Support : Dialog Search Aids : File 581- Definitions of Terms/Fields

Population Demographics, File 581- Definitions of Terms/Fields

View the PDF version of this document

top

BUYING POWER INDEX (BPI)

A weighted index that converts three basic elements: population (the demographic factor), Effective Buying Income (the economic factor) and retail sales (the distribution factor) into a measurement of a market's "ability to buy", and expressing it as a percentage of the national total (100.0000%).

The BPI is calculated by first producing a ratio of local population, income, and retail sales to the comparable U.S. totals, then assigning a weight of .5 to an area's income; .3 to retail sales; and .2 to population. These weights are then multiplied by the appropriate ratios and the resulting figures added together to produce the BPI for a state, meet, county, or ZIP Code.

The BPI is one of the most important measures used to estimate potential for mass-marketed items sold at popular prices.

CENSUS REGIONS AND CENSUS DIVISIONS

Census Division - Groupings of which are subdivisions of the four census regions. There are nine divisions, which the Census Bureau adopted in 1910 for the presentation of data.

The regions, divisions, and their constituent States include:

• New England Division: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut.
• Middle Atlantic Division: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
  

• East North Central Division: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin.
• West North Central Division: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas.

• South Atlantic Division: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida.
• East South Central Division: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi.
• West South Central Division: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas.

• South Atlantic Division: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada.
• Pacific Division: Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii.

DESIGNATED MARKET AREA (DMA)

Formal term for what is more commonly known as a TV or broadcast market. Definitions for DMA's are supplied by Nielsen Media Research - a company of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation - that generates ratings for broadcast programming. Basically, DMA's are selected by totaling the viewer hours of TV stations whose signals reach a particular county, with total hours then converted to a percentage share of all viewing hours. The name of a DMA is assigned according to the market of origin of the station(s) with the largest share of viewer hours, and all counties whose largest viewer share is given to stations in that same market of origin are grouped together under that particular DMA.

Note: Because of the reach of broadcast signals, DMA's don't always conform to whole-county geography like metro markets or newspaper markets. In certain cases, Nielsen splits counties, treating each portion as if it were a separate county. Each county, or portion thereof, is allocated exclusively to a single DMA, thus eliminating any geographic overlap. DMA's cover all U.S. states, with the exception of part of Alaska.

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

Years of grade school completed, high school graduation (diploma or equivalent), some college (no degree), or highest degree received.

Schooling completed in foreign or ungraded school systems is reported as the equivalent level of schooling in the regular American system. Only non-honorary, college level degrees are taken into account.

EMPLOYMENT

The primary source for employment and establishment data for Demographics USA - County Edition is County Business Pattern (CBP), an annual series from the Department of Commerce, presenting data on a number of establishments and total employment, with economic activity (industry) classification reflecting the principal activity at each individual location.

CBP data generally represent the types of employment covered by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Government employment is not included, except for workers in retail and wholesale liquor establishments operated by state and local governments and in hospitals operated by governments at all levels. Data for employees of establishments totally exempt from FICA are excluded, as are the following types of employment: railroad employment jointly covered by Social Security and railroad retirement programs, self-employed persons, domestic service, agricultural production, foreign, and ships at sea.

These statistics are tabulated on an establishment basis. An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed.

"Unclassified establishments" included establishments, typically new businesses that cannot be classified in any major industry group because of insufficient information.

EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Employed - All civilians 16 years old and over who are either (1) "at work" - e.g., those doing any work at all during the reference week as paid employees, working in their own business or profession, working on their own farm, or working 15 hours or more a week as unpaid workers on a family farm or in a family business; or (2) "with a job but not working" - e.g. those having jobs or businesses from which they are temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, or other personal reasons. Excluded from the employed are persons whose only activity consists of work around the house or unpaid volunteer work for religious, charitable, and similar organizations. Also excluded are persons on active duty, in the United States Armed Forces.

FAMILY

Consists of a householder and one or more other persons living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All persons in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. (Unless actually related, foster children are not included.) By the current census definition, a household can contain only one family. Not all households contain families, since household may comprise a group of unrelated persons or one person living alone.

Married-Couple Family - A family containing a householder and his or her spouse (married formally or under common law), living together as members of the same household.

GROUP QUARTERS

All persons not living in households are classified as living in-group quarters. Two general categories of persons in group quarters are recognized: (1) institutionalized persons, such as nursing-home residents, patients in psychiatric and other long-term-care hospitals, and prison inmates, and (2) other persons in group quarters, including residents of college dormitories, military barracks, rooming housed, and homeless shelters.

