ACS Data Users Group

Welcome to the ACS Data Users Group!

This is your space to share messages, materials, and questions about American Community Survey (ACS) data--from methods and applications to news and events. Whether you're a first-time ACS user or a seasoned data pro, you're in the right place.

Membership is free and open to all. You'll need to join or log in to participate in discussions. We occasionally send email updates about important ACS news and events, and we'll never share member information with third parties.

This is a new site so please let us know if something feels off, a link doesn't work, or you have ideas for making this space more useful. Simply reply to this thread with any feedback.

Thanks!
------------------------------
Mark Mather
Associate VP
PRB
------------------------------

Thanks for creating this!

------------------------------
Glenn Rice
Missouri Census Data Center
------------------------------

Welcome back!

------------------------------
Diana Elliott
PRB
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2026 04:39 PM
From: Glenn Rice
Subject: Welcome & Feedback!

Thanks for creating this!

------------------------------
Glenn Rice
Missouri Census Data Center
------------------------------

I agree and thank you for the invite.  I'm trying to create economic (local, industry, jobs) insights from the ACS to add into some other things I've been building from the BLS, USAspending, etc.  

Looking forward to learning and contributing to the group

------------------------------
Jon Barker Jon Barker
VP Pricing
Strategic Growth Partners
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2026 04:39 PM
From: Glenn Rice
Subject: Welcome & Feedback!

Thanks for creating this!

------------------------------
Glenn Rice
Missouri Census Data Center
------------------------------

Glad to see this group rise from the ashes of the former ACS Data Users Group Online Community!

------------------------------
Beth Jarosz
------------------------------

Glad to see this new iteration up and running. Thanks to all of those who made it happen!

------------------------------
Mallory Bateman
------------------------------

Newbie here.  Looking forward to diving in; thanks for the invite to the new group!

------------------------------
Court Dwyer
Retired but involved :-)
Court@DwyerFamily.me
Midcoast Maine
------------------------------

Yay! Thanks to Mark and PRB for reestablishing this!

------------------------------
Joel Alvarez
Population Division Director
NYC City Planning
------------------------------

So happy to see this reestablished group up and running!

------------------------------
Erica Maurer
Population Division Assistant Director
NYC City Planning
------------------------------

Glad you are back!

------------------------------
Stas Kolenikov
NORC
------------------------------

Dear Mark,

Thank you so much for getting the ACS DUG back up and running. Earlier you expressed a hope that you would be able to retrieve some of the old threads. Any thoughts ?

Dave Dorer

Dorer Community Service Foundation

I'm continuing to work on an updated version of my ACS PUMS/detail tables Small Area Estimation R package.  I've learned roxygen2 syntax. It certainly helps with creating package documentation. I even tried Google AI on R code.  I don;t like it's programming style but I have learned about some new functions.  It seems to be pretty good at parsing and correcting code. I keep telling it to use Fortran 77 style and only  base R.  Their code is not too clean and but the base R and Fortran 77 request helps to produce more transparent faster code than contemporary programming styles. It also give you more control over memory allocation. I learn the term "camel style" for variable names which prevents carpel tunnel syndrome from reaching for the underscore key.

------------------------------
David Dorer
Dorer Community Service Foundation
------------------------------

Looks like they're all there: https://federaldataforum.prb.org/acsdatausersgroup/communities/community-home/ 

------------------------------
Glenn Rice
Missouri Census Data Center
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-11-2026 10:01 PM
From: David Dorer
Subject: Welcome & Feedback!

Dear Mark,

Thank you so much for getting the ACS DUG back up and running. Earlier you expressed a hope that you would be able to retrieve some of the old threads. Any thoughts ?

Dave Dorer

Dorer Community Service Foundation

I'm continuing to work on an updated version of my ACS PUMS/detail tables Small Area Estimation R package.  I've learned roxygen2 syntax. It certainly helps with creating package documentation. I even tried Google AI on R code.  I don;t like it's programming style but I have learned about some new functions.  It seems to be pretty good at parsing and correcting code. I keep telling it to use Fortran 77 style and only  base R.  Their code is not too clean and but the base R and Fortran 77 request helps to produce more transparent faster code than contemporary programming styles. It also give you more control over memory allocation. I learn the term "camel style" for variable names which prevents carpel tunnel syndrome from reaching for the underscore key.

------------------------------
David Dorer
Dorer Community Service Foundation
------------------------------