Community & Urban Research Guide: Reference

• Access Engineering
• Access Science
• Credo Reference – Multi-disciplinary dictionaries and encyclopedias that can be searched collectively or individually.
• Encyclopedia of Associations. National Organizations of the U.S.
• Encyclopedia of Associations. International Organizations.
• North American Industry Classification System
  The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
• Oxford Reference
• Statista – Statistics from over 18,000 sources. 
• Wolfram|Alpha Pro

• Blocks (Census Blocks) — This is the smallest unit of Census geography. Blocks (Census Blocks) are statistical areas bounded by visible features, such as streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks, and by nonvisible boundaries, such as selected property lines and city, township, school district, and county limits and short line-of-sight extensions of streets and roads. Generally, census blocks are small in area; for example, a block in a city bounded on all sides by streets.

• Block Groups (BGs) — A collection of blocks, a block group is the smallest geography for which sample data are tabulated. An Ideal block group has a population of 1,500 people, with populations ranging from 600 to 3000 people.

• Census Tracts — Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or county equivalent and generally have a population size between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. The Census Bureau created census tracts to provide a stable set of boundaries for statistical comparison from census to census. Census tracts occasionally split due to population growth or merge when there is substantial population decline.
• Community Districts (CDs) — Community Districts are administrative districts that are unique to New York City. Each of the city’s 59 community districts has a community board, which represents the district. These boards were created by local law in 1975 and present opportunities for active participation in the political process and provision of services.
  Community districts range in size from less than 900 acres to almost 15,000 acres, and in population from a little more than 50,000 residents to more than 200,000.
• County — New York City is comprised of five counties, also known as boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn (Kings County), Manhattan (New York County), Queens, and Staten Island (Richmond County).

• Joint Interest Areas (JIA) e.g. parks and airports.

• Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs) — Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (Formerly "Neighborhood Projection Areas") are aggregations of census tracts that are subsets of New York City's 55 Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs). Primarily due to these constraints, NTA boundaries and their associated names may not definitively represent neighborhoods.

• Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) — Public Use Microdata Area. A US Census statistical area, created by aggregating census tracts. PUMAs are designed to have 100k residents. The City of New York correlates them with Community Districts.

For more information refer to the Census Glossary.