ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Census tract

A census tract is a small area of land that the government uses to collect information about the people who live there. It's like a tiny puzzle piece that fits into a bigger puzzle of the whole country.

The government uses these census tracts to gather important data about things like population, age, race, income, and education levels. This helps them determine things like how much funding a certain area should get for schools or healthcare, or how many seats a state should have in the House of Representatives.

So imagine your town or city is a giant puzzle, and the census needs to gather information about each puzzle piece. That's where census tracts come in - they help the government collect information to make decisions that will help everyone in the community.