Affiliations: [a] Population Division, New York City Department of City
Planning, 22 Reade Street, Suite 4W, New York, NY 10007, USA. Tel.: +1 212 720
3434; Fax: +1 212 720 3495; E-mail: {jsalvo, plobo}@planning.nyc.gov | [c] Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division,
US Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, FB#3 Room 1065, Washington, DC
20233-8500, USA. E-mail: susan.p.love@census.gov
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author
Abstract: The American Community Survey (ACS) is a continuous measurement survey program
designed to replace the census long form sample. While the census sample
provides detailed socioeconomic data once a decade, the ACS will provide these
data annually using a questionnaire that largely mirrors the census long form.
This paper examines operational data in Bronx County, one of 36 ACS test
counties, and finds the ACS superior to the census on two important measures of
data quality. First, applying the minimal data requirement for inclusion of a
long form in the census sample, ACS questionnaires were significantly more
likely than the long forms to meet this threshold. Second, the level of
nonresponse to items on the ACS was often one-half the census level. The ACS and census have sharply divergent goals and operational methods that
affect data quality. The primary objective of the census is a population count
for reapportionment and redistricting; collecting long form information is a
secondary goal. In contrast, the primary objective of the ACS is to estimate the
characteristics of an area based on answers to all items on the survey.
Operationally, the census follows up every nonresponding household, using a pool
of minimally trained, temporary workers. In comparison, the ACS follows up only
one-in-three nonresponding households, using a permanent cadre of professional
interviewers. This results in superior nonresponse follow-up in the ACS, with
lower levels of non-sampling error, even in more difficult-to-enumerate high
poverty areas of the Bronx. The ACS is to be fully implemented in July 2004, pending Congressional funding.
With detailed socioeconomic data available annually from the ACS, the 2010
census would then be able to focus primarily on a population headcount. The
paper concludes by discussing operational aspects of the ACS that must be
improved, including increasing its visibility, for the survey to be accepted as
an integral part of the nation's data collection system.
