Boston Fed Introduces New, User-Friendly Way to Analyze Census Bureau Data Boston Fed Introduces New, User-Friendly Way to Analyze Census Bureau Data

August 1, 2013
Contact: Denae Thibault, 617-973-3559, Denae.Thibault@bos.frb.org or Joel Werkema, 617-973-3510, Joel.Werkema@bos.frb.org

BOSTON - The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has developed a new tool that makes published Census data easier to extract and use.

The New England City Data tool allows users to compare cities and towns in a number of categories including median family income, educational attainment, unemployment rate, ethnicity, and home ownership rate. They can also compare these factors to the state average.

"In developing this tool, we had in mind the needs of a variety of data consumers, ranging from national think tanks to local community development leaders," said Kaili Mauricio, Policy Analyst at the Boston Fed. "We see data availability as vital to the community and economic development process, and anticipate that our tool will contribute significantly to this endeavor."

The tool offers easy-to-access demographic and economic data for every county with a population of 4,000 or greater within each of the six New England states. Utilizing census tracts to classify each neighborhood as either low to moderate income (LMI) or moderate to upper income (MUI), the tool allows users to compare LMI and MUI communities on a variety of social and economic indicators.

The data can be viewed using the Boston Fed's interface or downloaded in Excel format. In addition to offering data tables, the tool also includes clean and intelligible summary graphs, perfect for presentations or business meetings.

The Boston Fed's New England City Data Tool is available on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's website