What happened the Census?

What happened to the Census? Census 2010 and the ACS Sarah Maximiek, Binghamton University

Decennial Census
Mandated in the Constitution
1790 – First Census
1900 - Decennial Census tracked employment, social and agricultural counts
1902 – Census Bureau established as permanent agency

Census 2000 and earlier
Short Form
DOB, gender, Hispanic Orgin (universally asked in 1980), Race, Identifying Information, Housing Ownership
Based on people – one answer per person.
Data widely available, distributed throughout most datasets

Census 2000 and earlier
Long form
Varies considerably in length, depending on Census year
Asks the respondent a variety of social, economic and demographic questions (education, citizenship, income source, language spoken at home, transportation to and from work, etc.), including short form questions
Sample – given to a small percentage of the population

Census 2010 (and beyond)
Will consist of the short form questionnaire only
Information collected is what is required by Constitution (enumeration for representation)
The American Community Survey will fill in data left out of the long form

American Community Survey (ACS)
What is it?
First done in 2005
Complied demographic data for areas of at least 65,000 people
Based on sampling
Based on addresses, not people

ACS
Areas of 20,000 or more people will be updated with 3 year period averages.
For areas less then 20,000 people, data will cover 5 year period averages .

ACS data release example average 1/05-12/07 1/06-12/08 Dec 2008 Dec 2009 Etc… Binghamton City (47,380) sample average Data included 1/05-12/05 Previous 12 mos. 2006 (1 st ACS test) should be updated annually after Census2010 Broome County (200,536) 1/05-12/09 1/06-12/10 2010 2011 etc… Johnson City (15,535) Dates Covered Release Dates Place

Why the ACS?
Congress has failed to consistently fund mid-Census surveys
Spreads data gathering over long-term
Allows Decennial Census to focus on compiling an accurate headcount
Removes “content” from Decennial Census
More frequently updated data

What the ACS is not…
A substitute for Current Population Surveys
Substitute for Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates

Census vs ACS
Residency
Census: asks residents for “usual place of residence.”
ACS: asks for “current place of residence,” as defined as living there for the past two months
Group quarters are treated differently, depending on question

Census vs ACS
Point in Time data vs Estimates
Census: data collected is either headcount or sample as of “Census Day” (April 1) of the Census Year.
ACS: with the introduction of ACS, the data available can be Point-in-time and/or a summary of data collected over a period of time

Census vs ACS
Income
Census: Asks for data in early April when people have tax information in mind.
ACS: people will be asked to estimate income over a 12 month period that is not Jan-Dec
ACS: also must account for changes in dollar value over a multi-year period

Census vs ACS
Margin of Error
Census: Users were not told margin of error on data charts
ACS: 10% error margin, charts show lower and upper margins.

Comparison of data sets
Census 2010 data and earlier Census short form data can be compared*
ACS data across geographic areas can be compared if the time frames are the same (Annual to annual, 3 yr to 3 yr)
*as much as similar data sets from Census to Census could ever be compared, anyway

Comparison of Data Sets
Comparison between ACS and Long Form Census data
Varies, must consider:
ACS data collected monthly, Census data reflects information as of April 1. What does this mean for that variable?
Changes in rules (residency, group homes) can effect areas that have many institutions.
Is the number an average, as opposed to a sample? What is the error rate?

Questions?

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What happened the Census?

by Sarah Maximiek on Dec 04, 2008

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