July 20, 2001
NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS
From: Jennifer Marks
Acting Chief, Public Information Office
Subject: Policy on Disseminating Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS) data files to the Media
Following is the broad outline of the Census Bureau's plan for disseminating Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS) data through the end of the year.
The 700,000 household survey was conducted in 1,203 counties simultaneously with last year's census and was designed to test the operational feasibility of collecting long form-type data independently of a decennial census. The survey, which used the American Community Survey's questionnaire and methodology, was an operational success. Release of these data comes nearly a year before the scheduled release of Census 2000 long form data products begins.Press Briefing/Embargoed Data Release General Guidance:
A technical press briefing for the media on C2SS, originally planned for Wednesday, July 25, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, July 31, to incorporate an evaluation report on the operational test of the survey. The July 31st briefing for credentialed media will be held at the Department of Commerce in Room 4830 at 10:30 a.m.
To allow sufficient time to fully understand the data set and comparability issues, the Census Bureau will release the C2SS data for the country, each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, on an embargo basis. The embargo period would begin immediately following the technical press briefing, with public release of the data for Monday, August 6, at 12:01 a.m.
As was the case with the dissemination of previous census data, a product announcement will be distributed once the data are placed on the Public Information Office's Internet embargo page
<http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/presskit7_31_01.html>. To link to the FTP server where the data and related materials will reside, bona fide media should enter the Internet embargo page and click on "Census 2000 Supplementary Survey." User ID/password remains the same as prior data releases and is posted on the embargoed news release page.
Technical Documentation:The formats for the 107 core tables and other documentation for the C2SS release are currently available on the Census Bureau's FTP server <http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/Census_2000_Supplementary_Survey>. The data are available in both narrative and tabular profiles, and will be released in both Microsoft Excel (.xls) and comma-delimited text (.csv) formats.
All C2SS data can be accessed on Monday, August 6, via the Census Bureau's Web site and the following URLs:
- The Census Bureau FTP server <http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/Census_2000_Supplementary_Survey>.
- Census 2000 Supplementary Survey Internet homepage <http://www.census.gov/c2ss/www>.
- American FactFinder <http://factfinder.census.gov>.
Additional Census 2000 Supplementary Survey Data Releases:
The second and third releases of C2SS data are scheduled for the fall and winter of 2001. The fall C2SS data release will include core tables for substate areas (most counties and cities with populations of 250,000 or more). The remaining 700 non-core tables, including race iterations, are scheduled for release in the winter for the country, each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia..
For more information, contact Stephen Buckner or Mark Tolbert at the Census Bureau's Public Information Office on 301-457-3691.
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