USP 193: San Diego Community Research: Social Explorer

Important information about the Social Explorer database:

To access the database from off-campus, you will need to have your computer configured to use the UCSD VPN. If you need help with that, please refer to the remote access instructions. Note that you MUST select 2-Step Secured - Allthruucsd from the "Group" drop-down menu when authenticating. If you're correctly connected via the VPN, you should see the UC San Diego notation below in the banner on Social Explorer's home page.

To identify tracts:

1. Click on “Explore” under the United States map.

2. Drill down to the area of interest. You can use the top "search address" box, double click on an area, or use the zoom + to drill down to your area. (Click and drag map to re-center.)  As you zoom in, you’ll eventually see details like street names. As you mouse over an area, you'll see popups that identify the Census tract and block group numbers. Use Google maps or print maps as necessary to help identify streets, if necessary.

3. Make note of the tract numbers that comprise your neighborhood.

To get data:

There are two ways to get Census data after you've identified the census tracts. 

First option: while you're still on the map showing the tracts of interest > 

• in the "change data" box, click the icon with three horizontal lines and select "create a report"
• use the "source" and "topic" dropdowns to select your data source (i.e., ACS or decennial year) and topic ("comprehensive" will probably give you most of what you need)
• choose your geography level (e.g. census tracts) and zoom in on the map and click to highlight the areas you want data for
• click the "create" button, and you will get demographic data on a new page

Second option, which I find much easier: quit the mapping application and return to the home page >

• click "Tables" at the top
• select the decennial year or ACS year that you want to work with, then click "begin report"
• use the drop-down menus to select "census tract/California/San Diego County" and ctrl/click to highlight the tracts you want
• click "Add" and "Proceed to Tables" 
• on the next page, ctrl/click to highlight the desired data sets; click "Add" and "Show results"
  • note that you can also use the "search by keyword" option to search for age, housing, transportation, and other variables; be aware, though, that you must use the "right" keyword to find appropriate datasets (e.g. migration | mobility | movement)
• note also that there are probably different tables available depending on which data set you're viewing; SE defaults to "Social Explorer tables," which are the most "popular" tables. If you don't see the variable you're looking for, try choosing a different data set with the drop-down menu for a more comprehensive list of tables. Summary File 1 & 2 data sets represent the short form questions (100% data: age, race, etc.), while Summary File 3 & 4 data sets represent the long form questions (sample data: education, income, etc.)
• after getting your data, use the Excel or data download tab to save your results.

Reminder: the decennial questionnaires at Through the Decades and ACS questionnaires can be extremely helpful in figuring out what questions were asked for each census and therefore what data might be available.

Reminder: ACS tract-level data is available only for 5-year ACS, not 1- or 3- year.

Tract numbers are usually represented as a simple decimal number, such as tract 4 or tract 9.01.

Some data files, such as the Market Profile Data in SE, use an 11-digit tract number instead, such as 06073000301. This form combines the 2 digit state, 3 digit county, and 6 digit (with no decimal point) tract codes.

In the example 06073000301: 06 = CA | 073 = San Diego County | 000301 = tract number 3.01

After selecting your census tract number(s) in SE and moving to the tables page, you'll see "select a dataset" at the top of the page. The options available there depend on the year and collection you're searching.

Social Explorer tables - usually a smaller number of "popular" datasets and may compress multiple variables (e.g. individual grade levels for education attainment) into one variable (e.g. "less than high school diploma")

Summary File 1 datasets = the Census short form (i.e. everyone, or 100% data)

Summary File 3 datasets = the Census long form (i.e. sample, later ACS, data)