Economic Census   Tags: economic census, economics  

Short instructional videos for how to navigate the 2007 Census are available here.

Go here to generate thematic maps using data from the 2007 Census.  An example is shown below:

Number of Establishments for Retail Trade 2007

The Economic Census is only one of many activities of the U.S. Census Bureau.  The Economic Census is comprised of a series of statistical profiles of U.S. businesses at the national and local level.  Businesses in the Economic Census are grouped into industries based on the similarity of their production processes using a classificatory schema known as the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). 

Data collection and analysis is a huge and complex task.  The most recent data for the Economic Census was collected in 2007, with data releases not starting until March of 2009!  Since data is aggregated by NAICS, this means that you will not find information about a specific company via the Economic Census.

Categories of data gathered from businesses with the same NAICS include:

• Number of establishments and firms
• Employment
• Labor costs
• Sales, receipts and value of shipments/construction work done
• Expenses
• Assets, capital expenditures and inventories

A complete inventory of data points gathered can be found here.

Starting with the 2007 Economic Census, the Census Bureau will no longer publish print / CD / .pdf versions of its data.  Rather, data will be published as it becomes available via the interactive American FactFinder tool.  Data from the 2002 and 1997 Economic Censuses are also available via this FactFinder tool. Please note:  not all the 2007 data has been released yet.  Go here to see what has been released.

Not all industries are covered by the 2007 Economic Census.  The list of excluded industries includes the Agricultural sector, which has its own census.

Older web sites for the 2002 and 1997 Economic Census can be found here.  These sites provide access to .pdf files of reports. 

Another innovation of the 2007 Economic Census is the Industry Snapshot. 2007 data is compared against 2002 data for some interesting insights into industry trends.