Hello,
I'm using ACS 2015-2019 five-year estimates for census block groups in LA county. I notice that there are census block groups that have zero occupied housing units but positive population. I was wondering how is that possible. If there are zero occupied housing units, where do these population live?
The following census block groups have large population but zero occupied housing units. 060372653011 (population: 11977), 060379202001 (population: 5393), 060379010031 (population: 4895), 060375746011 (population: 2276). I saw on the map that 060372653011 basically covers UCLA. I cannot tell what regions the other census block groups are at, but some of them seem to be in the canyon/mountain areas.
I was wondering whether anyone has any idea why census block groups that have zero occupied housing units could have positive population. Thank you.
Group quarters? Like prisons, retirement and nursing homes, etc
and dorms --UCLA :)
Thank you
Ah, I did not see the bit about UCLA. In our college town, the dorms were closed on April 1 due to covid.
I know that many of us were worried about the enumeration of college/university students, so I was happy to see that it seems pretty accurate in the Twin Cities. We do our own survey of college/university housing as part of our population estimates program, and 2020 Census counts for most schools were pretty close to what we gathered directly from college/university staff. (Like the Census Bureau, we requested what the approximate populations would have been in the absence of the pandemic.)
Off-campus housing is less clear, but the population counts for most block groups around colleges/universities seem reasonable.