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Data Dictionary: ACS 2018 (5-Year Estimates)
you are here: choose a survey survey data set table variable details
Data Source: Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau
Universe: Universe: Occupied housing units
Variable Details
A10052. Occupied Housing Units by Number of Rooms
Universe: Universe: Occupied housing units
A10052_001Occupied Housing Units:
Percent base:
None - percentages not computed (variable is table universe)
Aggregation method:
Addition
Formula used to compute this variable:
#ReturnType oretval = new #ReturnType(); oretval = ACS18_5yr:B25020001; return oretval;
Variables used in the formula:
ACS18_5yr:B25020001
Total
Relevant Documentation:
Excerpt from: Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; 2018 ACS 1-year and 2014-2018 ACS 5-year Data Releases : Technical Documentation.
  2018 ACS 1-year and 2014-2018 ACS 5-year Data Releases: Technical Documentation -> Subject Definitions -> Living Quarters -> Housing Unit -> Occupied Housing Unit
Occupied Housing Unit
A housing unit is classified as occupied if it is the current place of residence of the person or group of people living in it at the time of interview, or if the occupants are only temporarily absent from the residence for two months or less, that is, away on vacation or a business trip. If all the people staying in the unit at the time of the interview are staying there for two months or less, the unit is considered to be temporarily occupied and classified as "vacant." The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated people who share living quarters. The living quarters occupied by staff personnel within any group quarters are separate housing units if they satisfy the housing unit criteria of separateness and direct access; otherwise, they are considered group quarters.

Occupied rooms or suites of rooms in hotels, motels, and similar places are classified as housing units only when occupied by permanent residents, that is, people who consider the hotel as their current place of residence or have no current place of residence elsewhere. If any of the occupants in rooming or boarding houses, congregate housing, or continuing care facilities live separately from others in the building and have direct access, their quarters are classified as separate housing units.

Excerpt from: Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; 2018 ACS 1-year and 2014-2018 ACS 5-year Data Releases : Technical Documentation.
  2018 ACS 1-year and 2014-2018 ACS 5-year Data Releases: Technical Documentation -> Subject Definitions -> Housing Variables -> Rooms
Rooms
The data on rooms were obtained from Housing Question 6a in the 2018 American Community Survey (ACS). The question was asked at both occupied and vacant housing units. The statistics on rooms are in terms of the number of housing units with a specified number of rooms. The intent of this question is to count the number of whole rooms used for living purposes.

For each unit, rooms include living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, finished recreation rooms, enclosed porches suitable for year-round use, and lodger's rooms. Excluded are strip or pullman kitchens, bathrooms, open porches, balconies, halls or foyers, half-rooms, utility rooms, unfinished attics or basements, or other unfinished space used for storage. A partially divided room is a separate room only if there is a partition from floor to ceiling, but not if the partition consists solely of shelves or cabinets.

Rooms provide the basis for estimating the amount of living and sleeping spaces within a housing unit. These data allow officials to plan and allocate funding for additional housing to relieve crowded housing conditions. The data also serve to aid in planning for future services and infrastructure, such as home energy assistance programs and the development of waste treatment facilities.

Median Rooms
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This measure divides the room distribution into two equal parts: one-half of the cases falling below the median number of rooms and one-half above the median. In computing median rooms, the whole number is used as the midpoint of the interval; thus, the category "3 rooms" is treated as an interval ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 rooms. Median rooms is rounded to the nearest tenth. (For more information on medians, see the discussion under "Derived Measures.")

Aggregate Rooms
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Aggregate rooms is calculated by adding all of the rooms for housing units in an area. (For more information on aggregates, see "Derived Measures.")

Question/Concept History

The 1996-1998 American Community Survey question provided a space for a write-in entry on the number of rooms. From 1999-2007 the question provided response categories from "1 room" to "9 or more rooms." Starting in 2008, the response categories were removed and a write-in box was added for the respondent to enter the number of rooms. Additional changes introduced in 2008 included adding the word "separate" to the question stem, adding an instruction that defines a "room," adding an inclusion instruction to include bedrooms and kitchens in the count of rooms, and changing the current exclusion instruction by removing the word "half-room" and adding the phrase "unfinished basements."

Limitation of the Data

The Census Bureau tested the changes introduced to the 2008 version of the rooms question in the 2006 ACS Content Test. The results of this testing show that the changes may introduce an inconsistency in the data produced for this question as observed from the years 2007 to 2008, see "2006 ACS Content Test Evaluation Report Covering Rooms and Bedrooms" on the ACS website (http://www.census.gov/acs).

Comparability

Caution should be used when comparing American Community Survey data on rooms from the years 2008 and after with both pre-2008 ACS and Census 2000 data. Changes made to the rooms question between the 2007 and 2008 ACS involving the wording as well as the response option resulted in an inconsistency in the ACS data. This inconsistency in the data was most noticeable as an increase in "1 room" response and as a decrease in "2 rooms" to "6 rooms" responses.