The American Community Survey (ACS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, replaced the long form of the decennial census in 2000. The ACS allows researchers, policy makers, and others access to timely information about the U.S. population to make decisions about infrastructure and distribution of federal funds. The monthly survey is sent to a sample of approximately 3.5 million U.S. addresses, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The ACS includes questions on topics not included in the decennial census, such as those about occupations and employment, education, and key areas of infrastructure like internet access and transportation. When studying large geographic areas, such as states, researchers can use a single year's worth of ACS data to create population-level estimates. However, the study of smaller groups of the population, such as those employed in arts-related fields, requires additional data for more accurate estimation. Specifically, researchers often use 5-year increments of ACS data to draw conclusions about smaller geographies or slices of the population. Note, the Census Bureau produced 3-year estimates between 2005 and 2013 (resulting in seven files: 2005-2007, 2006-2008, 2007-2009, . . . 2011-2013), which remain available but no additional 3-year estimate files have been created. Individuals wishing to describe people working in occupations related to the arts or culture should plan to use at least five years' worth of data to generate precise estimates. When selecting data from the U.S. Census Bureau or IPUMS USA, users should select data collected over 60 months, such as 2020-2024. NADAC's Guide to Creating Artist Extracts and Special Tabulations of Artists from the American Community Survey provides information about the occupation codes used to identify artists.

Abstract

IPUMS-International is an effort to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system.

The IPUMS project is a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center, National Statistical Offices, and international data archives. Major funding is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Additional support is provided by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, the Minnesota Population Center, and Sun Microsystems.

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a relatively new survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It uses a series of monthly samples to produce annually updated estimates for the same small areas (census tracts and block groups) formerly surveyed via the decennial census long-form sample. Initially, five years of samples were required to produce these small-area data. Once the Census Bureau, released its first 5-year estimates in December 2010; new small-area statistics now are produced annually. The Census Bureau also will produce 3-year and 1-year data products for larger geographic areas. The ACS includes people living in both housing units (HUs) and group quarters (GQs). The ACS is conducted throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico, where it is called the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS).

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

• Households

UNIT DESCRIPTIONS: - Households: Dwelling places excluding institutions and transient quarters. - Group quarters: A place where people live or stay, in a group living arrangement, that is owned or managed by an entitiy or organization providing housing and/or services for the residents. This is not a typical household-type living arrangement. These services many include custodial or medical care as well as other types of assistance, and residency is commonly restricted to those receiving these services. People living in group quarters are usually not related to each other.

Universe

Residents of Puerto Rico.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

MICRODATA SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

SAMPLE UNIT: Household

SAMPLE FRACTION: 1%

SAMPLE SIZE (person records): 36,032

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Response rate

UNDERCOUNT: No official estimates

This dataset contains data included in the San Diego County Regional Equity Indicators Report led by the Office of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ). The full report can be found here: https://data.sandiegocounty.gov/stories/s/7its-kgpt.

Geographic data used to create maps in the report can be found here: https://data.sandiegocounty.gov/dataset/Equity-Report-Data-Geography/p6uw-qxpv

Filter by the Indicator column to select data for a particular indicator.

User notes: - Excluding data for the crime section indicators, data were appended on May 9, 2025 and the report will be updated to reflect the new data in August 2025. The following changes in methods were made: For indicators based on American Community Survey (ACS) data, the foreign-born category name was changed to Nativity Status. Internet access: Group quarters is a category included in the survey sample, but it is not part of the universe for the analysis. For the 2025 Equity Report year, respondents in group quarters were excluded from the analysis, whereas for the 2023 Equity Report year, these respondents were included. Adverse childhood experiences - new data source.

5/22/25 - for the report year 2023, the following changes were made: Youth poverty/Poverty: IPUMS identified an error in the POVERTY variable for multi-year ACS samples. In July 2024, they released a revised version of all multi-year ACS samples to IPUMS USA, which included corrected POVERTY values. The corrected POVERTY values were downloaded, and the analysis was rerun for this indicator using the 2021 ACS 5-year Estimates. Youth Poverty: data source label corrected to be 2021 for all years. Employment, Homeownership, and Cost-Burdened Households - Notes were made consistent for rows where category = Race/Ethnicity.

Prepared by: Office of Evaluation, Performance, and Analytics and the Office of Equity and Racial Justice, County of San Diego, in collaboration with the San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center (https://www.sdrpic.org).