Synthetic Populations

Synthetic Population

By default, FRED uses the 2010 U.S. Synthetic Population Database (Version 1) from RTI International. This synthetic population uses the 2010 Decennial census and the 2007-2011 American Community Survey (ACS) as its sources of population counts and characteristics. The database contains geographically located synthetic households and household residents for the United States. This version also uses the Integrated Climate and Land Use System (ICLUS) gridded population dataset to place households across the landscape. As with past synthetic populations (Wheaton, 2012), students are assigned to schools, workers are assigned to workplaces and group quarters locations and residents are included. The 2010 U.S. Synthetic Population Ver. 1 QuickStart guide contains additional information about new data sources and processing used to develop the data.

The FRED installation includes two U.S. counties: Allegheny County, PA (containing Pittsburgh) and Jefferson County, PA (containing Punxsutawney). Allegheny County (FIPS code 42003) has a population of approximately 1.2 million. Jefferson County (FIPS code 42065) has a population of about 44,000. Because of its small size, we use Jefferson County to run quick simulations for the tutorials and for the regression tests.

The 2010 U.S. Synthetic Population Ver. 1 data can be downloaded by state or county from the download section on the MIDAS [Synthetic Ecosystems] (http://www.epimodels.org/drupal/?q=node/32) web page.