 80, 90 Census	Entire US State County Census Tract Block Groups Places DMAs DMAs by state MSAs MSAs by state Zip codes Zips by County Zips by DMA Zips by MSA Lowest level of geography: block groups	Summary	90 Employment 90 Hispanic Detail 90 Household Detail 90 Housing Value Detail 90 Income 90 Population Detail 90 Overview 90 Census Race Detail 70, 80, 90 Census Trend 2000 Adult Non-Hispanic pop. by race 2000 Adult pop. by race detail 2000 Non-Hispanic by race detail 2000 Pop. by race summary 70, 80, 90, 2k Pop. & Race Trend (shows percentage change over this period of time for Population Demographics, Population by Race and Ethnicity, Population by age, Median age, Households by income)
		Comparison	All reports above except: 70, 80, 90, 2k Pop. & Race Trend
		Rank	90 Gender 90 Household overview 90 Hispanic 90 Housing value 90 Income 90 Pop. and Race 70, 80, 90 Trend 2000 Adult pop. by race 2000 Adult Hispanic/Latino pop. by race 2000 Non-Hispanic pop. by race 2000 Pop. by race
2000 Census SF1	As for 1970, '80, '90 census Lowest level of geography: block	Summary & Comparison	Combination of 2 races, not Hispanic Family Type by Age/Presence of Children General Housing Characteristics Group Quarters Population Hispanic/Latino by Origin Household Type by Size Households by Race Housing Units Occupancy Status Population in Household by Race Race Sex by Age Tenure Tenure, Household Size and Age of Householder Total Population Urban and Rural Vacancy Status
		Rank	Rank by Age Rank by Race
2000 Census SF3	Lowest level of geography: census tract	Summary	DP-2. Profile of Selected Social Characteristics DP-3. Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics DP-4. Profile of Selected Housing Characteristics

By Bratton DeLoach

FreeDemographics.com User Guide