Before 2008, people who wanted basic information from the Census – data about housing, income, transportation, education, and ancestry, among other categories – had a problem. The Census Bureau only tallied such data once every 10 years, and the newest data generally wasnat least two years old. Enter the American Community Survey (ACS), a questionnaire sent to 3.5 million households every year.

 

The results are reported in two waves: Generally, a one-year sample released in late summer that reports the results from states, counties, cities, towns, and other jurisdictions with more than 65,000 people, and a five-year sample at the end of the year that provides data from the entire United States, down to a block group level, which can be an area populated by as few as 600 people.

 

Who uses the ACS? Government policymakers. Researchers. Community leaders. Nonprofit organizations. And certainly, businesses – its importance caused a coalition that included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation, International Council of Shopping Centers, and National Association of Home Builders to revolt in 2012 when Congress contemplated cutting the program, even as it was used to ensure that hundreds of billions of tax dollars were spent in places where they were needed.

 

Social Explorer has created award-winning, customizable, online tools to make the ACS easy to use. We’ll show some of its features in a future blog, including how to create zip code-level maps that display monthly homeowner costs, a table that shows the metropolitan statistical areas with the highest median household incomes, and a county-level map reporting the percentage of people living in poverty.

 

In the meantime, here’s a list of broad categories that the ACS includes:

 

Social

 Ancestry

 Citizen Voting-Age Population

 Citizenship Status

 Disability Status

 Educational Attainment

 Fertility

 Grandparents as Caregivers

 Language Spoken at Home

 Marital History

 Marital Status

 Migration/Residence 1 Year Ago

 Place of Birth

 School Enrollment

 Undergraduate Field of Degree

 Veteran Status; Period of Military Service

 Year of Entry

 

Housing

 Bedrooms

 Computer and Internet Use

 House Heating Fuel

 Kitchen Facilities

 Occupancy/Vacancy Status

 Occupants per Room

 Plumbing Facilities

 Rent

 Rooms

 Selected Monthly Owner Costs

 Telephone Service Available

 Tenure (Owner/Renter)

 Units in Structure

 Value of Home

 Vehicles Available

 Year Householder Moved Into Unit

 Year Structure Built

 

Economic

 Class of Worker

 Commuting (Journey to Work) and Place of Work

 Employment Status

 Food Stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

 Health Insurance Coverage

 Income and Earnings

 Industry

 Occupation

 Poverty Status

 Work Status Last Year

 

Demographic

 Age; Sex

 Group Quarters Population

 Hispanic or Latino Origin

 Race

 Relationship to Householder