Census 2000 provides a comprehensive look at our region’s population and housing characteristics. The San Diego region is faced with complex population, housing, land use, and transportation issues that census information helps bring together and explain. Understanding the demographic and economic characteristics of people in our region and in adjacent communities is important to the success of efforts such as the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP).

The June 2004 SANDAG INFO bulletin contains eleven maps that illustrate detailed population and housing characteristics for the 605 census tracts in the San Diego region. These characteristics include educational attainment, housing type and age, income, poverty, commute characteristics, and ability to speak English. Two preceding INFOs, Mapping the Census: Race and Ethnicity in the San Diego Region and Mapping the Census: Housing and Household Characteristics in the San Diego Region contain maps that show the region’s population distribution, ethnic diversity, detailed age and household relationship information, and housing characteristics.

This INFO completes the 2000 Census INFO series – Mapping the Census. Other INFOs describe similar information using tables, text, and graphics.

In addition to compiling and maintaining census information, SANDAG prepares annual estimates and forecasts of the region’s demographic and economic characteristics, land use inventories, transportation information, and more. This information can be downloaded directly from the Demographics and Other Data section of our Web site in two formats. The Data Warehouse allows users to select specific census, estimates, and forecast variables and create custom datasets as text files or an Excel spreadsheet. The Profile Warehouse contains formatted profiles of the most frequently requested information.

In July, 2004 population and demographic estimates were included in the Profile and Data Warehouse online tools. For example, the new 2004 population estimate for the San Diego region is 3,017,204 (1,512,532 women and 1,504,672 men) – 858,168 of which are Hispanic residents and 160469 of which are African American. The total population increased by nearly 2 percent from January 2003. The region’s median age is 33.7 years, and its median household income is $52,192 (up 5 percent from January 2003).

Customized data, reports, and maps also are available through SourcePoint, a nonprofit corporation chartered by SANDAG. For information on these and other SourcePoint services, call (619) 699-1900.

Project Manager: Beth Jarosz
(619) 699-6997