American Community Survey (ACS)

What is the ACS?

• The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year -- giving communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $400 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year. The ACS provides:
• Estimates of demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics every year, not just every ten years
• Estimates for all states, counties, townships, incorporated places, tribal areas, census tracts, and census block groups
  

Frequency of Data Releases

• The Census Bureau produces annual estimates for large geographic areas and multi-year averages for small geographic areas every year
• For states and for governmental units with populations of 65,000 or more, the ACS will provide direct estimates for each year.
• For governmental units with populations of 20,000 to 65,000, the ACS will provide data as 3-year time period every year
• For governmental units with populations less than 20,000 and for census tracts and census block groups, the ACS will provide data as 5-year time period every year
• Multi-year estimates of characteristics will be updated each year for every governmental unit and for census tracts and block groups. 
• On December 14, 2010, the Census Bureau released it's first 5-year time period ACS data. With this, Census Bureau will start an annual process of releasing data from it's 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year products.
   

More Information

• More information about the American Community Survey is on the Census Bureau's web site at  www.census.gov/acs/www/
  
• A report created by Iowa State University economist Liesl Eathington to help clarify some of the confusion over the ACS and soon to be released data from the 2010 Census can be found at http://www.econ.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/publications/papers/p12201-2010-12-13.pdf