Note: Since we released this newsletter on January 20, we’ve received questions from data users about whether these demonstration data reflect the production settings used to generate the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC). To be clear, the 2010 Demonstration Data Products Suite – Redistricting and DHC was generated using the final Disclosure Avoidance System production settings used for the 2020 Census redistricting and DHC data products. That update is reflected in the underlined text below.

January 20, 2023: The Census Bureau plans to release new files to help data users understand the potential impacts of confidentiality protections on the 2020 Census Redistricting Data and Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC). Dubbed the “2010 Demonstration Data Products Suite – Redistricting and DHC” the release will include: 

• A new 2010 Demonstration Privacy-Protected Microdata File (PPMF) combining the differentially private protected tables from the 2010 Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File and 2010 Demographic and Housing Characteristics File. Note that this is a microdata format (individual records), not tabular (aggregated totals) format. 
• Detailed Summary Metrics for the new PPMF. 
• Separate noisy measurement files for the two sets of data products in the combined PPMF. The noisy measurement files are an intermediate output of the DAS TopDown Algorithm (TDA), consisting of the full set of tabulations of the confidential data, with differentially private noise added to (or subtracted from) each of the resulting counts, but prior to the post-processing the TDA then performs to ensure internal and hierarchical consistency within the resulting tables. 
• Supporting materials that describe the contents of the release. 
  

The 2010 Demonstration Data Products Suite – Redistricting and DHC were generated using the final Disclosure Avoidance System settings used for production of the official 2020 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File and 2020 Census DHC.

Our current plans call for release of the Demonstration Data Products Suite in April. We will announce specific timing and provide additional guidance once our planning is complete.