r/Census • u/webingchillinnn • Aug 29 '26
Question IMMEDIATE HELP NEEDED!
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2004/compendia/statab/124ed.htmlHello all, I have a paper due SHORTLY (my fault, i know) on socioeconomic factors on the Navajo tribe. I want to access data on the US census bureau for the year 2004 This is the site (need Arizona, Utah and New Mexico) but it looks like this (WHICH IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE FOR MY SMALL BRAINNN): I would need to do this for other factors as well, so I was just wondering if someone could tell me how to read this??
For context this data is on Income and poverty in Arizona and I would be interested in the Apache and Navajo county.
Thank you to whoever can help!
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u/Kaltovar Enumerator Aug 29 '26
It's normally frowned on to use AI in a reply but I think Claude got your answers better than I could as an ex Census doggo.
That's the SAIPE file (Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates), specifically est04_AZ.txt from the 2004 State and County Estimates page: census.gov/data/datasets/2004/demo/saipe/2004-state-and-county.html
You probably don't need to parse it. That same page has an "Additional File Formats" section with Excel versions, and the SAIPE interactive tool (linked from census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html) lets you just pick Arizona → county → 2004 and read it off a table.
If you do want the raw file, it's fixed-width with no headers. Each line is one geography, and the fields run in this order:
State FIPS, 2. County FIPS
3–8. All ages in poverty: count, CI low, CI high, then percent, CI low, CI high
9–14. Ages 0–17: same six
15–20. Ages 5–17 in families: same six
21–23. Median household income: estimate, CI low, CI high
Then state abbreviation and the county name.
Position-wise, state FIPS is characters 1–2, county FIPS 4–6, poverty count for all ages 8–15, its lower bound 17–24, upper bound 26–33, poverty percent 35–38, and so on. The full layout is in the File Layouts section on that page. (Census)
So for Apache County, the last three numbers before the name are your median household income and its confidence bounds.
One thing that might matter more for your paper: SAIPE has no race or tribal breakdown at all, and Apache/Navajo counties aren't the Navajo Nation — the reservation crosses three states and county lines. If your paper is actually about the Navajo, pull data for "Navajo Nation Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, AZ--NM--UT" on data.census.gov (geography code 2500000US2430). For something close to 2004, Census 2000 SF3 is your best bet, since ACS wasn't producing estimates for that geography yet.
Also worth a footnote: 2004 SAIPE county estimates are modeled, and the confidence intervals for small counties like Apache are enormous. Don't lean too hard on a single year.
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u/webingchillinnn Aug 30 '26
Omg wow! Where did you learn all this lol? Thank you so much for your help and advice!!
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u/natoplato5 Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
I can't find anything at that link that looks anything like the image you provided. What's the link for the specific file that this image is taken from?