| Explore Census Data | Social Explorer | SimplyAnalytics | SparkMap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription? | Free from U.S. Census | MU students, faculty, staff | MU students, faculty, staff | No MU subscription but single-county option is free |
| Overview | Replaces AmericanFactFinder (data still being migrated as of 8/2024) | Extensive, highly customizable marketing data, maps, and forecasts | Easy reports, maps across decades, PowerPoint export | County needs assessment data and mapping |
| Guides and How-To's | https://www.census.gov/data/what-is-data-census-gov/guidance-for-data-users/how-to-materials-for-using-data-census-gov.html | https://socialexplorer.libguides.com/socialexplorer | https://simplyanalytics.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/200837666-Tips-Tricks | https://sparkmap.org/get-started/ |
| Login URL | https://data.census.gov/ | https://proxy.mul.missouri.edu/login?url=https://www.socialexplorer.com/explore-maps | https://proxy.mul.missouri.edu/login?url=https://app.simplyanalytics.com/ | https://sparkmap.org/wp-login.php |
|
Limit # Users? |
unlimited | Unlimited MU users | Unlimited MU users | unlimited |
| Personal Storage? | Available using "share" button and/or URL copy (somewhat complicated) | Create personal account within MU Libraries subscription | Create personal account within MU Libraries subscription | Available with free registration |
| Time Coverage | varies by dataset; current and some historical data | varies by dataset; 1790-2020+ , a few future projections | varies by dataset; present and future focused with a few historical comparisons back to 1980 available | present-focused with some data on 2010-2020 change |
| Earliest Year | varies by dataset - decennial census reports are old scans, sometimes missing since an August 2024 web update, not always searchable | 1790 (decennial census only) | 2000 | 2010 |
| Annual Data? | American Community Survey, other surveys from the Census Bureau | American Community Survey, a few other US government series annual to 2020, 2021 or 2022 | American Community Survey, Claritas, MRI-Simmons (marketing/business data) | American Community Survey, a few other US government series annual to 2020, 2021 or 2022 |
| Forecasts? | no, although American Community Survey is itself based on estimates from a sample | There is a "U.S. Social Explorer Estimates/Projections" set of tables. | 5-year forecast | some 2025, 2026 |
| Number of Variables? | ? | Over 500,000 | Over 200,000 | 80+ (free version); more in paid version |
| Topics Listed | Business & Economy, Education, Emergency Management, Employment, Families and Living Arrangements, Health, Housing, Income and Poverty, International Trade, Population, Public Sector, Research | U.S. Decennial Census, American Community Surveys, U.S. Citizen Voting Age Population, Black Lives Matter, U.S. Census Population Estimates, Market Profile Data, U.S. School Data, U.S. Housing Data, U.S. Business Patterns, U.S. Economic Indicators, U.S. Environmental Summaries, U.S. Religion Data (RCMS), U.S. Crime Data (UCR), U.S. Crime Data (FBI), U.S. Health Data, U.S. Cancer Data, U.S. Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics, Canadian Census, UK Census, Eurostat, World Development Indicators, Census of Agriculture, Demographics | Popular Data, Population, Age, Gender, Race & Ethnicity, Income, Education, Jobs & Employment, Poverty, Language, Ancestry, Households, Family Type & Marital Status, Vehicles & Transportation, Housing, Market Segments, Consumer Behavior, Health, Technology, Finance, Retail, Business Counts, Elections, Other | Demographics, Income and Economics, Educatin, Housing and Families, Other Social & Economic Factors, Physical Environment, Clinical Care and Prevention, Health Behaviors, Health Outcomes, Healthcare Workforce, COVID-19 |
| Ready-made reports? |
maps: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/data/interactive-maps.html data files for public use: https://www.census.gov/data/datasets.html |
yes, Demographic Profiles for states, counties, Places, MSA, and ZIP Codes. | yes | yes |
| Consumer spending? | no | no | yes | no |
| Voting data? | no | |||
| Health? | yes | |||
| Religion? | limited years | yes | no | |
| Market segments? | no | |||
| Ring Study? | yes | yes | no | |
| Select data by points on map? | ||||
| Download | ||||
| Statistical analysis | ||||
| PowerPoint | ||||
| GIS | Shapefiles for 15 types of geographic entity (e.g., U.S. Unified School District, U.S. Tract 1910-2019) available for download | |||
| Data Sources | U.S. Census (decennial), American Community Survey (annual), other censuses. 19th century population census includes some sections later broken out into separate censuses, such as Agriculture. | |||
| Company website | census.gov |
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