Quote:
Originally Posted by skibumdc
While mostly true, neighborhoods and zip codes can change drastically in the 10 years between censuseseses. sp? 
Example: The Northern Virginia landscape has changed so dramatically over the past decade, the census data taken in 2000 has been worthless for school planning since 2002.
We still need the census, but the data is truly only useful in a suburban environment like the DC Metro area for 2 years. Demographics, income levels, age groups can change in as little as a year based on an article in the Post. |
That's quite true, but those are the limitations imposed by the census mechanism the US has chosen to implement, so it is what you have to work with. Partially to overcome the data validity due to age issue Canada does a census every 5 years instead of every 10. Our census also asks for much more detail in some areas (level of education, income levels, marital status, employment, etc) and the general statistical information is released publicly almost immediately. I don't know how long the waiting period is to get individual specific data though as I've never really gotten into genealogy or family research.