Marilyn Stephens Data Dissemination Specialist US Census Bureau

“If a company buys, or perhaps even does its own market research, chances are that the basis of that research is census data. For businesses whose sales depend on individual consumers, census data is essential. Census data tells the story of how Americans live.”

How people live in a given area Describes living arrangements Ages Income Educational Attainment Commuting Patterns Occupations

Describes kinds of homes people have Age of home Number of rooms Median housing value Complete plumbing or not Telephone availability Vehicles Type of home-heating fuel

With the majority of mothers in the workplace, day care is a necessity. If someone wants to open a daycare center, the first thing to do is to look at various locations based on the number of children under age 5 living within a 1- to 5-mile radius.

How many day care centers are located in targeted zip code areas? – Check County Business Patterns How many children under age 6 in selected areas?

A person with skills in renovating older homes would search for those neighborhoods where much of the housing was built prior to 1950 or A company considering relocation would look for areas with a significant supply of skilled labor, combining those data with commuting patterns, occupation and education data.

A company that provides personal services, such as cleaning or lawn- care or car detailing, would seek out information on middle- and high- income neighborhoods. A law firm, looking at the aging of the population in the state, may decide to expand its practice in law specific to the elderly.

A manufacturer compared statistics for his company with industry-wide figures in census reports. He became concerned when he found that they achieved less value added per employee than the competition--represented by industry averages. Census figures helped him convince the company's Board of Directors to reduce administrative staff and take other measures to increase productivity and profitability.

A soft drink bottler considered expanding into two related beverage manufacturing operations: milk and alcoholic beverages. Economic Census data shed light on industry specialization, company size, and the relationship of expenses to receipts-- information that encouraged the bottler to diversify.

A restaurant supply wholesaler calculated that it had roughly an 11- percent market share--its own sales divided by state totals for similar businesses-- in its primary sales region in the northern mountain states. The wholesaler used that figure as a target when it expanded into Arizona and New Mexico.

A man who had developed software for managing quality control operations made a list of industries most likely to use his product, then ranked the top industries based on census figures on value added and growth. He customized his software to appeal to those top prospects.

 Provides a picture of your target group or community  Can be relatively specific to your target area  Easy to compare to other areas, States, counties, cities, census tracts  Changes in population can be tracked over time