ACS Data Users Group

I’m using ACS data for the first time and working with the 2021 1-year estimates. The data I need mostly comes from detailed tables and in some cases I’m not sure how to find the right table.

For example: I’m looking for “Age Distribution” data for “White alone.” S0101 is divided by sex and cannot be filtered by race or ethnicity. I have tried a few searches and have not yet found a detailed table that is specific to race. (For other data like Income, I have successfully found tables like B19013A that are specific.)

Another example: I’m looking for “Poverty Rate” data for “American Indian or Alaska Native alone.” I’m having the same problem as above.

I may just not know the right keywords to search - or I might be using ACS incorrectly in a more fundamental way. Would appreciate any advice!

Hi Anna -

I find the best way is to search through the Excel documentation. Usually the Table Shells or Table Lists will get you what you need - that and "Ctrl-F" to search through the Excel files.

see here: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/technical-documentation/table-shells.html

Thank you JamiRae! This is so helpful

I did an advanced search, first for 2021, and then "age". Then I went to topics, then race and ethnicity, and then selected White alone, or Black or African American Alone, or Asian alone. Four tables showed up, one of which was s0201. I -think- that's a table showing age distribution for each race/ethnic group.

By the way, up until a couple of days ago, I forgot I could do that.

Hi Anna,

In addition to the other excellent suggestions, I'll add that I've found https://censusreporter.org/ to be incredibly helpful for understanding ACS topics and tables. Scroll down to the bottom, and you'll find links to broad topics. When you click through, there is more detailed info about the ACS questions, context around those questions, and links to relevant tables.

Between that site and the table shells, I've gained a much better understanding of what's available, and what will meet my needs. I tend to work back and forth between the two.

For my project, Census Reporter, we've tried to help with this challenge. You can browse almost all of the available tables in our topical help through https://censusreporter.org/topics/ -- hopefully it's useful for you!

Joe, thank you so much for creating this resource! It really helped me to understand ACS data when I was getting started (and still does). I recommend it all the time.