Using the American Community Survey Benefits and Challenges (2007) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-26
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From page 13... ...
Census Bureau released 2005 data from a major new continuous survey designed to provide small-area data, the American Community Survey (ACS)
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From page 14... ...
1-A PANEL CHARGE Recognizing the need to assist users in the transition from the longform sample to the ACS, in 2004 the Census Bureau asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a Panel on the Functionality and Usability of Data from the American Community Survey. The charge to the panel was to study the effects of using small-area ACS estimates that are based on multiyear measurements released every year for applications that previously used static, one-time estimates from the longform sample.
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From page 15... ...
In 1950 about two-fifths of the total of about 50 questions were asked on a sample basis. This approach to obtaining a wide range of information about the population can be termed a "paired strategy," in which a sample survey that asks a large number of questions is embedded in an enumeration of the entire population on basic characteristics.
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From page 16... ...
The long-form questions have changed over time to reflect changing needs for small-area data to implement federal legislation and administer federal programs. In addition to the basic items asked on the short form and depending on how one counts items with multiple parts, the 2000 census long form included 54 sample items about people, covering such topics as marital status, educational attainment, place of birth, citizenship, language spoken at home, English proficiency, ancestry, military service, year moved into residence, various types of disability, responsibility for grandchildren in the home, current and prior year employment status, occupation and industry, transportation to work, and income by type.
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From page 17... ...
; and residence is defined using a 2-month residence concept. The paired strategy had the advantage that estimates for head counts and basic demographic characteristics from the long-form sample could be controlled to conform to the full census figures for small areas, using a statistical procedure called a raking ratio adjustment.
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From page 18... ...
Another source of cost savings is that, with the paired strategy, the MAF needed to be updated only once a decade, whereas the ACS requires the MAF to be constantly updated. An ongoing survey such as the ACS requires separate continuous data collection and processing, as well as continuous estimation, tabulation, and publication operations.
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From page 19... ...
The paired strategy limited the opportunities to revise the questionnaire to respond to emerging data needs or to improve response quality. Although it is unclear how often ACS questions can be revised, the strategy of obtaining long-form-type information in the continuous measurement design of the ACS should allow for additions to the questionnaire to address current issues of interest more frequently than once every 10 years.
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From page 20... ...
These considerations certainly reduce the cost-efficiency argument of having the long-form sample use the short-form infrastructure, although whether they would completely overcome the cost advantages of the paired strategy compared with a separate continuous survey is not clear. Finally, it is possible that dropping the long form from the census will improve the completeness and accuracy of the basic head count.
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From page 21... ...
In 1988, Roger Herriot, then chief of the Population Division of the Census Bureau, proposed an ongoing "Decade Census Program" that mixed aspects of the Kish and Horvitz designs. 4 Kishwrote a series of papers on continuous measurement, advocating its use for a variety of purposes, particularly in developing countries (see Alexander, 2001)
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From page 22... ...
counties by using the monthly ACS data collection design and a questionnaire very similar to the long form. Cumulated over the 12 months of 2000, the C2SS, including the test sites, obtained responses from about 587,000 housing units; it demonstrated the feasibility of conducting an ACS nationwide and at the same time as the decennial census (U.S.
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From page 23... ...
The purpose of using the population estimates, which are developed from the previous census updated with births, deaths, and migrant flows from administrative records, as controls is to reduce the effects of sampling error and compensate for any incompleteness of coverage in the population surveyed in the ACS. There are also separate controls for housing units.
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From page 24... ...
Chapter 2 reviews key features of the ACS design; the major advantages of the survey in terms of timeliness, frequency, and quality of data; and the major challenges of using the ACS data in terms of period estimates replacing point-in-time estimates and high levels of sampling error for small areas. This chapter is essential reading for users who will work with the ACS data.
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From page 25... ...
Chapter 4 addresses features of the ACS sample design and operations that are particularly relevant to the quality of the data and hence their usability for various applications. Chapter 5 reviews the procedures to weight the 1-year data so that totals agree with the Census Bureau's population estimates for major demographic groups, as well the Bureau's housing estimates, in large counties and groups of smaller counties.
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Key Terms
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