The American Community Survey (ACS) is a household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that currently has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses. The ACS produces estimates for numerous social, economic, and housing characteristics, including language, education, commuting, employment, mortgage status, and rent, as well as income, poverty and health insurance. Estimates are available for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more for the 1-year data release.
Each year the survey produces statistics that cover the periods of 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates for geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico, ranging from neighborhoods to Congressional districts to the entire nation. For more information about the ACS, please visit our home page at:
http://www.census.gov/acs ACS tables are published on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder (AFF) website,
factfinder2.census.gov, and are available for download in several forms. This document will brief data users on the contents of the ACS Summary File and explain how they can use it to obtain the 1-year estimates.