The Decennial Census occurs every 10 years and counts everyone living in the USA as of April 1st. The Decennial collects demographic data on (age, sex, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, household relationships, housing tenure (owner- and renter-occupied housing units). Other categories of data (education, income and poverty, transportation and other topic) may have been collected in Decennial Census prior to 2010. If you are looking for historic data, make sure to use data from the Decennial Census. IPUMS has digitized the print census volumes from 1790-2010.
You must first find the census tract for your neighborhood. Census tract numbers have changed over time so you must pay attention to changing boundaries and how that impacts your analysis. To find historic census tract maps and data from 1940 on, visit the National Archives. For current census tracts, you can use the Geocoder tool through the Census Bureau.
For data visualization tools associated with the census data, the easiest place to start is Social Explorer or PolicyMap but please note that no all categories of data are available at all geographies (e.g. census tract, block). When in doubt, you can always ask a librarian for help.
