USING THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

Report outlines the benefits and challenges to new program from the US Census Bureau

The National Academies has published the report, Using the American Community Survey: Benefits and Challenges. The U.S. Census Bureau’s new American Community Survey (ACS) provides annually updated demographic, economic, and housing characteristics for states, counties, cities, and neighborhoods, replacing the decennial census “long form.”

The U.S. Census Bureau asked a panel of the Committee on National Statistics to assess the usability of the new ACS data and provide advice on making the transition from the long-form sample to the ACS.

The panel identified three major benefits of the ACS compared with the long-form: timeliness (released 8-10 months after collection vs. 2 years); frequency (updated very year instead of every 10); and a higher quality of data (completeness of response to the survey items). Two challenges are the larger sampling errors of estimates compared with the long-form sample and the complexity of working with estimates that are averaged over 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years for different size geographic areas.

The report offers guidance to government officials, analysts, the media, and others on using the data effectively, and recommends continued development and user education and outreach to achieve the new survey’s full potential.