City of Rochester Disaggregated Demographic Data Standards Guide

The City of Rochester and its staff use data about individuals in our community to inform decisions related to policies and programs we design, fund, and carry out. City staff must understand and be accountable to best practices and standards to guide the appropriate use of this information in an ethical and accurate manner that furthers the public good. With these disaggregated data standards, the City seeks to establish useful, uniform standards that guide City staff in their collection, stewardship, analysis, and reporting of information about individuals and their demographic characteristics. This internal guide provides recommended standards and practices to City of Rochester staff for the collection, analysis, and reporting of data related to following characteristics of an individual: Race & Ethnicity; Nativity & Citizenship Status; Language Spoken at Home & English Proficiency; Age; Sex, Gender, & Sexual Orientation; Marital Status; Disability; Address / Geography; Household Income & Size; Housing Tenure; Computer & Internet Use; Employment Status; Veteran Status; and Education Level. This kind of data that describes the characteristics of individuals in our community is disaggregated data. When we summarize data about these individuals and report the data at the group level, it becomes aggregated data. These disaggregated data standards can help City staff in different roles understand how to ask individuals about various demographic traits that may describe them, the collection of which may be useful to inform the City’s programs and policies. Note that this standards document does not mandate the collection of every one of these demographic factors for all analyses or program data intake designs – instead, it prompts City staff to intentionally design surveys and other data intake tools/applications to collect the right level of data to inform the City’s decision-making while also respecting the privacy of the individuals whose information the City seeks to gather. When a City team does choose to collect any of the above-mentioned demographic information about individuals in our community, we advise that they adhere to these standards.