Where Neighborhood Insights data comes from

Neighborhood Insights brings together Census geography files and ACS measures on population, age, education, marital status, household income, and home values. This guide explains the main metrics on the site and points to the official Census documentation behind them.

Two Census sources power the site

Neighborhood Insights relies on two main Census sources. The estimates come from the American Community Survey 5-Year Detailed Tables for 2018 through 2024. The boundaries come from TIGER/Line geography files.

ACS provides the numbers shown across the site, while TIGER/Line provides the map boundaries for states, counties, places, and metro areas. For a plain-English guide to those geography types, see our Census geography guide.

Neighborhood Insights also applies proprietary methodology and standardization so those public Census sources can be shown consistently across the site.

The ACS tables behind the main site metrics

Neighborhood Insights shows more than one kind of number. Some measures describe the people in an area. Others describe households or housing. The table below lists the ACS detailed tables behind the main metrics used across the site.

The wording here follows the latest official Census documentation for the 2024 ACS 5-year release, even though the site's time series spans 2018 through 2024.

ACS tableOfficial table nameUniverse
B01002Median Age by Sex Total population
B01003Total Population Total population
B12001Sex by Marital Status for the Population 15 Years and Over Population 15 years and over
B15003Educational Attainment for the Population 25 Years and Over Population 25 years and over
B19001Household Income in the Past 12 Months Households
B19013Median Household Income in the Past 12 Months Households
B25075Value Owner-occupied housing units
B25076Lower Value Quartile (Dollars) Owner-occupied housing units
B25077Median Value (Dollars) Owner-occupied housing units
B25078Upper Value Quartile (Dollars) Owner-occupied housing units