Affiliations: [a] Population Research Institute and Department of
Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA 16802, USA. Tel.: +1 814 863 8626; Fax: +1 814 865 3746;
E-mail: dkk@psu.edu
| [b] Office of Special Projects, Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019, USA. Tel.: +1 212
541 7800; E-mail: Heidi.Melz@ppfa.org
| [c] Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH 12345, USA. Tel.: +1 212 750 6033; E-mail:
Lichter.5@osu.edu
| [d] Population Research Institute and Department of
Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Tel.: +1 814 863 9571; E-mail: gardner@pop.psu.edu
Abstract: The new American Community Survey (ACS) provides a unique and unprecedented
opportunity to monitor changing community social and economic conditions in the
U.S. between the decennial Censuses. In this paper, we provide a description of
the ACS, and we evaluate ACS data quality for the 1996 rural test site -- Fulton
County, Pennsylvania -- on the basis of response rates, allocation rates, and
the comparability of ACS estimates of county population characteristics with the
decennial census results and with local administrative records. Our analysis
provides encouraging evidence that the ACS, when fully implemented, will provide
high-quality data that allow public policy analysts, marketing firms, and social
scientists to track rural and small area social and population changes during
the post-censal period.
