Step by Step Tutorial
American FactFinder is the Census Bureau's official interface for finding, focusing, and downloading data from most of its various products. Keep in mind that American FactFinder changes its interface and thus how to use it on an ongoing basis, almost always without any specific announcement. Instructions that may be useful to you today may not be useful if you come back to the interface in six months or a year. You may see tutorials on the web about how to use FactFinder from two, three, or five years ago that are now completely useless.
Begin at the FactFinder homepage. Select Advanced Search. You'll also have to click a second button that says Show Me All.
You are now on another page. Ignore the text and instructions in the center of this page. Instead click on Topics (on the left-hand side of the page near the top). You will get a pop-up with the prompt to Select Topics to Add to "Your Selections." Select "Dataset".
Decide what data you want to view or download. You may want to start with 2010 decennial census data as a frame of reference. Select Summary File 1 100% Data. Click Add to Your Selections. The database will pause while that selection loads on the left side of the page under Your Selections. Close the Topics pop-up window.
Next, select Geographies on the left-hand side of the page. You will given a pulldown menu with all the possible geographies covered by this dataset. Select which geography you want to retrieve data for. In this case, let's say you want all census tracts in Davidson County. Select "census tract." There will be a pause while the census tract files load. Select your state. There will be another pause. Select your county. There will be another pause. Select individual census tracts, or select all census tracts with Davidson County. Click Add to Your Selections. The database will pause while that selection loads on the left side of the page under Your Selections. Once you see the selection on the left side of the page, close the Geographies Window.
You will now be given a huge amount of different datasets to choose from. To simplify, let's select DP-1, Profile of General and Housing Characteristics 2010.
Now you can view the dataset by census tract, download the individual census tract you are interested in (PDF or XLS), or download the entire zip file with the characteristics dataset for all census tracts in Davidson County.
If you choose the latter, you will see a pop-up window below. Click OK. The zip file will be retrieved and you will be given the option to download it to your laptop or computer directory.
If you decide to search for American Community Survey data, you will go through much the same process, except the geographies available will be limited by the period of estimate you choose to focus on.
For focusing on census tracts, select 2013 ACS 5-year estimates (if you are looking for the most recent data).
Again, you will need to select your geographies in the separate utility for that. Select all census tracts within Davidson County.
For the purposes of quick profile research, you'll want to choose the four DP files. Those appear at the end of a list of about 1000 profiles. Click the double caret at the top right of your search results, which will take you to the last page. Select all four DP profiles. Again, you will be given the choice to view the dataset by census tract, download the individual census tract you are interested in (PDF or XLS), or download the entire zip file with the characteristics dataset for all census tracts in Davidson County.
Using the "Address" Feature
You can also select data by inputting a street address, a state, or a zip code. Select Geographies as the search option on the left-hand side. Go to the Address tab. Input an address in the fields. Hit Go. You will be given a list of census geographies associated with that address, all the way from state to the block group level. select the geography that interests you. That geography will then be loaded into the Your Selections Box on the left-hand side of the page. Close the Geographies box. Under Your Selections will be listed all the available datasets for that geography. The example below is for Census Tract 136.02 in Nashville, which is roughly the neighborhood of Tennessee State University.
