Thursday, November 6, 2008

Book: Census Atlas of the USA

The United States government Census Bureau has released a book called Census Atlas of the United States. It can be downloaded in PDF format at http://www.census.gov:80/population/www/cen2000/censusatlas/. The web site says:

"We are pleased to present the complete content, in PDF format, of the recently published Census Atlas of the United States, the first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s. The Census Atlas is a large-format publication about 300 pages long and containing almost 800 maps. Data from decennial censuses prior to 2000 support nearly 150 maps and figures, providing context and an historical perspective for many of the topics presented.

"A variety of topics are covered in the Census Atlas, ranging from language and ancestry characteristics to housing patterns and the geographic distribution of the population. A majority of the maps in the Census Atlas present data at the county level, but data also are sometimes mapped by state, census tract (for largest cities and metropolitan areas), and for selected American Indian reservations. The book is modern, colorful, and includes a variety of map styles and data symbolization techniques."

For a history, geography or sociology wizard, this book is a gold mine of information. Genealogists will probably appreciate the chapters on Population Distribution, Place of Birth and US Citizenship, Migration and Ancestry.

The entire work is over 262 mb for about 300 pages. The book is chock full of maps. Most of the information was derived from census records.

1 comment:

Becky Thompson said...

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I'm sharing this news with our Family History Consultants!