Census data can be interesting and super informative, but getting the data out of the dreaded American FactFinder is often a pain, especially if you don’t know the exact table you want. (This is typically the case.) CensusReporter, currently in beta, tries to make the process easier.
CensusReporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easy for journalists to write stories using U.S. Census data. Expanding upon the volunteer-built Census.ire.org, Census Reporter will simplify finding and using data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The goal of the new site is to include much more data, to provide a friendlier interface for navigating all of that data, and, as much as possible, to use visualizations to provide a more useful first look at the data.
Although the application is still a work-in-progress, it’s usable and clearly on its way to an improvement over the painful default. The CensusReporter is faster, easier to use, and the graphics provide a visual summary that helps you decide if the current table is actually what you want.
