Data Source - Data Source - page 23

Figure1-5.US Census site
Then you'll be able to download that data as a text ile. The format is a bit odd, a table with
columns separated by “|” (pipe) characters, but with a bit of ind-and-replace magic, you can
convert them into standard CSV iles readable by any spreadsheet.
To ensure privacy, the Census does rearrange its very detailed data in some cases, without in-
validating its statistical signiicance. For example, if there's only one Iranian doctor in Boulder,
Colorado, that person may be included in a neighboring city's data instead and swapped with an
equivalent person's information, so the overall statistics on income, etc. are unafected.
There's also a wealth of shape data available , giving detailed coordinates for the boundaries of
US counties, states, cities, and congressional districts.
Zillow Neighborhoods
The only US boundary that the Census doesn't ofer is neighborhoods. Thankfully, the Zillow
real estate site has made its neighborhood data available as Creative Commons-licensed down-
loads ( Figure 1-6 ).