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Census tracts, designed to average 4,000 population at the time of the decennial census, were initially defined to approximate neighborhoods. While, over time, the demographics of most more urban census tracts erode homogeneity of the tract population make-up, tract geodemographics continue to offer the best small area geography for small area demographic analysis.
Features making tracts popular include:
| • | unchanging boundaries for a 10-year decennial period and often longer enabling longitudinal analysis, |
| • | useful proxy for examining neighborhoods and small area markets, |
| • | provide "demographic denominator" for many diverse "numerator subject matter estimates," |
| • | boundaries that are coterminous with county boundaries, |
| • | non-decennial data are often tabulated at the tract level, |
| • | for the decennial census: |
| • | extensive race/ethnicity data are tabulated for tracts not available for smaller tabulation levels; |
| • | provide the most reliable small area demographic estimates covering the U.S. wall-to-wall. |
Proximity Neighborhood-related Web pages
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