Staff Block Estimates

2021 update

All of the documents at the links below have been updated for 2021.  The data file with block-level estimates for housing units, households and population includes estimates for 2011-2021.

Given the methodology employed, there may be differences between the 2015 block-level estimates in the link below compared to the values previously published. 

For several years, the Commission has relied on a commercial data vendor, GeoLytics, for block-level estimates of the number of housing units, households and people in the U.S.  With the end of the ARRA-funded contract for data as of 2014, we have had to evaluate our options for a data source going forward.

Commercial data sources can have advantages over publicly available data.  For example, commercial vendors can access other commercial data sets like address databases, or use proprietary algorithms developed over several years to make their estimates.  However, there are also drawbacks to relying on commercial data.  Most obvious is the cost of commercial data, particularly at a time when budgets are under pressure.  There can also be data-rights issues; it can be difficult to negotiate the right to use and publish the data on which the Commission relies.  In addition, commercial data sets may not agree with the authoritative data published by the U.S. Census Bureau each year.  And, finally, commercial data sets may not include all of the U.S. territories.

Given all these issues, Commission staff have created block-level estimates for all 56 states, territories and the District of Columbia, based on public data from the U.S. Census Bureau and OpenStreetMap. Staff will use these data in calculations going forward instead of the GeoLytics data, for example, in calculating the fraction of people who lack access to Advanced Telecommunications Capability in the Broadband Progress Report.  

Documents available for download (updated to include data through 2021):  

• Methodology document provides more detail about how the calculation is made. Download
• Code example document provides the code used for one county. Download
• Data file provides housing unit, household and population counts for each block for 2020 (US Census) and 2021 (Commission staff estimate) Download
• County (or county-equivalent) level housing unit and population estimates from U.S. Census Bureau Download

Documents available for download (prior version):

• Methodology document provides more detail about how the calculation is made. Download
• Code example document provides the code used for one county. Download