American Community Survey (ACS)
What is ACS?
- The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing monthly household survey that replaces the decennial census long form. When it is fully implemented, the ACS will provide:
- 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
Implementation Schedule
- The American Community Survey was implemented in four phases:
- Demonstration period 1996-1998
- Comparison sites 1999-2001; Black Hawk county has been a comparison site since 1999
- National comparison sample 2000-2004
- Full implementation nationwide 2005
Frequency of Data Releases
- The goal is to provide data to the public within six months of the end of a collection or calendar year.
- The Census Bureau will produce 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 averages 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 averages every year
- Multi-year estimates of characteristics will be updated each year for every governmental unit and for census tracts and block groups.
More Information
- More information about the American Community Survey is on the Census Bureau's web site at www.census.gov/acs/www/
