R2 & NE: Tract Level 2006-2010 ACS Language Summary

The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity, and were defined by local participants as part of the 2010 Census Participant Statistical Areas Program. The Census Bureau delineated the census tracts in situations where no local participant existed or where all the potential participants declined to participate. The primary purpose of census tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of census data and comparison back to previous decennial censuses. Census tracts generally have a population size between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. When first delineated, census tracts were designed to be homogeneous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. The spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Physical changes in street patterns caused by highway construction, new development, and so forth, may require boundary revisions. In addition, census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth, or combined as a result of substantial population decline. Census tract boundaries generally follow visible and identifiable features. They may follow legal boundaries such as minor civil division (MCD) or incorporated place boundaries in some States and situations to allow for census tract-to-governmental unit relationships where the governmental boundaries tend to remain unchanged between censuses. State and county boundaries always are census tract boundaries in the standard census geographic hierarchy. In a few rare instances, a census tract may consist of noncontiguous areas. These noncontiguous areas may occur where the census tracts are coextensive with all or parts of legal entities that are themselves noncontiguous. For the 2010 Census, the census tract code range of 9400 through 9499 was enforced for census tracts that include a majority American Indian population according to Census 2000 data and/or their area was primarily covered by federally recognized American Indian reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands; the code range 9800 through 9899 was enforced for those census tracts that contained little or no population and represented a relatively large special land use area such as a National Park, military installation, or a business/industrial park; and the code range 9900 through 9998 was enforced for those census tracts that contained only water area, no land area. This table contains data on language ability and linguistic isolation from the American Community Survey 2006-2010 database for tracts. Linguistic isolation is defined as no one 14 and over speaks English only or speaks English "very well". The American Community Survey (ACS) is a household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that currently has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses. ACS estimates provides communities with the current information they need to plan investments and services. Information from the survey generates estimates that help determine how more than $400 billion in federal and state funds are distributed annually. Each year the survey produces data that cover the periods of 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates for geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico, ranging from neighborhoods to Congressional districts to the entire nation. This table also has a companion table (Same table name with MOE Suffix) with the margin of error (MOE) values for each estimated element. MOE is expressed as a measure value for each estimated element. So a value of 25 and an MOE of 5 means 25 +/- 5 (or statistical certainty between 20 and 30). There are also special cases of MOE. An MOE of -1 means the associated estimates do not have a measured error. An MOE of 0 means that error calculation is not appropriate for the associated value. An MOE of 109 is set whenever an estimate value is 0. The MOEs of aggregated elements and percentages must be calculated. This process means using standard error calculations as described in "American Community Survey Multiyear Accuracy of the Data (3-year 2008-2010 and 5-year 2006-2010)". Also, following Census guidelines, aggregated MOEs do not use more than 1 0-element MOE (109) to prevent over estimation of the error. Due to the complexity of the calculations, some percentage MOEs cannot be calculated (these are set to null in the summary-level MOE tables). The name for table 'ACS10LANTRMOE' was added as a prefix to all field names imported from that table. Be sure to turn off 'Show Field Aliases' to see complete field names in the Attribute Table of this feature layer. This can be done in the 'Table Options' drop-down menu in the Attribute Table or with key sequence '[CTRL]+[SHIFT]+N'. Due to database restrictions, the prefix may have been abbreviated if the field name exceded the maximum allowed characters.