A - E
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| American Community Survey (ACS) |
An ongoing population survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ACS provides annually updated estimates for population and household characteristics in small geographic areas. Topics covered include income, educational attainment, employment status, housing costs, and more.
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| Census (decennial) |
A complete count of the population conducted every ten years, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The decennial census provides the most accurate data available on total population and basic demographic characteristics such as age, race and Hispanic/Latino origin, and the relationships among individuals in households.
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| Employment |
Describes either the number of employed persons or the number of jobs in a region, depending on the data source.
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| Establishment |
A physical location of business or industrial activity. A single firm may operate from multiple establishments in a state.
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| Ethnicity |
Refers to the heritage, nationality group, or the country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors.
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F - J
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| Family |
A group of related individuals living together in one household. |
| Farm |
The USDA defines a farm as an operation with agricultural sales of $1,000 or more.
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| High-grade farm land |
See Land Grade
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| Hispanic |
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. For statistical purposes, the term is used interchangeably with Latino or Spanish origin.
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| Household |
All the people who occupy a housing unit. The count of households in a region is equal to the region's number of occupied housing units.
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| Job |
A full-time or part-time position. The number of jobs generally differs from the number of employed persons in a region. Jobs are measured on a place-of-work basis, whereas employed persons are measured by place of residence. Also, one employed person may hold multiple jobs.
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K - O
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| Latino |
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. For statistical purposes, the term is used interchangeably with Hispanic or Spanish origin.
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Land Grade
(high, medium, low) |
A rating of the productivity of land for row crop production, based on USDA Corn Suitability Ratings, and used for the Iowa Land Value Survey conducted by Iowa State University.
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| Low-grade farm land |
See Land Grade
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| Margin of error (MOE) |
Describes the precision of a sample estimate at a given level of confidence. The U.S. Census Bureau publishes MOE values at a 90 percent confidence level. A MOE value may be added to and subtracted from the sample estimate to create a 90 percent confidence interval for the estimated value.
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| Medium-grade farm land |
See Land Grade
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| Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) |
A single or multi-county region anchored by a core urbanized area with 50,000 or more residents plus other counties with significant economic ties to the core area. MSAs are defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
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| Micropolitan Statistical Area |
A single or multi-county region anchored by a core urbanized area with 10,000 to 49,999 residents. Micropolitan areas are defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
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| Nonemployer firm |
A firm with no paid employees other than the proprietor or partners.
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| Own child |
An own child is a never-married child under 18 years of age who is a son or daughter by birth, a stepchild, or adopted child of the of the householder.
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P - T
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| Poverty |
Poverty status is determined at the family level. If a family's total annual income is below the Federal threshold level for a family of that size, every member of the family is considered poor. Poverty thresholds are published annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uses the published poverty thresholds to set its poverty guidelines, which are used to determine eligibility for various government social programs.
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| Rural |
Rural space comprises all territory in a region that is not urban (see the definition for urban space below). Rural and urban definitions are not equivalent to metropolitan or non-metropolitan designations.
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U - Z
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| Urban |
An urban area comprises a densely settled core of census tracts or blocks that meet minimum population density requirements along with densely settled, outlying territory that is linked to the core area. The Census Bureau defines two types of urban areas: urbanized areas and urban clusters. Urbanized areas have a minimum population size of 50,000 residents. Urban clusters contain at least 2,500 and fewer than 50,000 people.
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