ACS Data Users Group

I've run into a problem that's new to me with ACS estimates. Our university-based team is working with a small federally-recognized tribe on a needs assessment and discovered that in the most recent couple 5-year ACS estimates they reportedly have 0 population. This is obviously not accurate and has the tribal government concerned as they do not care to be functionally erased. Looking at the changes over time, it looks like something happened in 2015 going forward that has led to them having no population reported in the 2019 5-year estimates. We're working with them to figure out who the most appropriate contacts are to discuss their concerns with the data. Does anyone know if there are particular folks at the Census Bureau who we should get in contact with? Our plan at the moment is to start with Intergovernmental Affairs, but if anyone knows someone who works on ACS data for Native nations in particular, those contacts would be much appreciated.

Hi Kara--

That's an unfortunate hassle.

Before you call USCB Intergovernmental Affairs, or whoever, you should check to see whether this tribal community is included or missing from the 2020 Census. That will tell you whether this problem is simple to solve, or not simple.

You can find the 2020 Census's table P1: Population, listing all American Indian + Alaska Native Areas , here https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=p1&g=0100000US%242500000&tid=DECENNIALPL2020.P1&tp=true

Good luck,

Todd Graham
Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities

Thanks, Todd. Their data are included in the 2020 Census (it's a bit of an undercount, but that was fully expected due to the impacts of the pandemic on data collection efforts).

Hi Kara,

You can reach out to the ACS data user support area at acso.users.support@census.gov. It's helpful if you can include links to data.census.gov (or whatever tool you're using) where you're seeing the zero population.

Thanks,

Gretchen