SEPT. 16, 2021 — Today, the Census Bureau released the updated 2020 Census Data Product Planning Crosswalk (Crosswalk). The Crosswalk compares the 2020 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File tables and proposed 2020 Census Demographic Profile, Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (DHC), and Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File (Detailed DHC) tables to the published 2010 Census tables. The Crosswalk demonstrates progress on the 2020 Census data products and provides a resource to data users when providing feedback on the DHC and Detailed DHC.
We ask that you submit your comments using the subject "2020 Census data products" by Friday, October 22 to: 2020DAS@census.gov. In particular, we are seeking feedback on DHC use cases for lower levels of geography (e.g., block and block group) and feedback on the Detailed DHC as we finalize the contents and available geographies.
Please join us for a webinar on Tuesday, September 30 at 3 p.m. ET. We’ll walk through information in the Crosswalk and take your questions. Login details will follow closer to the date.
We’ll also be providing an update on our data product release plans on Friday, September 24, at 11:10 a.m. ET, at the Census Scientific Advisory Committee (CSAC) fall meeting. You can watch the presentation via live stream. Tune in to learn more about changes under consideration for the DHC, external engagement strategy, and the development timeline, including target decision points by the Data Stewardship Executive Policy Committee (DSEP) and target demonstration data release plans.
In 2018, the Census Bureau issued a Federal Register notice to obtain initial feedback on the 2020 Census data products that would be available in what we are now referring to as the DHC. Since that time, our data users have become much more familiar with both the functionality of the 2020 Disclosure Avoidance System. We are especially interested in feedback on uses of the DHC tables at lower levels of geography, such as census blocks and block groups.
In addition, we have made substantial progress on the Detailed DHC. The Crosswalk provides data users the opportunity to view the list of proposed Detailed DHC tables and table contents for the first time. Still, much of this work is underway, and the Crosswalk does not include proposed population thresholds, an iteration list, and some geographies.
We invite you to provide feedback for the ongoing Detailed DHC work. The data product feedback that we received in 2019 and 2020 helped us revise our plans to better meet our data users’ needs, and this feedback was implemented in the updated Crosswalk. However, additional feedback would assist us, especially as we begin the complex process of assigning privacy-loss budget to the tables and queries associated with the 2020 Census data products.
Earlier data user feedback addressed a wide range of use cases for the data contained in the DHC. For example, the creation of population estimates at local and regional levels, school district and city planning, and funding allocation at the federal, state, and local levels. All of that previous feedback will also inform our decision-making. Still, we encourage data users to provide new, complementary, or supplemental feedback while considering the accuracy and privacy-loss budget tradeoff.
Again, please aim to submit your feedback by Friday, October 22 via 2020DAS@census.gov.