Happy New Year… of Data!

One of PolicyMap’s most prevalent data sources, Nielsen, has issued its annual update, which is now available at PolicyMap. Nielsen, which was previously known as Claritas, Inc., releases yearly estimates for Census indicators, as well as five-year projections for the future. Indicators like Total Population, Race and Ethnicity, Per Capita Income, and Employment by Industry are now available for 2000, 2010, and 2015.

We swapped out as many 2009 and 2014 indicators as possible with the 2010/2015 updates because every year, Nielsen updates its methodology for coming up with its current estimates, and so their data from last year is not comparable with this year. Nielsen made some changes in 2010 and did not release a few indicator updates, such as for homeownership by race. This means that you’ll see a few of the 2009 and 2014 indicators, but that the majority of the 2009/2014 data is no longer available for Nielsen indicators.

You may be wondering why we have 2010 estimates from Nielsen when you just filled out forms for the 2010 Census. That’s because the Census data won’t be released until August 2011. We will have it on PolicyMap as soon as it comes out. In the meantime, though, you can look forward to the 2005-2009 rolling estimates for many of these indicators from the American Community Survey (ACS), which is poised to be released by the Census in January 2011.

This new Nielsen data is available for subscribers only, though as always, 2000 Census data is freely available to all our users. And once the 2005-2009 ACS and 2010 Census data are released, they, too, will be freely available for all our users. Happy New Year of Data!