US census data can be a goldmine for social scientists as they offer one of the few (perhaps only?) surveys of our country’s demography. And while raw census data is kept confidential initially, after 72 years even this data is made publically available. The most recent data to be made public is from the 1940 census. You can access a nice census data search engine here. This lets you search by state, county, city and then street. Once you find the street you are interested in, you can access the scanned paper forms filled out by the original enumerators of many years ago. With names, addresses, ethnicity and much more now publicly available, the 1940 Census is also now a goldmine for professional and amateur genealogists alike.
Until my next edition of the Free For All, happy hunting for free geospatial goodies!
Brock Adam McCarty
Map Wizard
(720) 470-7988
brock@apollomapping.com
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