ACS Data Users Group

The Census 2020-based Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) are apparently finalized. I found a Census Bureau page that provides a link to ALL of the new PUMAs, in PDF format.

https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-maps/2020/geo/2020-pumas.html

My questions are:

1) Will the 2021 ACS data release scheduled for September 15 include these new Census 2020 PUMAs?

2) Will the 2021 ACS PUMS (October 20th release) be based on Census 2020 PUMAs?

3) Are the new Census 2020 PUMAs in TIGER/Line right now? (I love asking "are the PUMAs in TIGER"?)

Probably best answered by Census Bureau staff, or somebody in the State Data Center network who's into this kind of detail.

Thanks in advance, Chuck

Hi, we also recently became aware (by chance) that the 2020 PUMAs have been released.

You can find the PUMA shapefiles here: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/2020/geo/tiger-line-file.html

We were informed that ACS data published for 2020 PUMAs would start with the 2022 ACS release. The upcoming 2021 ACS release would still include the 2010 PUMAs. See: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geography-acs/geography-boundaries-by-year.html

I'm not at all sure these are the new PUMAs. I just received an email from Muhammad at <geo.puma@census.gov> that reads, in part, "The 2020 shapefiles will be released with 2022 TIGER/Line Shapefiles: Late September 2022."

Posted to the FTP site early by mistake? Could be.

UPDATE: Muhammad at the Bureau confirmed that the files at https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2020/PUMA20/ are indeed the new (post-2020) PUMA shapefiles. Hooray!

[quote userid="5795" url="~/discussion-forum/f/forum/1032/census-2020-based-pumas-are-apparently-finalized"]Probably best answered by Census Bureau staff, or somebody in the State Data Center network who's into this kind of detail.[/quote]

You would think so, but I asked my boss, who was our SDC contact to the PUMA program, and he said they were left in the dark as to what was being done with their edits and suggestions.

The Bureau often works in mysterious ways, but the PUMA folks seem especially opaque

Chuck and I follow one another on social media, so I replied to him there.

New PUMAs are included in 2022 vintage TIGER, to be used with 2022 v. datasets.
And 2022 v. TIGER is already (partly) published and viewable at tigerweb.geo.census.gov/.../

If you want to start mapping new PUMAs (though... not really any data to accompany them for another year) and if you know how to deal with REST/WMS services, go here tigerweb.geo.census.gov/.../MapServer
... PUMAs are the first data on the list.

About feeling "in the dark" about this stuff, you didn't miss any announcement. Because there wasn't one.

I'm an outsider, and not "in the know" on why there was no announcement. Maybe there's a missing communication link between Geography Division and Census Public Info? Or maybe PIO plans to announce the PUMAs in conjunction with 2022 vintage PUMS -- which is still a year away. These are just my speculations.

And you're right Glenn, this is not the only instance of Geography products news being absent and missing from Census communications. (You all heard about Urban determinations and Census Urban Areas being delayed 3 months? I learned that thru US DOT.)

keep up the good work,

TG