New tools to get data coming soon

The Census Bureau will release the data from the 2010 Census January 2011. Reporters looking for a bit more depth and context to their stories will want to use that data.

But it can be overwhelming using all those numbers and table.

Ta! Da!

The Census Bureau has a new page just for databased challenged people.

Starting January 2011 the American FactFinder portion of the Census Bureau will be redesigned and augmented to make data searches and retrievals a whole lot easier.

  • Take a virtual tour of the new options by clicking here.
  • Click here to see a PDF document about the new site.

Of course the current FactFinder page is still working. For example, with just two or three mouse clicks I found out that the average drive time of home to work in the metro Washington, DC area is 32 minutes. (The U.S. average is 25 minutes.)

It really is easy to use. And from what I see about FactFinder2, it will be even easier.