HISPANIC ORIGIN

Persons who classify themselves in the census as being Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or "other Spanish/Hispanic" origin. Persons of "other Spanish/Hispanic" origin are those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, or the Dominican Republic, or are persons of Hispanic origin identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on. Origin can be viewed as the ancestry, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.

Where households or families are classified by Hispanic origin, the Hispanic origin of the householder is customarily used.

Note: Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

HOUSEHOLD

Includes all persons who occupy a housing unit. A housing unit is defined as a house, apartment, mobiel home, group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or, if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as a separate living quarters. (A recreational vehicle, van, trailer, boat, tent, or the like, if occupied as someon's usual place of residence, also counts as a housing unit.) Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building, and which have direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements, unless there are nine or more persons unrelated to the person in charge, in which case the living space is classified as group quarters. Occupants of group quarters (dormitories, barracks, institutions, etc., excluding any staff quarters that satisfy the housing-unit criteria) are by definition not household members.

HOUSEHOLDER

When the U.S. Census from for a household is filled out, one person is designated as the householder. In most cases, this is the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the home is owned, being bought, or rented. If there is no such person in the household, any adult household member at least 15 years old can be designated as the householder. Two types of householder are distinguished: (1) a family householder, living with one or more persons related to him or her by birth, marriage, or adoption (see FAMILY), and (2) a nonfamily householder, living alone or with nonrelatives only.

INCOME

Census data on income are based on information on money income received during the preceding calendar year, which was requested from persons 15 years old and over.

"Total income" is the algebraic sum of the amounts reported separately for wage or salary income; net nonfarm self-employment income; net farm self- employment income; interest, dividend, or net rental or royalty income; Social Security or railroad retirement income; public assistance or welfare income; retirement or disability income; and all other income. "Earnings" is defined as the algebraic sum of wage or salary income and net income from farm and nonfarm self-employment. "Earnings" represent the amount of income received regularly before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc.

Receipts from the following sources are not included as income: money received from the sale of property (unless the recipient was engaged in the business of selling such property); the value of income "in kind" from food stamps, public housing subsidies, medical care, employer contributions for persons, etc.; withdrawal of bank deposits; money borrowed; tax refunds; exchange of money between relatives living in the same house hold; gifts and lump-sum inheritances, insurance payments, and other types of lump-sum receipts.

INCOME OF HOUSEHOLDS

Includes the income of the householder and all other persons 15 years old and over in the household, whether related to the householder or not. Because many households consist of only one person, average household income is usually less than average family income.

METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREA (MSA)

Under the current standards an area qualifies as a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in one of two ways: 1) if it contains a city with a population of at least 50,000, or 2) if it contains an urbanized area of at least 50,000 and the total metro-area population is 100,000 or more. In addition to the county containing the central city, an MSA may include other "central" countiesãany county with at least half its population within the urbanized area and "outlying" counties that satisfy specific criteria of metropolitan character and integration with the central counties, as indicated by population density, growth, urbanization, and levels of commuting. Additional cities in the MSA may be designated as central, primarily on the basis of their strength as employment centers.

OCCUPATION

The estimates of employment by occupation in Demographics USA - County Edition are based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey. These data, providing information on the mix of occupations characteristic of each nonfarm industry group, are utilized to estimate the overall mix of occupations in each county, given its employment data by industry.

PERSONS PER HOUSEHOLD

A measure obtained by dividing the number of persons in households by the number of households, Cautionary note: In prior issues this statistic was calculated by dividing total population by total households. In this issue, the calculation excludes the population in group quarters, thereby giving a truer and more consistent measure of household size.

POPULATION

Updated from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, this is an estimate of how many people would have been counted in a given area by another census at the end of the year prior to this publication. A Census count is by "usual residence" (not necessarily the same as legal or voting residence), which is defined as the place where a person lives and sleeps most of the time, except that children in boarding schools below the college level are counted at their parental homes. Persons with no usual residence are counted as living where they are staying (or found) at the time of census.

POPULATION BY AGE AND SEX

Male and female population totals for ten age groups are useful for marketers who seek to aim their products or services at specific sales targets. For example, the 12 to 17 years old population is a favorite target of those marketing soft drinks and compact disks. Several of the age groups are also associated with lifestyle stages such as the preschoolers (0-5 years), teenagers (12-17 years), and young adults (18-24 years), which are critical to the formulation of marketing strategies.

