American Community Survey

Although it is still in development, the American Community Survey (ACS) will track long range demographic, social, and economic indicators at the community level. Pending Congressional funding, it is scheduled to be fully implemented by 2007. The innovation of the ACS is that it will provide more up-to-date data at the local level on an annual basis as opposed to every ten years. By providing the same quality information more regularly than the decennial Census, full implementation of the ACS will eliminate the need for a long form in the 2010 decennial census. The more frequent availability of this data will assist in the planning and evaluation of public programs and will facilitate annual comparisons by location and population group.

Under the ACS, 3 million household will be surveyed, covering every county, American Indian and Native Alaska area, the Hawaiian Homelands, and Puerto Rico. With a nationwide sample of 3 million addresses, the ACS will provide demographic, social, economic and housing annual profiles for areas with 65,000 or more people. For communities of less than 65,000, it will take 3 to 5 years to accumulate a large enough sample size to provide estimates similar to the quality of the census long form. It is anticipated that areas of 20,000 or more people will use a 3-year average updated every year, and areas of less than 20,000 people will use a 5-year average updated every year.