With the release of 2020 census data, some census geographic boundaries might have been changed. Will SafeGraph datasets (both patterns and social distancing metrics) be updated to the new boundaries or GEOIDs correspondingly?

Hi group, a general clarification question - with the release of 2020 census data, some census geographic boundaries might have been changed (e.g. some 2010 census blocks were split into multiple 2020 census blocks due to the population or housing units increased). Just wondering whether the SafeGraph datasets (both patterns and social distancing metrics) would update the boundaries or GEOIDs correspondingly. Thank you!


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Hi great question. We’re still figuring out the timing, but we plan to move to the new census block groups in the backfill following the release of the 2016-2020 5-year ACS estimates, which is currently scheduled for December 2021. This will be the first ACS to use the 2020 Census boundaries.

As a reminder, the “backfill” is when we restate the history of Patterns using the latest version of our POI data. Info on the latest one here.

We will not be updating the social distancing metrics, as these have been retired/deprecated.

Thanks !

Appreciate the great question! To prevent any further questions from being overlooked, I’ll go ahead and close this thread out. If you have any more questions or follow-up questions, we’re always here to help! Just be sure to make a new post to safegraphdata, as we aren’t monitoring old threads at this time. Thanks!