RACE

The concept of race as used by the Census Bureau does not denote any clear-cut scientific definition of biological stock. The data for race represent self-classification by people according to the race with which they most closely identify. Furthermore, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include both racial and national origin or socio-cultural groups.

During direct interviews conducted by census enumerators, if a person could not provide a single response to the race question, he or she was asked to select, based on self-identification, the group which best described his or her racial identity. If a person could not provide a single race response, the race of the mother was used. If a single race response could not be provided for the person's mother, the first race reported by the person was used. Where households or families are classified by race, the race of the householder is customarily used.

The racial classification used by the Census Bureau generally adheres to the guidelines in the Federal Statistical Directive No. 15, issued by the Office of Management and Budget, which provides standards on ethic and racial categories for statistical reporting to be used by all Federal agencies.

The "Other race" category (see description below) is an exception. In order to provide alternative numbers more consistent with data from other government agencies, the Census Bureau has issued a set of "modified" census data-The Modified Age/Race, Sex and Hispanic Origin (MARS) State and County File-tabulated from reedited census records. For the purpose of this tabulation, each "Other race" person was assigned to the specific race reported by a nearby person with an identical response to the Hispanic origin question. (Over 95 percent of the "Other race" persons were of Hispanic origin.) The race estimates in Demographics USA - County Edition are updates from those modified census counts.

The racial categories of the 1990 census (before modification) are provided below:

Black - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Black or Negro" or reported entries such as African American, Afro-American, Black Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Nigerian, West Indian, or Haitian.

American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut - Includes persons who classified themselves as such in one of the specific race categories identified below:

American Indian - Includes persons who indicated their race as "American Indian," entered the name of an Indian tribe, or reported such entries as Canadian Indian, French-American Indian, or Spanish-American Indian.

Eskimo - Includes person who indicated their race as "Eskimo" or reported entries such as Arctic Slope, Inupiat, and Yupik.

Aleut - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Aleut" or reported entries such as Altutiiq, Egegik, and Pribilovian.

Asian or Pacific Islander - Includes persons who classified themselves as such in one of the specific race categories identified below:

• Chinese - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Chinese" or who identified themselves as Cantonese, Taiwanese, Formosan, Tibetan, or Chinese American.
  
  
• Filipino - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Filipino" or reported entries such as Philipino, Philipine, or Filipino American.
  
  
• Japanese - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Japanese" and persons who identified themselves as Nipponese or Japanese American.
  
  
• Asian Indian - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Asian Indian" and persons who identified themselves as Bengalese, Bharat, Dravidian, East Indian, or Goanese.
  
  
• Korean - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Korean" and persons who identified themselves as Korean American.
  
  
• Vietnamese - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Vietnamese" and persons who identified themselves as Vietnamese American.
  
  
• Cambodian - Includes persons who provided a write-in response such as Cambodian or Cambodia.
  
  
• Hmong - Included persons who provide a write-in response such as Hmong, Laohmong, or Mong.
  
  
• Laotian - Includes persons who provided a write-in responses such as Laotian, Laos, or Lao.
  
  
• Thai - Includes persons who provided a write-in response such as Thai, Thailand, or Siamese.
  
  
• Other Asian - Includes persons who provided other write-in responses such as Bangladeshi, Burmese, Indonesian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Amerasian, or Eurasian.
  
  

• Hawaiian - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Hawaiian" as well as persons who identified themselves as Part Hawaiian or Native Hawaiian.
  
  
• Samoan - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Samoan" or persons who identified themselves as American Samoan or Western Samoan.
  
  
• Guamanian - Includes persons who indicated their race as "Guamanian" or persons who identified themselves as Chamorro or Guam.
  
  
• Other Pacific Islander - Includes persons who provided a write-in response of a Pacific Islander group such as Tahitian, Northern Mariana Islander, Palauan, Fijian, or a cultural group such as Polynesian, Micronesian, or Melanesian.
  
  

top

ZIP CODE

Administrative units established by the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the efficient distribution of mail. ZIP codes generally do not do not respect political or census statistical area boundaries, nor do they usually have clearly identifiable boundaries. In addition, ZIP codes often serve a continually changing area, are changed periodically to meet postal requirements and do not cover all the land area of the United States. The first three digits of the five-digit code identify a major city or sectional distribution center while the last two digits signify a post office deliver area or point.

Market Statistics conducts an extensive analysis and review of all current ZIP Codes on an annual basis. Extensive computer files are also maintained which relate ZIP Codes to other levels of geography.

top