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2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC)
2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC)
On this page:
About the DHC
The 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC) includes detailed data tables on the following:
- Subjects: Age, sex, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, household type, family type, relationship to householder, group quarters population, housing occupancy, and housing tenure
- Lowest level of geography: Varies, with many tables at the census block level
- Many of the DHC tables are also available for ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) generalized representations of U.S. Postal Service ZIP Code service routes.
Which 2020 Census Data Product Should I Use?
Access DHC Data
User note: When using DHC data, we encourage data users to aggregate small populations and geographies to improve accuracy and diminish implausible results. For more information, visit our Technical Documentation webpage.
Interested in data tables on a specific topic? Access popular tables directly from the Explore Data By Topic section below.
All DHC data tables are available on data.census.gov. Access them here: data.census.gov.
Video
Accessing 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics Data on data.census.gov
In this video tutorial, we show you how to access 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics housing data in data.census.gov.
Video
2020 Demographic and Housing Characteristics File: Using the Census Data API to Get Individual Data Points
Learn how to access data from the API to find individual data points from the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File.
Video
Comparing 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics Data to 2010 Census Data
Learn how to access data from the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File and compare it with data from the 2010 Census.
Tutorial
Find Changes and Trends with 2020 Census Data Visualizations
In this Data Gem, explore features of two interactive data visualizations, How Has Our Nation’s Population Changed and Exploring Age Groups in the 2020 Census.
Visualization
How Has Our Nation's Population Changed?
See how the total population and race and ethnicity groups have changed over time for the nation, states, metropolitan areas, micropolitan areas, and counties.
Explore Data by Topic
Access data tables on specific topics and find related data visualizations, maps, America Counts stories, and other resources below.
View data for counties, census tracts, and other geographies
Click the link for the national-level table above. This will take you to the data table for the entire U.S population. Once there, you can select the data for specific counties, tracts, or blocks by drilling down using the Geography filter.
The 2020 Census DHC provides data on the following race and ethnicity categories:
- Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino
- White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, and Two or More Races (also referred to as the Multiracial population)
Learn more through visualizations, maps, and other resources:
Note for Data Users:
Comparisons between 2020 Census and 2010 Census race data should be made with caution and take into account improvements the Census Bureau made to the Hispanic origin and race questions and the ways it codes what people report in their responses.
Accordingly, data from the 2020 Census show different but reasonable and expected distributions from the 2010 Census for the White alone, Some Other Race alone or in combination and Multiracial populations, especially for people who self-identify as both White and Some Other Race.
These results are not surprising as they align with Census Bureau research this past decade, particularly on the impact of question format on race and ethnicity reporting from the 2015 National Content Test.
More Race and Ethnicity Data Coming:
In September 2023, through the Detailed DHC-A product, the Census Bureau will release 2020 Census population counts and sex by age statistics for approximately 370 detailed racial and ethnic groups, such as German, Lebanese, Jamaican, Chinese, Native Hawaiian, and Mexican, as well as about 1,200 detailed American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages, such as the Navajo Nation.
Families are defined as two or more people living together related by birth, marriage or adoption. Households are defined as all the people living in a housing unit, including people living alone or in families.
Learn more through other resources:
The 2020 Census provides information about occupied and vacant housing units. For occupied units, it includes information on tenure—whether the householder owns or rents the home. For vacant units, the 2020 Census provides information on the reasons for vacancy—whether the unit is for rent, for sale, held for seasonal use, etc.
Learn more through other resources:
Group quarters are defined as places where people live or stay in a group living arrangement that is owned or managed by organizations providing housing or services for the residents.
Group quarters include places such as college/university student housing, group homes, military barracks, emergency and transitional shelters, and correctional facilities.
Learn more through other resources:
Other Ways to Explore the Data
Click the map below to view state, county, and census tract-level data on: population, race, Hispanic origin, families and households, housing, and group quarters.
Technical Documentation and Other Guidance
Data Confidentiality
As with all Census Bureau data products, DHC data use disclosure avoidance methods to protect respondent confidentiality. To ensure that no one can link the published data to a specific person or household with any certainty, “statistical noise” — small, random additions or subtractions — was added to the data. The Census Bureau worked closely with the data user community to implement these protections.
The Census Bureau also released metrics to help data users understand the disclosure avoidance-related variability in the DHC. The 2020 Census is the first to be able to quantify this variability because it uses a more sophisticated approach for disclosure avoidance.
How new disclosure avoidance protections work
Disclosure Avoidance and the 2020 Census: The TopDown Algorithm
Why the Census Bureau Chose Differential Privacy
How the statistical noise affects the data
What to Expect: Disclosure Avoidance and the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File
2020 Census Production Disclosure Avoidance System Detailed Summary Metrics
Related Information
Page Last Revised - September 27, 2023
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