American Community Survey

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.