2010 PSAP Plan

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2010 Participant Statistical Areas Program

The Census Bureau plans to conduct the Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP), a decennial program to update existing, and delineate new, census tracts (CTs), block groups (BGs), census designated places (CDPs)¹ and census county divisions (CCDs)², known as participant statistical areas for reporting of Census Bureau data under the generic clearance for the Geographic Partnership Programs (GPP) OMB number 0607-0795.

Participants are from the United States³, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas⁴. Under the voluntary PSAP program, participants are regional, multi-county organizations (councils of government, metropolitan planning organizations and other regional organizations), local government agencies (county government representatives, city government representatives), state data centers and other state-level organizations, and committees of interested organizations/individuals.

PSAP was developed to give local governments and organizations the opportunity to review and update, if necessary, participant statistical geographic entities for use in tabulating and publishing data from the 2010 Census, the American Community Survey (ACS)⁵, and other surveys beyond 2010⁶. For PSAP the participants will review, update, and delineate new census tracts, block groups, CDPs, and CCDs. The goal of PSAP is to define meaningful statistical areas to obtain relevant small area and place-level statistical data.

The 2010 PSAP will have approximately 1,000 external primary participants (areas without an external participant will be worked by the Census Bureau). The majority (about 550) of the primary participants are County participants. Approximately 400 Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Councils of Governments, and other regional organizations are participating. The remaining external participants are sub-county governmental agencies or state-level agencies. These approximately 1000 participants will perform the PSAP activities for about 2,500 counties.

The participants will have the opportunity to review their areas, as depicted in the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER Database (MTdb). The review and update of the participant statistical areas are conducted through use of the MAF/TIGER (Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing System) Participant Software (MTPS), new software developed solely for the purpose of reviewing, updating, and submitting Census Bureau geographic areas. The estimated required time to complete and submit an average county proposal through the computer based submission is approximately 48 working hours.

Once complete, participants return the proposals to the Census Bureau Regional Census Center (RCC) geographic staff that will verify the submitted statistical areas according to established criteria and requirements. The Census Bureau will reject any statistical area proposal that is not based on the Census Bureau-supplied shapefiles, or not generated using the MTPS. In other cases the Census Bureau will return the proposal to the participant for reworking and resubmission.

After the Census Bureau determines that the statistical area proposal meets all requirements, staff will insert the areas into the MTdb. The Census Bureau will notify the participant once the review and approval of their PSAP proposal is completed. Subject to budget constraints, the Census Bureau plans to provide PSAP participants an opportunity to verify the accuracy of their participant statistical areas boundaries, codes, and names as they appear in the MTdb before their use in 2010 Census tabulations.

The Census Bureau is responsible for ensuring nationwide consistency for statistical areas and reserves the right to require, or to make, adjustments to participant statistical area boundaries, names, and identifiers that do not meet the 2010 Census criteria. The Census Bureau may modify, and if necessary reject, proposed participant statistical areas that do not comply with the 2010 Census criteria.

The information collection for PSAP will occur from November 12, 2008 through April 3, 2009. The Census Bureau Regional Offices will review the information collected from November 28, 2008 through August 14, 2009. Participants will verify the boundary changes from August 24, 2009 through February 19, 2010.

The 2009 estimate of average burden to perform PSAP activities per county is approximately 48 hours. The Fiscal Year 2009 estimate of total respondent burden hours is, therefore, 120,000 hours for the 2500 counties to be worked by external participants.

PSAP information is used to provide an appropriate record for reporting the results of the decennial and economic censuses and surveys, annual surveys to support the annual population estimates program, and the American Community Survey. Title 13 of the United States Code, Section 16 authorizes this information collection.

The contact person for questions regarding the Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP) is:

Linda Franz

Assistant Division Chief, Geographic Partnerships

Geography Division

Washington, DC 20233

(301) 763-9039

1 The term CDP includes communidades and zonas urbanas in Puerto Rico.

2 CCDs are only present in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii , Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. CCDs will only be reviewed and updated as part of the PSAP in these states. In Alaska, census subareas are equivalents of CCDs. For the 2010 Census and beyond, Tennessee will have MCDs (following county commissioner districts) instead of CCDs.

3 For Census Bureau purposes, the United States includes the fifty states and the District of Columbia.

4 For Census Bureau purposes, the Island Areas includes American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands. The U.S. Minor Outlying Islands are an aggregation of nine U.S. territories: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island.

5 The ACS is conducted in the United States and in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico the survey is called the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS). Throughout this document the term ACS is used to represent the surveys conducted in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Additional information about the ACS can be found at: www.census.gov/acs/www/.

6 The 2009 ACS data will be tabulated to the 2000 geography and is currently scheduled to be published in 2010. The 2010 ACS data will be tabulated to the 2010 geography and will be published in 2011.