Craig Benson

Session: Population Specialty Group

Presentation Title: Counties and Census Tracts in Persistent Poverty

Date & Time: Friday, March 24, 4:30-5:50 p.m. MT 

Room: Spruce, Sheraton, I.M. Pei Tower, Mezzanine level

Abstract:

Research has suggested that people living in higher poverty areas experience more acute systemic problems than people in lower poverty areas (e.g., limited access to medical services, healthy and affordable food, quality education, and civic engagement opportunities). Government agencies and researchers have previously identified counties with high rates of poverty over an extended period as targets for increased level of support. While definitions vary, typically counties are considered to be in persistent poverty if they maintained poverty rates of 20 percent or more for the past 30 years. To identify counties in persistent poverty, this project incorporates poverty estimates from the 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses, the 2005-2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, and the 2015-2019 ACS 5-year estimates. Other governmental agencies have alternative definitions of persistent poverty for programmatic purposes. This has created a need for more consistent methods that can be universally applied and examples of such are described in this report. The analysis expands upon the persistent poverty literature by examining sub-county geographies (specifically, census tracts), and comparing those results to county results. By using this smaller geography, additional populations that may benefit from targeted intervention are identifiable. In addition, census tracts are explored over a longer time than what has been typically done in other persistent poverty analyses, allowing for increased temporal precision in comparison with identified persistent poverty counties.

Sheldon Waugh

Session: Population Specialty Group Virtual

Presentation Title: The Evolution of the Field Quality Monitoring (FQM) Mapper

Date & Time: Saturday, March 25, 12:50-2:10 p.m. MT

Room: Virtual 6

Abstract:

The Field Quality Monitoring (FQM) Mapper was developed for the 2020 Census to investigate, contextualize, and focus on statistical outliers in the field data collection. Since then, the mapper has undergone several iterations of improvements, enhancements, and restructurings for the quality monitoring of field representatives (FRs) in current surveys. The mapper has evolved from displaying just one survey's FRs, cases, and quality metrics to several, and will eventually fully represent the total workload of each FR in their respective region. With increased data, more filtering capabilities were available and added due to upgrades to the enterprise portal. Performance upgrades were applied on the mapper's front and back ends, including a re-structuring of the data and the layers. Auxiliary layers, such as weather, especially hurricane tracks, wildfires, and COVID-19, aided operational optimization. Organizational data visualization standards were also applied to enhance and normalize the Graphical User Interface (GUI). The FQM Mapper, utilized by analysts in the Regional Offices and stakeholders at Census Bureau HQ, serves as a visualization and investigation tool to help ensure the quality of the data collected in the field in near-real time.

William Bredemeyer

Session: Population Specialty Group Virtual

Presentation Title: Mapping Foreign Names from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names

Date & Time: Saturday, March 25, 12:50-2:10 p.m. MDT

Abstract:

The Foreign Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and its staff provide a standard set of geographic names for features outside of the United States and its possessions, for the U.S. government and other consumers of geographic names. This presentation introduces the Foreign Names Committee and dives into mapping the names on the new Geographic Names Server (GNS). The presentation walks through the process of conducting an interactive search with an example that discusses some of the functionality available on the new GNS, and geographic names concepts such as name and feature types. Other capabilities of the new GNS are also summarized, such as additional ways to access geographic names through downloadable files. This presentation concludes with publicly available examples of U.S. Census Bureau international mapping products that apply geographic names from the Foreign Names Committee, including the International Database (IDB) and other subnational data products.

Michael Reidman

Session: Census Bureau Geography: Updates and Information

Date & Time: Saturday, March 25, 12:50- 2:10 p.m. MT

Room: Centennial Ballroom D, Hyatt Regency, Third Floor

Abstract:

In Fall 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2020 Census Demographic Profiles for the Island Areas (U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The success of a census or sample survey depends not only on how well the Census Bureau designs the questionnaire, collects the data, and processes the results, but also on how well it links the collected data to geographic areas. For stakeholders and data users to understand the data, they need to understand the geographic areas for which the data are tabulated. Each of the Island Areas has a unique set of geographic areas that is different from the geographic areas found in the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This presentation will discuss the geographic areas delineated for the Island Areas and include a first-hand account of working as an enumerator in Guam for the 2020 Census.