2020 Census Data Products

This proceedings summarizes the presentations and discussions at the Workshop on the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics File, held June 21-22, 2022. The workshop was convened by the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assist the U.S. Census Bureau with its new disclosure avoidance system for 2020 Census data products, which implements algorithms providing differential privacy. The workshop focused specifically on the Demographic and Housing Characteristics File, a major source of data for local governments, particularly those with small populations, and many other data users in the federal, state, academic, and business sectors. The intent was to garner feedback from users on the usability of the privacy-protected data by evaluating DHC demonstration files produced with the proposed TopDown Algorithm on 2010 Census data.

Table of Contents

Front Matter 1 Introduction 2 Data Equity and Communication Strategies 3 Overview of Disclosure Avoidance and Census Data Products 4 Evaluation of the Demonstration Data on Age 5 Evaluation of the Demonstration Data on Housing and Tenure 6 Evaluation of the Demonstration Data on Small Areas and Populations 7 Evaluation of the Demonstration Data in Public Health 8 Privacy Concerns 9 Observations on Use Cases and Needs 10 Statutory Requirements and Resource Allocation 11 Reflections and Ideas for Moving Forward References Appendix A: Public Meeting Agenda1 Appendix B: Committee and Speaker Biosketches Committee on National Statistics