Fabric Unit Count vs. US Census 2022 Housing Unit Count Dashboard
About the Fabric unit count
The National Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) provides a unit count value for each record. This field represents the sum of residential and non-residential broadband demand on that location record. Fabric residential unit counts are established to be consistent with Census 2022 Housing Unit (HU) estimates. Non-residential counts are established using information from assessment data and other sources.
Fabric unit count of residential units is consistent with US Census 2022 Housing Unit counts
Although the Fabric has a combined residential and non-residential count, the visualization below demonstrates the consistency in Fabric residential unit counts versus Census 2022 Housing Unit estimates. CostQuest sourced the table’s residential value before non-residential demand was added. We term this value the preliminary Fabric units.
In the summary table, a significant driver of any discrepancy with Census HU counts is how residential units are treated in Entity Boundaries. Entity Boundaries primarily represent College Campuses, Military installations, and prisons. By design, the Fabric represents all the demand for an Entity Boundary on a single point. This means some areas within the Entity Boundary will have no Fabric points upon which to place Fabric units. When this happens in areas where an Entity Boundary spans more than one census block, only one of the Census Blocks will show residential demand. This creates a deviation from Census estimates. Further, the impact of unit challenges, some characterized as residential and others characterized as mixed, also influences the deviation. We expect the significance of this second factor to increase as time elapses from the 2020 Census Housing Unit baseline.
*Note: The dashboard includes updated Census 2022 data.
Have questions?
Please email [email protected] for any additional questions regarding the NTIA Fabric License.
For questions regarding the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric for the Broadband Data Collection, please email [email protected].
Disclaimers
This document does not constitute legal advice. CostQuest Associates cannot provide legal analysis for Licensees. We recommend that any questions or concerns be discussed with your legal counsel after review of the appropriate License Agreement.
This communication does not reflect the opinion or the policy of the Federal Communications Commission or NTIA. Neither agency is responsible for the information or views in this communication and neither are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such information or views.
