Adapted from the tutorial Accessing Census Data (MS Word format) by Barbara Ronningen, Minnesota State Demographic Center.

What is Datanet?

Datanet is a web-based software program users can interact with to get Census data for many different geographic levels within the state of Minnesota.

Why use Datanet instead of American FactFinder?

• Datanet contains only Minnesota data. That means the interface is less complex, the response time is much faster and the system is down for maintanence less often than American FactFinder.
• Datanet has data to 1970; American FactFinder to 1990.
• Datanet provides access to data by geographic levels specific to Minnesota: economic development regions and judicial districts

What's in Datanet?

1970	1980	1990	2000
Population data including housing numbers, land area and density
	data on households, persons per household and group quarters.
			Age data (5-year cohorts) for major racial and ethnic groups
			Redistricting Data
			Demographic Profiles (from Summary Files 1 & 3)
			Summary File 1

What's not in Datanet?

• Except for the SF 1 & SF 3 Profiles, Places (generally equivalent to cities in census data) are not included.
• data for multi-county cities must be created from each county to get totals for the entire city.

What's Datanet best used for?

• a profile of a city or county
• a comparison of the profiles of two different areas, e.g., a city with its county.
• limited downloading of data - one variable at a time.

What are Datanet's features?

• Population pyramids.
• Maps: for the county, minor civil division and census tract levels using variables from the population and housing data.The mapping facility allows some customization of the data, map colors and legend.
• Downloads: for counties, MCDs and census tracts through the mapping facility. Results come in a spreadsheet with data for all geographic areas at that geographic level - e.g., all tracts, all MCDs or all counties. Data is ranked in ascending order. The file is in .csv (comma delimited) format. This data download includes FIPS codes for MCD or census tract if they are selected; it does not include codes for county when county data is selected. By concatenating these codes this data can be mapped in ArcView or another GIS program.
• Aggregation: combine data for cities, townships or tracts. When using the aggregation feature, statistical data items (e.g., median age or median income) are not weighted for size. Mapping will not display aggregated areas; the aggregated areas will appear as separate entities - counties, minor civil divisions or census tracts.

Are there any guides to using Datanet?

Yes. The How to Use Datanet web page provides instructions and brief exercises to show users how to best use Datanet.