Some geographic entities that served the internal administrative needs of the Census Bureau have become important to the data user community. Census blocks, enumeration districts (EDs), and block numbering areas (BNAs) were first used as operational units for taking and tabulating the census. As data users needed more small-area statistics, these operational units came into use as official entities for the tabulation and dissemination of decennial census statistics. Chapters 3, 10, and 11 provide further information.
Some kinds of statistical entities identify the settlements or territories of specific indigenous populations, the American Indians and Alaska Natives. Before the Census Bureau established boundaries for these new categories of geography, boundaries within which it would aggregate the 1990 decennial census data, the Census Bureau received assistance from tribal and Alaska Native leaders. Chapter 5, “American Indian and Alaska Native Areas,” provides further information. While the tabulation and publication of data for these entities stem from the special needs of, or requests from, the agencies and groups that especially require them, these entities also are of interest to the overall community of data users. Therefore, the Census Bureau has added these entities to the data tapes, technical documentation, maps, and publications it makes available to the general public.
All these developments reflect the Census Bureau’s commitment to provide the data user community with the best possible configuration of geographic units. Before each decennial census, the Census Bureau solicits public reaction to its programs and products. For statistical entities, the interaction that this consultative process entails requires some familiarity on the part of the data users with the specific standards and criteria that guide the creation, maintenance, and update of a particular kind of entity. To ensure future interaction, both the Census Bureau and the data user community plan to continue a periodic review of the criteria for statistical entities to ensure that the conceptual basis for each type remains appropriate and that the entity still provides the data summaries users require.
