Terms & Definitions
• Advance Report: The first data released from the economic census. It shows preliminary data for 2- and 3-digit NAICS at the U.S. level. These data will be superseded by subsequent reports after additional review and analysis. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American FactFinder: An online application that provides access to detailed tables and maps for population, housing and businesses. These tables are manipulable, downloadable and printable. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Annual Survey of Manufactures: Sample estimates of statistics for all manufacturing establishments with one or more paid employee. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bridge Between 2007 NAICS and 2002 NAICS Reports: Shows the relationships between 2007 NAICS and 2002 NAICS categories in detail and where they have changed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Cell suppression: Withholding data to protect the confidentiality of information reported by individual businesses or persons. Data withheld are replaced with ‘D’s in appropriate data cells. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census: A survey where data are collected for all units of a population. The economic census includes all U.S. employer establishments, except for agriculture and public administration establishments. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commercial Regions: Groups of municipios that collectively cover Puerto Rico. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commodity Flow Survey: Data on the movement of goods in the United States. Some exports data are also available. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Comparative Statistics Report: Shows U.S. and state totals classified by 2002 NAICS for both 2002 and 2007. Due to classification changes, these comparisons are not possible elsewhere for construction and wholesale trade industries. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Confidentiality: Title 13 of the United States Code authorizes the Census Bureau to conduct censuses and surveys. Section 9 of the same Title requires that any information collected from the public under the authority of Title 13 be maintained as confidential. Section 214 of Title 13 and Sections 3559 and 3571 of Title 18 of the United States Code provide for the imposition of penalties of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines for wrongful disclosure of confidential census information. In accordance with Title 13, no estimates are published that would disclose the operations of an individual firm. The Census Bureau’s internal Disclosure Review Board sets the confidentiality rules for all data releases. A checklist approach is used to ensure that all potential risks to the confidentiality of the data are considered and addressed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Consolidated Cities: Consolidated governments, which consist of separately incorporated municipalities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Control fields: Columns in American FactFinder tables used to classify, index, sort and restrict the rows in a data set display or download (e.g., geographic area, NAICS code, year.) The “Filter Rows” function displays the control fields on each table. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Counties: The primary political and administrative divisions of States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• County Business Patterns: Annually produced data sets that provide detailed geographic, industry and other data for U.S. business establishments with paid employees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data edits: A process which detects and validates reported data by considering factors such as historical reporting, industry/geographic ratios and averages and proper classification for a given record. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data fields: Columns of data that are tabulated for industries, products, lines and other related data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data quality fields: Columns that contain imputation rates, standard errors and other indicators of data quality for certain data fields. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Disclosure: In accordance with federal law governing census reports (Title 13 of the United States Code), no data are published that would disclose the operations of an individual establishment or business. However, the number of establishments in a kind-of-business classification is not considered a disclosure; therefore, this information may be released even though other information is withheld. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Divisions: Groupings of States that subdivide the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Employer Identification Number (EIN): A nine-digit number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service to identify business entities. It is required for corporations, partnerships, employer businesses and selected other types of business entities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economic Census: Provides a detailed portrait of the United States’ economy once every five years, from the national to the local level. It covers most of the U.S. economy in its basic collection of establishment statistics. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economic Census of Island Areas: Provides a detailed portrait of the economic structure and activity of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands every five years. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economy-Wide Key Statistics (EWKS): Compiles four key statistics for every industry and geographic area as they are published in other data sets. It provides the most up-to-date figures for these measures. From March 2009 through October 2010, as any of these data are updated or revised in successive reports, the EWKS is also updated. Data items include: number of establishments, sales, annual payroll and number of employees. The 2007 EWKS will also include establishments and sales for nonemployers starting in late 2009. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Employers: Businesses with payroll and paid employees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Establishment: A single physical location where business is conducted, or where services are performed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Filter Rows: To narrow search results to display selected industries, geographic areas or other dimensions as defined in each American FactFinder table. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Firm: A business organization or entity consisting of one or more domestic establishment locations under common ownership or control. