December 16, 2005

Filters Are Critical in 2002 Economic Census Data in FactFinder

Even if you are a regular American FactFinder user, you still might find as few surprises when you first try to access the 2002 Economic Census in AFF. Filters are more critical in accessing the Economic Census data than in accessing other data sets (for example, the Census 2000 Summary files or the American Community Survey). Let's give an example. Suppose you want information on the establishments selling prescription drugs and their revenues for each state.
Here are the steps:

• Go to American FactFinder and select "Data Sets."
• Click on the "1997 & 2002 Economic Census."
• Under 2002 census click on "Retail Trade."
• Under Retail Trade click on "Product Lines by Kind of Business: 2002" under Subject Series.
• This gives you a large tabulation with all product lines.
• Go to the "Filter Rows" option in the menu bar and pick "by Geography." Select "State" as the type of geography and then the "All States" option.
• Next go the Filter Rows option and select "by Products & Services."
• Then select a sector ("Retail Trade") and Subsector ("Drugs, health aids, beauty aids, including cosmetics").
• Select "Prescription Drugs," then "Add," and "Show Result."

This gives you the retail industries that sell prescription drugs and their number of establishments, revenues, etc. The filters in AFF further allow you to sift the numbers so you can target information more specifically.

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