Research Notes

As faculty advisor for the "Atlas of USC Neighborhoods: People and Community," I am pleased to see the release of this report. Here you will find detailed demographic information culled from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses on the neighborhoods surrounding USC's two campuses—University Park and Health Sciences.

Let me explain a little about the research, source materials, data collected and how it is presented.

The 2000 data, collected on April 1, 2000, were released by the U.S. Census Bureau in spring 2001. Both the 1990 and 2000 data include the total population and its composition by race and by Hispanic/Latino origin. The Census Bureau constructs race separately from Hispanic/Latino origin. In the data presented here, all people counted as having Hispanic/Latino origin are reported as a single category. All those not having Hispanic/Latino origin are categorized into one of four broad racial categories—White, African-American, Asian or Pacific Islander, and Other (which includes Native Americans). Unlike 1990, the 2000 Census included a multiple-race category in which people could be classified as part of two or more racial groups. In Los Angeles County, 2.3 percent of the total population was reported as having two or more races.

Data collected at the census tract level form the basis for this report. Each census tract typically has a total population of 4,000 to 6,000. Although the number of tracts changes from census to census, tract boundaries are kept fairly constant, allowing for comparisons of population data over time. Data from groups of tracts were aggregated to approximate the USC Neighborhood Outreach boundaries (UNO) and the USC Campuses and Surrounding Areas.

UNO boundaries identify specific areas surrounding USC's two campuses—University Park Campus and Health Sciences Campus. These boundaries are used to help USC faculty and staff develop community-outreach programs that meet the needs of the communities within the "immediate vicinity" of USC's campuses referred to in the five University Community Initiatives. (For more information on community-outreach programs funded by the USC Good Neighbors Campaign and UNO grants, visit http://www.usc.edu/ext-relations/gnc.)

Again, for this publication, there are two different boundaries for maps and charts. First are the UNO boundaries, which relate to USC's two campuses as noted above. For the 2000 Census data, 14 tracts¹ were used for the University Park Campus neighborhood and 10² for the Health Sciences Campus neighborhood. Second are the USC Campuses and Surrounding Areas. These include downtown Los Angeles and consist of 159 census tracts³. You can find those boundaries on Map 6 (Census Tracts Map). All maps represent USC Campuses and Surrounding Areas, including UNO boundaries. All charts and tables are based only on the UNO boundary area.

For more information related to research specifics, please feel free to contact me at croseman@usc.edu. Or contact the research associate/editor, Hyunsun Choi, at hchoi@usc.edu.

Curtis C. Roseman
Professor, Geography
USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

¹2215, 2216, 2217, 2218, 2219, 2221, 2222, 2225, 2226, 2227 (the Campus), 2244, 2247, 2312, and 2313.
² 1991, 1998, 1999, 2014.02, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2036, 2037, and 2038.
³ 1853, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1990, 1991, 1992.01, 1992.02, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2011, 2012, 2013.01, 2013.02, 2014.01, 2014.02, 2015.01, 2015.02, 2016, 2017, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037, 2038, 2039, 2041, 2042, 2043, 2044, 2045, 2046, 2047, 2048, 2049, 2051, 2060, 2062, 2063, 2071, 2073, 2074, 2075, 2077, 2079, 2080, 2083, 2084, 2089.01, 2089.02, 2091.01, 2091.02, 2092, 2093, 2094.01, 2094.02, 2094.03, 2095, 2098, 2100, 2122.02, 2123.02, 2124, 2125, 2132.01, 2132.02, 2133, 2134.01, 2134.02, 2181, 2187, 2188, 2189, 2190, 2193, 2195, 2200, 2211, 2212, 2213.01, 2213.02, 2214, 2215, 2216, 2217, 2218, 2219, 2220, 2221, 2222, 2225, 2226, 2227, 2240, 2242, 2243, 2244, 2246, 2247, 2260, 2264, 2267, 2270, 2281, 2282, 2283, 2284, 2285, 2286, 2287, 2288, 2289, 2291, 2292, 2293, 2294, 2311, 2312, 2313, 2314, 2315, 2316, 2317, 2318, 2319, 2321, 2322, 2323, 2324, 2325, 2326, 2327, 2328, 2340, 2342, 2361, 5306, 5307, 5308, 5309, 5310, 5311, 5312.01, 5312.02, 5313.01, 5313.02, 5315.01, 5315.02, 5323.02, 5324, and 5325.