Added on September 16, 2022
This release is the second release of the flat file. It appends the ACS fields to the previously released Redistricting demographic fields.
In calendar year 2023, the 2022 FFIEC Census flat file will be updated for a third time. The missing demographic fields from the earlier releases will be backfilled with the Decennial Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics (DHC, formerly known as SF-1) files. Currently, the DHC file release is tentatively scheduled for 2023.
The third and final version of the FFIEC Demographic data is now available on the RATA support site. Please read the important information below.
On August 26th, the final phased release of demographic data was published. RATA downloaded the data immediately and converted it to Comply format, but during the quality assurance phase, we started seeing possible data integrity issues in what the government released. After rigorously testing to ensure that the converted data matched the published data received from the FFIEC, we began looking at the data in earnest and have compiled a couple of spreadsheets that illustrate the concerns we have with the data as provided. We are providing these spreadsheets and a document outlining an explanation of our findings on the support site (https://support.rataassociates.com/comply/demographic/), so that you can review and decide if you want to rely on this data. We are also forwarding this information to the FFIEC as a potential concern; they may need to research and investigate with the US Census Bureau to ensure that the data being used is as free from errors as possible, which at the moment, seems not to be the case.
Despite our concerns, we have elected to provide the data for use in Comply as it is the "official" release from the FFIEC.
As mentioned in previous articles, this year's release of the 2022 FFIEC demographic data is being released in phases because it is the first year of the 2020 Census data. On March 18th, the FFIEC released an article outlining the timeframe for the 2022 Demographic Data release (FFIEC Releases Timeline for 2022 Census and Demographic Data). On March 30th, the first phase of this data was released, relating to population counts derived from the ACS 5-Year Survey (2016-2020). Unfortunately, that release did not contain enough data to make it worth converting and releasing.
That data contained the following fields:
On April 21st, the FFIEC released the second dataset, which included the census tract income categories. This release utilizes information provided in the 2016-2020 ACS 5-year data release. This data, combined with the first set of data and a few calculated fields, will give RATA users the main demographics needed to run 90% of the standard reports in Comply. This data has been compiled and is being released to all customers via auto-updates and the RATA support site. While this data represents the "primary" fields, including those that populate the principal rows of most reports in the system, there is a large amount of data that is still missing.
The fields in this release are all of the fields above and these:
In addition to the fields provided by the FFIEC in the releases mentioned, two additional fields have been populated by RATA as follows:
RATA will work to get a full dataset out in the Fall as quickly as possible once the data is released. This data will include updated Business/Farm demographics, demographics needed for updated BISG processing, and other incidental fields. If you require the Business/Farm demographics or BISG-related demographics, you may want to wait to update in the Fall when the full dataset becomes available. You also have the option of reverting back to the current demographics if absolutely necessary. A RATA support person will be able to assist if this is needed.
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