ACS Data Users Group

Some ACS terms and concepts can be confusing, especially for people who are new to the survey. “Tenure,” “own children,” “families,” “households,” and “ZCTAs,” are a few of the terms that often raise questions among data users.

Are there certain ACS subjects, tables, or terms that you or your colleagues have found confusing? Please post your replies here. PRB and the Census Bureau plan to use this information to create a brief guide to help users better understand the ACS.

I see this post is over a year old, but after scanning the forums, I dont' see an answer for my question. Hope it can be answered! It is an ACS concept question.

I am a relatively new ACS user and trying to find a crosswalk or something that describes or shows the connection between the 1-year, 5-year estimates, and the availability of subject data tables for certain geographies. Does such a crosswalk or definition page exist? In particular I'm interested in the Limited English speaker tables, S1602, B16001 or C16001. I'm in a rural state, so the population often doesn't meet the thresholds. Thank you!

There used to exist appendices for this, but now you'll find it in the "data product list" docs, e.g. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/table_shells/table_lists/2023_DataProductList.xlsx

Thanks Glenn! That is exactly what I'm looking for. Sometime you just need to know what a thing is called, right? Data Products List. Thank you!

No problem! This question seems to get asked a lot around here.