WebJunction - Demographics

Question: The Indiana Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs needs the most current median household income data for Hispanics in Marion County (Indianapolis), Allen County (Fort Wayne), and Lake County (Gary).

Note: For this exercise, we will use 2005 American Community Survey data. Data is not available for many counties (those with populations fewer than 65,000) but it is available for the counties requested. Also, we are not concerned that the 2005 ACS does not include group quarters data since median household income is requested.

1. Go to the American FactFinder at http://factfinder.census.gov.
2. Choose Data Sets from the left column; page will default to Census2000 screen.
3. Choose American Community Survey in the left column; the page will default to the 2005 ACS screen.
4. Click on “Detailed Tables” to the right.
5. Select “County” as the geographic type; select Indiana as the state; select Allen County, Lake County, and Marion County; click “Add” and then “Next”.
6. Click on the gray “By Subject” tab.
7. Scroll to “Income (Households and Families)” and click “Search”.
8. Scroll to “B190131: Median household income in the past 12 months (in 2005 inflation-adjusted dollars) (Hispanic or Latino householder)” and click “Add”, then “Show Result”.
9. Data may be printed or downloaded using the “Print/Download” option at the top.

Discussion questions:

• What are the margins or error for each county? Why are they so different?