Census Comparison Exercise: Redistricting Data vs. ACS

Objective: Practice downloading and comparing data from two Census sources — the 2020 Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) and the latest ACS 1-Year Estimates.
Time: ~25 minutes

Step 1. Form Your Group (2 minutes)

Group Members: ________

Step 2. Download Data (10 minutes)

2a. Redistricting Data (PL 94-171, 2020 Census)

Go to data.census.gov.
Search for “PL 94-171 Redistricting Data”.
Select State-level data (choose all 50 states).
Download the table with total population.

2b. Latest ACS 1-Year Estimates

On data.census.gov, search for ACS 1-Year, Total Population.
Download state-level data.

Step 3. Calculate Growth Rate (5 minutes)

For each state, calculate the growth rate between 2020 Census (Redistricting data) and the ACS 1-Year estimate.

\[\text{Growth Rate (\%)} = \frac{\text{ACS Population - Census 2020 Population}} {\text{Census 2020 Population}} \times 100\]

Example calculation (for one state):
Census 2020 Population = 10,711,908
ACS 1-Year Population = 10,912,876
Growth Rate = $((10{,}912{,}876 - 10{,}711{,}908)/10{,}711{,}908) \times 100 \approx 1.87\%$

Step 4. Create a Plot (5–7 minutes)

Make a quick plot to show the growth rates. You may choose:

Bar chart (states on x-axis, growth rates on y-axis)
Map (shading states by growth rate)
Line plot (lines connecting change in population over time)

Draw it by hand on paper OR use software (Excel, Google Sheets, R, Python).