The Census Bureau's Planning Database (PDB) contains select operational, housing, demographic, and socio-economic statistics from the Decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year files. When available, some vintages also contain the Low Response Score (LRS), where the LRS is a predicted value of mail self-response. With few exceptions, notably ACS response rates, statistics are provided at both the block group and tract levels. The PDB was designed as an aid for survey and census planning, but has many potential uses. For example, given its ease of use, one may consider using the PDB for instructional purposes.

For more information on the LRS, see Erdman and Bates 2017 (PDF).

For visual displays of key PDB statistics, see Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM).

2014

The 2014 PDB contains select operational, demographic, and socio-economic statistics from the 2010 Census and the 2008-2012 5-year ACS. Data are available at both the tract and block group levels. The LRS is on the PDB for the first time.

Data and Documentation

^{We recommend managing the files in a statistical software application such as R or SAS, as Excel may truncate columns or rows. We also urge users to verify that the downloaded file contains the indicated number of columns and rows: Block Group - [pdb2014bgv9_us.csv - 407216 KB, 220354 rows x 332 columns] Tract - [pdb2014trv9_us.csv - 253379 KB, 74021 rows x 550 columns]. If the number of rows and columns do not align with these counts, verify that the download has not been interrupted or corrupted. If so, we recommend you try to re-download the file from a different web browser.}

2014 Planning Database Block Group Documentation [1.3 MB]

2014 Planning Database Block Group Data [153MB]

2014 Planning Database Tract Documentation [1.6 MB]

2014 Planning Database Tract Data [90MB]

2014 Planning Database in Action

The Governments Statistics Section (GSS) of the American Statistical Association (ASA) sponsored their first data challenge in 2015 featuring the Census Bureau's 2014 Planning Database. The challenge was to analyze the U.S. Census Bureau’s tract and block planning databases using any statistical and/or visualization tools and methods. Eight participants accepted the challenge. Two sessions based on the challenge were organized at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM).

Oral Presentations
- Professional Category Winner - Darryl Creel, RTI, "Tailoring Outreach to Boost Mail Self-Response in Geographic Areas with Similar Low Response Rates"
- Robert Baskin, "Exploring the Census Bureau's 2014 Planning Database Using Topological Data Analysis"
- Jonathan Auerbach and Christopher Eshleman, New York City Council, "Informing Natural Disaster Response with Census Data"
- Shin-Jung Lee, University of Michigan, "Optimizing Survey Cost-Error Tradeoffs: A Multiple Imputation Strategy Using the Census Planning Database"
Poster Presentations
- Student Category Winner - Lucy D'Agostino McGowan and Alice Toll, Vanderbilt University, "Census Tract-Level Disparities: Examining Food Swamps and Food Deserts"
- Bingchen Liu and Lynne Stokes, "Who are the Non-Voters?"
- Talha Ali and Owais Gilani, "Exploring the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem"
- Guillermo Basulto-Elias and Natalia A Da Silva, "Determinants of Poverty in US"

See Government Statistics Section Sponsors First Data Challenge for additional information.

The Census Bureau was not involved with issuing this data challenge.

^{Statistics downloaded from American FactFinder or data.census.gov received clearances from the Disclosure Review Board before being posted. No clearance number is required at this time for such information products. When presenting packages to the DRB that include such data, their provenance must be documented to the satisfaction of the DRB.}

^{2010 Census operational statistics were cleared by the DRB on 5/21/2012.}