Hello readers! We are happy to announce that SimplyAnalytics has successfully migrated to the Census 2020 boundaries on Sunday, November 19th. This blog will talk about what that is, what it means for you now, and what it means moving forward. Let’s get into it.

The United States Census Bureau provides updates to location boundaries every 10 years. They do this based on population changes and to ensure fair representation for locations that have changed over time. For example, maybe a Census Tract or Census Block Group has grown in population over time, and once it reaches a certain population threshold, that Census Tract or Block Group will get split up, and new Tracts or Block Groups will be created.

Check out the example below that highlights the same area in Arizona in 2019 (green), and then with updated boundaries in 2020 (orange).

If you’re interested in a more detailed overview of this, feel free to check out the video here: https://vimeo.com/user68002385/simplyanalytics-historical-mode?share=copy

By default, SimplyAnalytics is now in 2020 boundaries, and with that comes a host of newer data, including 2023 Community Demographics, the complete 2021 ACS (with 2022/23 estimates), The 2020 Decennial Census, and a new 2020 Election dataset - more on that in a future blog.

For returning users: If you are a returning user, you might notice that your views have a historical badge on them or that there’s a note at the top, and it’ll look like this:

This is because all of your work prior to Nov. 19th, 2023, would have been in the older geographies, but as mentioned above SimplyAnalytics now defaults to 2020 Census boundaries.

What if I want to explore the newest data? If you want to use the newest data, simply click on New View at the top-right of the screen and proceed as you normally would. However, if you want to continue using the now older data, you’ll have to go into historical mode - similarly, some datasets are not yet migrated to the new boundaries, and so if you want to access those, you’ll need to use historical mode.

For existing/returning users, we understand that there might be some confusion with accessing some datasets that are not yet available in the newer geographies. But please note that this is temporary. As all future years of the datasets you’ve come to love come online, the only reason you’ll need to go into Historical Mode will be if you want older years of data which is how it has traditionally been.

As always, we are here to help! Please email support@simplyanalytics.com if you are running into any issues.