BALTIMORE (January 31, 2011) – Every year since 2005, the Census Bureau has surveyed 3 million addresses for the American Community Survey (ACS), asking questions about the demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics of the population. The ACS replaced the long form that was formerly part of the decennial census, and is used to produce an estimate of data over time.

In December, 2010, the Census Bureau released ACS data from 2005-2009 for small geographic areas. Using this data, BMC has produced a series of maps that provide snapshots of the entire Baltimore region, as well as of each jurisdiction. The following maps are available in PDF format at www.baltometro.org:

• Population Density (region)
• Race and Hispanic Heritage (region)
• Median Household Income (by jurisdiction)
• Poverty (by jurisdiction)
• Unemployment (by jurisdiction)
• Homes Where Mortgage Is More Than 30% of Income (by jurisdiction)
• Rental Units Where Rent Is More Than 30% of Income (by jurisdiction)
• Workers Who Take Public Transportation to Work (by jurisdiction)

In addition, BMC has created an interactive online map where data can be viewed at the Regional Planning District (RPD) level. The RPDs follow census boundaries and contain one or more census tracts. There are 94 RPDs in the Baltimore region. To see data for a particular RPD, simply click on that location and ACS 2005-2009 data will appear.

ACS data will be refreshed every year. Data for the period 2006-2010 is scheduled to be released by the end of 2011. BMC is awaiting the official 2010 census data release in February or March 2011 and will display these data sets at the same geographic levels