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Research Guides@Tufts

Community Health 188-09: Health Equity and the Built Environment

Social Explorer

Social Explorer provides quick and easy access to modern and historical U.S. census data and demographic information. The web interface lets users create maps and reports to help visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history. The site currently includes data from the entire US Census from 1790 to 2010, all annual updates from the American Community Survey to 2008, original Census tract-level estimates for 2006 and 2007, the Religious Congregations and Membership Study from 1980 to 2000, and 2002 Carbon Emissions Data from the Vulcan Project.

Use this link to get to Social Explorer's Help pages and their How-to-videos.

Reports

1. Search or browse all of the Census tables from 1790 - 2010. You can also browse the American Community Survey (ACS) and Religion data.

2. Choose one of the reports and then select by Geographic Type, then choose one or more Geographic Areas, click on Next.

3. Select a dataset, next select one or more data tables, then click on Add.

4. Click on Show Result; at this screen choose to send to an Excel spreadsheet or Data Download.

5. Search across Reports for specific topics, such as health, environment, etc. The results will link you to data reports that have this term somwwhere in the title or text of the reports.

Maps

1. Choose Maps to discover historical data from the 1790 Cenus to present.

2. Search across interactive historical data maps.

3. Choose one of the maps,once displayed you can select other data maps to display and save.

4. Within a map choose the iReport button to customize the table. Choose report type, then decide on Selection Area, choosing to select by using either a Point or Circle Tool; click on OK, then select the area using the tool, next click on Make Report.

 

Research Data Librarian

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Elizabeth McCall
she/her/hers
Subjects: Community Health