
We are excited to announce that we’ve updated our CAPE data with 2020 Census data. This release updates estimates and projections from 2010 and replaces all previous CAPE data attributes.
U.S. Census data offers a great opportunity for data enrichment
The U.S. Census is conducted every 10 years to determine the number of people living in the U.S. in addition to collecting data on dozens of topics across 130+ surveys and programs.
U.S. Census data is already broken out into regional groups and covers 100k+ different geographies: States, counties, places, tribal areas, zip codes, and congressional districts.
Block groups are the smallest geographic area for which the Bureau of the Census collects and tabulates data. They are formed by streets, roads, railroads, streams, other bodies of water, and other visible physical and cultural features.
What is CAPE?
Census Area Projections & Estimates data (CAPE) data from Experian utilizes a proprietary methodology to make the data easy to action on for marketing use cases. Made from U.S Census and Experian consumer data, CAPE data sets are developed at the block group and zip code level and targetable at the household level.
CAPE 2020 updates
CAPE 2020 uses the 2020 Census data blended with other Experian data to update CAPE’s unique attributes for data enrichment and licensing. Multiple sources are used and data is delivered at a block group level or zip code. Experian provides unique CAPE attributes not available through other sources that provide Census data. These include our Ratio and Percentages attributes, Score Factors/Segments, and Mosaic.
CAPE 2020 use cases
Our CAPE 2020 data sets enable strategic marketing analysis and decision-making.
You can use CAPE 2020 data to understand the differences in the markets you serve as they relate to core demographics, housing attributes, education, income, employment, spending, and more. You can do this to:
- Find populations that are not typically captured in standard demographics.
- Cross-reference Census demographics data with other behavioral and shopper data.
- Understand supply and demand for products sold.
Get started with our CAPE 2020 data today
If you are using Experian’s CAPE 2010 data, please work with your Experian representative to migrate to CAPE 2020. If you are interested in learning more about our CAPE data, get in touch with us today.
Latest posts

Usually a new year means looking ahead – it’s a fresh start where marketers look forward to making the most of their business resolutions for the new year. This post is anything but that – we’re asking marketers – specifically retailers – to take a look back at the Holiday selling season because there are a few steps to take in order to finish out strong and THEN start the new year off right. Kamal Tahir, director of product management at Experian Marketing Services, has outlined steps retailers can take to end the year – and start the new one strong. He outlines specific steps retailers can take to get ahead of their competition and keep the holiday sales momentum going strong into the new year. For example, have you thought about how to address product returns? Giftcard redemption? Rewarding loyal customers? Read about the steps you should take to close out your 2011 Holiday season and improve your chances for an even stronger 2012 in his article on Retail Online Integration’s website at http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/article/happy-post-holidays-marketers-5-focus-areas-how-make-count/1. Happy New Year!

If you live in an early primary or caucus state, you’ve probably already had your fill of political advertising. According to The Washington Post, politicians and political groups spent more than $23 million on campaign television ads as of December 1, 2011. With record ad spending predicted for the 2012 election, the rest of the nation will soon be bombarded with television ads “approved by” politicians from the left, right and the center of the political spectrum. Candidates and those groups that support them need to know where to allocate their ad dollars to either connect with their base or reach swing voters. Experian Simmons analyzed the viewing audiences of over 600 broadcast, cable and syndicated TV programs that were measured in our most recent National Consumer Study in order to pinpoint opportunities for politicians to reach partisans and middle of the road voters. This analysis has already gathered the attention of major media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, AOL, Huffington Post and more. Below are the entertainment and news programs that score the highest concentration of liberal Democrats among their viewers, Conservative Republicans and Middle-of-the-Road Voters registered with any party. Be sure to check out our free 2011 PoliticalPersonas report in which Experian Simmons delivers the mindset of the American voter, including attitudes, brand preferences and their penchant for social media. You can also check out a similar analysis of TV preferences of political partisans that we conducted last year here and here.

Social media continues to be one of the fastest growing industries online. Between September 2010 and September 2011 visits to Social Networks and Forums have increased by nearly 11% and, if you saw my Internet clock blog last month, social media accounts for nearly a quarter of all time spent online. But when are people engaging with social media the most? We took a look at the UK Internet visits to the Social Networks and Forums category each month between 2009 and 2011. We then averaged those visits across the months to see the seasonal trends with social media. What this shows is that social media usage is at its lowest at the beginning of the year and climbs throughout the course of the year towards a peak in December. Over the last three years December has always seen the peak of online visits and in fact last Christmas Day Facebook overtook Google for the first time ever in terms of UK Internet visits. We know that Christmas is a very social time and a time for sharing messages with loved ones, friends and family, so the increased visits to social networks during December is to be expected. More generally, what this graph shows is that social media observes two seasonal trends. The first is an early summer peak in visits in June, before a decline in visits in July and August. This seasonal dip in July and August can be explained by summer holidays where people are more likely to go abroad and therefore less likely to be using social networks. The second seasonal trend is a recovery in visits in September and October before a yearly peak at Christmas. With students starting university terms, kids going back to school, and the working population returning from holiday this would account for the increased interaction in September and October before the Christmas surge. In particular what we’ve seen in September data is a resurgence in market share of visits to Facebook, which bounced back after the summer dip to account for nearly 52% of all visits to a social network. The message here for brands who want to capitalise on social media traffic is to start implementing their social strategy now rather than waiting for Christmas. As October is the second busiest month of the year for social media visits we are expecting over 800 million hours to be spent on social networks this month, which represents a huge opportunity to engage with new and existing customers online. Follow Hitwise UK on Twitter.