[CTPP News] Re: Schedule for Census 2020 Block Group Data Availability

Excellent question, Rob. The short answer is “tentatively 2022” … That’s an unsatisfying answer, but it’s hard to glean other, newer, more determinative dates from the Census Bureau. I searched the APDU and State Data Center Clearinghouse sites, and couldn’t find any further clues. Here’s the Census page on “About 2020 Census Data Products” https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planni… <https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/release/about-2020-data-products.html> And a blog post about “Upcoming 2020 Census Data Products” from September 29, 2021: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/09/upcoming-202… <https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/09/upcoming-2020-census-data-products.html> The basic PL 94-171 population, housing unit and household counts were released last August (2021). Data is available at the new census block / block group / county / place / census tract / etc., geographic levels. Instead of the old-and-familiar SF1 and SF2 (Summary File #1 and Summary File #2) we had in previous decennial censuses, the Census Bureau is apparently re-branding these products as Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC) and Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics (Detailed DHC, or I guess “DDHC”). (If you all remember the STF1A and STF2A and STF3A products, well, bless your heart!) Similar to previous censuses there will be tables down to the block level, and tables (PCT and HCT tables) only down to the census tract level. (There doesn’t appear to be tables down to just the block-group level: only blocks or census tracts.) Of course, basic tables at the block level will most assuredly have a block group summary level. About two-thirds away down the 2020 Census Data Products page is a downloadable excel file: “2020 Census Data Product Planning Crosswalk” … I would recommend looking this over. All of these tables are watermarked as “Pre-Decisional”…. So be warned. There’s also a 9/29/21 webinar on the “data crosswalk.” I was scanning the transcript of the webinar, and came across the comments by Census Bureau staff: "We are getting quite a bit of questions around the schedule. And we have - while we have not finalized the Release Schedule, we don't have hard release dates. Again, we have outlined a lot of the major activities to get us to the DAS implementation, to make sure that we're tuning the DAS to provide fit-for-use data, particularly on the Demographic Profiles in the DHC and where we have that tentatively set for next year. Again, once we finalize the implementation, we can further flush out the release schedule where we would provide some more definitive dates. Again, right now, our target is next year, late next year." So, “Next Year, Late Next Year”….. Maybe October 2022 for the DHC/SF1/STF1A?? The DHC (formerly SF1) tables will include very relevant 2020 Census data on households by owner/renter tenure by household size, detailed population by age and sex, detailed information on households by race/ethnicity of householder, etc., and all of the “short form” data we’ve known and used over the decades! cheers, Chuck