Sorting or searching by Universe

Alicia Miao over 9 years ago

Hi everyone, I'm working with ACS 2013 5-year estimates at the census tract level. I am wondering if there is a way to search the FactFinder by Universe and, if so, how that can be done? I would like to create ratios using raw numbers that I'm finding in FactFinder tables, however, these come from different Universes (ie, the numerator I want to use is drawn from the "Civilian noninstitutionalized population" Universe, and the denominator I want to use is drawn from "Families"). Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions are appreciated! Thank you.

Mark Mather over 9 years ago

Hi Alicia,
One way you could search for different universes is to download the table shells for the 5-year estimates and then conduct a search in the Excel file, or simply scan the tables for the universes that you need. You can access the table shells through the Census Bureau's FTP site: www2.census.gov/.../

The table shell for the 2013 5-year file is called ACS2013_TableShells.xls
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Alicia Miao over 9 years ago

Thanks so much, Mark. This is exactly the type of information I needed. I appreciate you pointing me in the direction of the Table Shells.
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Patty Becker over 9 years ago

Also, generally the universe for any given table is in the table itself - e.g. the "total" line at the top of the table.

I am curious as to why you want to use a numerator which is a part of the total civilian population and a denominator of families.
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Alicia Miao over 9 years ago

Thanks, Patty.

My original post may have been a bit unclear. I want to create a ratio where the numerator and denominator both come from the same universe. However, the two variables I had wanted to use were drawn from different universes, so I need a way to look for variables that come from the same universe (ie, both variables from the universe of families, or both from total civilian pop).
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Jeffrey Naas over 9 years ago

Alicia, I have attached a file that should help with your search. I modified the table sequence file so that each Table Title and the associated Universe comprise one record. I then sorted by Universe and Subject Area so you can identify variables that reside within your chosen Universe and use the Table ID to find the table.

[Updated on 6/19/2015 11:20 AM]

Just noticed that I did not trim all of the leading spaces from the Universe field so that the sorting went haywire. This has been corrected in the attached file.
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Alicia Miao over 9 years ago

Jeffrey, Thank you so much. This is incredibly helpful!
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Cliff Cook over 9 years ago

I just took a look at the file and think this could be really handy at some point. Thanks to Jeffrey for making this available to all!
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Joe Germuska over 9 years ago

I'm still hoping that we can articulate needs and best practices for the Census Bureau publishing more and better metadata than an Excel spreadsheet.

I started a Google Group for interested parties. We don't know what to do about it yet but if you want to discuss or just eavesdrop, sign up at groups.google.com/.../
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