I am trying to find or calculate population density for all Places in the US. I can find the population for these in a table like B01001 but I'm not sure if the land area is available in any form through one of the published tables.
Final comment, if the area is updated you could use the newly released Tiger Line files for those that changed. They have a vintage as do the population estimates. Hope this is confusing enough:)
One…
True story. On the other hand, there is no pricing tab on Census Download pages. So there's that.
Thanks Andy. Unfortunately, I suspected as much. Does anyone know if this data is available from the 2020 Census on data.census.gov?
Yes it is. My suggestion, however, would make sure that the area of the places have not changed, because the place estimates and place ACS population counts are based upon redrawn places (if necessary). They put out every December new geographies. Tracts are the most complicated, because they do change a few tracts or did so in 2010, but quit by 2012. The areas and delineations of states, counties, and places are kept up to date. Why did I mention states, well one reason was the fight between NY and NJ over Liberty and Ellis Island. They don't give us density from the ACS, I think is a throwback to the issue of them not wanting anyone to use the ACS for population counts.
Glenn is right you could use the Tiger Line files. However, in the GEOheader file for 2020, there is a land and water area, that you can use to compute density. It needs to be converted to square miles, and then you need to decide what to do about the water. Given the fact that with Mermaid blocks in the 2020 Census some people are living underwater it becomes complicated. Boats can also be considered to be housing units. This obviously would only affect a few places.
Andy
Is there a single 2020 geoheader for all places, or would that material need to be downloaded on a state by state basis?
One further point, if you want to link business data from the business Census or the Zip or County Business Pattern data, the Economic Division uses a different set of geographies that they only update when they do a new economic Census. Also they use Zip codes, population division uses ZCTA.
They have a new "Frames" Project to harmonize some of this, but I would not hold my breath.