The United States Census Bureau is the umbrella organization behind several of the most important U.S. spatial data products — the American Community Survey, TIGER/Line boundary files, the Decennial Census, and the Population Estimates Program all originate here.
For GIS professionals, the Census Bureau matters not as a single dataset but as the institution that defines the geographic framework (GEOID-based hierarchy from blocks to states) and produces the demographic data that virtually every U.S. spatial analysis depends on. Federal agencies, state governments, businesses, and researchers all build on Census data — it's the common language of U.S. demographic geography.
This page covers the Census Bureau as a whole; the ACS and TIGER/Line files have their own dedicated pages on this site with more detail on each. Beyond those two flagship products, the Census Bureau produces the Decennial Census (complete population count every 10 years, available down to block level), the Population Estimates Program (yearly updates between census years), the Economic Census (business and industry data every 5 years), and the County Business Patterns dataset.
All of these share the same GEOID-based geography and join to the same TIGER/Line boundary files, creating an integrated ecosystem where demographic, economic, and housing data can be layered and compared in a single spatial analysis. Third-party platforms like IPUMS, Social Explorer, and Census Reporter provide additional interfaces for accessing and visualizing Census data, but the authoritative source is always data.census.gov.