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Flag fields: Columns that are associated with each data field, which, when applicable, contain symbols, or “flags”, that explain why data in that field have been suppressed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Franchising Report: The first Census Bureau data available on franchising across multiple industries. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Area Series: Data for individual industries at the U.S., state, county, place and metropolitan area levels. Coverage by geographic levels varies by economic census sector. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Imputation: The process used to estimate missing or misreported data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Industry Series: Preliminary data for individual industries and their products at the U.S. level only. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Item nonresponse: Occurs when some but not all data have been collected for the respondent. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Kind of business: The principal kind of business being conducted at an establishment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Metropolitan Areas: Areas that have at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Micropolitan Areas: Areas that have at least one urban cluster of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000 population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Multiunit firms: Firms with two or more establishments. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Noise infusion: A technique that marginally adjusts (perturbs) each respondent’s data so that data for individual businesses can be camouflaged. This allows for the publication of cells that would otherwise have been suppressed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonemployer Statistics: Data for U.S. businesses with no payroll or paid employees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonsampling errors: Encompasses all factors other than sampling error that contribute to the total error of an estimate. This error may be attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the actual universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences in the interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data obtained; and other errors of collection, response, coverage, processing and estimation for missing or misreported data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): A system of grouping establishments into industries based on the similarity of their production processes. This system is used by the United States, Canada and Mexico. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• North American Product Classification System (NAPCS): The first standard classification system for products. Currently in development, this system will be used to coordinate the collection, tabulation and analysis of data on the value of products produced by both goods- and services-producing industries and on the prices charged for those products. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Offshore Areas: Water areas within the coastal boundaries of the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Places: Cities, towns, villages and boroughs with significant populations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Privacy Act: A 1974 Federal Act that protects the privacy of personal information that the government has on file. The act places restrictions on the collection, use, maintenance and release of information about individuals. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Regions: Groupings of States that subdivide the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample: Entities selected for a specific survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample survey: A data collection activity involving observations or questionnaires for a sample of a population. These data are used to produce estimates for the entire population. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sampling error: Error which results from estimating data based on information obtained from census report forms mailed to all large employers and to a sample of small employers in the universe. Sampling error affects these estimates, insofar as they may differ from results that would be obtained from a complete enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Series: A grouping of related data sets. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• States: The primary governmental divisions of the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Subject and Summary Series: Summary data on special topics and industry-related data including Product Lines, Concentration Ratios, and Establishment and Firm Size at the U.S. level and in some data sets, at the state level. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Survey of Business Owners: Data on U.S. business owners by gender, Hispanic or Latino origin and race. It also includes additional demographic and economic business characteristics for home-based, family-owned and franchised businesses; sources of finance; types of customers; and year established. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tabulations: A table presenting statistics; the process of summarizing data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Thematic map: Reveals the geographic patterns in statistical data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Title 13: The law under which the Census Bureau operates and that guarantees the confidentiality of census information and establishes penalties for disclosing this information. It also provides the authorization for conducting the census in Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Title 26: Title 26 Internal Revenue Code provides for the conditions under which the Internal Revenue Service may disclose Federal Tax Returns and Return Information (FTI) to other agencies. Specifically, 26, U.S.C. 6103 (j) (1) provides for the disclosure of FTI to the Census Bureau for statistical purposes in the structuring of censuses and national economic accounts, as well as for conducting related statistical activities authorized by law. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Unit nonresponse: Occurs when no data have been collected for the respondent. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP Codes: The administrative entities of the U.S. Postal Service. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP Code Statistics Series: Counts of establishments by sales-size range by industry for 5-digit ZIP Codes (published for the Retail Trade and selected Services sectors). In addition, on an annual basis, the ZIP Code Business Patterns provides data for all sectors by employment size (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
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