U.S.Census 2000 & 1990

The U.S. Census has a wealth of very, very important information. But lots of things one would want to do with it are not all that easy.

We've discovered two alarming changes in working with the 2000 census.

• The 2000 census does not include information that has been important in past years.
  • It does not include housing values and rents at block level (which were included in 1990).
  • The special tabulation requested by HUD to support CDBG work in 1990 (STP-19) was not run for the 2000 census.
• The number of block groups has been greatly reduced making neighborhood analysis far more difficult.

Comparisons between 2000 and 1990 are especially difficult because in addition to changes in table names and structures geographic boundaries have changed.