ACS Data Users Group

Hello,

I'm accessing Table B25120 for San Diego County census tract geographies using ACS 2021 5-year data.

It appears that a number of census tracts do not appear in the table although they do have valid housing units according to variable B25002. For example, census tract 06073005102 does not appear in the B25120 table although there are 2,721 HU reported in B25002.

Here are links to the census tables I'm accessing:

Can someone help me understand why these tracts are missing? Is there a better table to use for these data?

Thanks,

Kate

https://data.census.gov/table?q=B25120:+AGGREGATE+HOUSEHOLD+INCOME+IN+THE+PAST+12+MONTHS+(IN+2021+INFLATION-ADJUSTED+DOLLARS)+BY+TENURE+AND+MORTGAGE+STATUS&g=1400000US06073005102

Make sure you hare handling the leading "0"s correctly the census tract is listed under 51.02 way down in the listing for tracts starting with "5" not "0" Let me know if I have done this correctly

Also I put 25120 in the search box and came up with a different URL

Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for your response. The link you sent appears to reference 2020 5 -year ACS data. I'm trying to find this estimate for 2021 5-year data. As I play with the interface, the table appears to default from 2021 5 year estimates to the 2020 5 year estimates when I select this tract, but does not do this for other tract selections. Are you able to recreate this as well?

Oddly, other 2021 5-year ACS estimates seem to display for this tract so I feel like its still a valid geography. I feel like I must be looking at something wrong. Any ideas?

Kate

Dear Kate,

As I go back to the link, I see that under the pull down (below the table title on the left) there is no selection for 2021 5 year data

B01003 (total population) does exist so it isn't because the tract went away for the 2020 census.

I sent an email to ACSO users support, maybe they can figure out why.

Best,

Dave

Dear Kate,

There were fires in San Diego county in 2021 -- maybe that was why. We will see what ACSO says.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021 search on San Diego

Dave

Dear Kate

Here is the reply that I got from ACSO users support:

The reason you are not finding Census Tract 51.02 for San Diego, CA is that many times at the lower levels of geography, like Census Tracts, the estimates are suppressed due to the Margin of Error (MOE) being greater than the estimate. ACS has suppression rules that we must follow in order to make sure the data that is published meets quality standards and/or protects confidentiality. In this case, it is probably more so due to the quality and the MOE being large in comparison to the estimate itself.

From DD

If you look at tract 52.02 you will see that the estimate is barely greater than the MoE. I wish that they would report the estimate even if the estimate is less than the MoE as the point estimate is still useful if you know how to handle the situation.