Federal Data Users

Hi, first sorry, new here and the formatting options kinda suck.  ACS-5 data should be here soon (hopefully) and there are 1,500 tables so there will be a few issues. Last year I opened a ticket for some ACS-5 tables without ACS-1 tables and was told this was an error and they fixed them. There are release notes etc. but its often when we are deep in the data that we notice something that could be an issue (something to report or question). This year I have some great tools to check the data before I start pulling it. I've been testing them on this years (2023) updates and am finding some issues to question. I am saving this data set and plan on sending some questions to the ACS group. Its already going to be a hard time for the team to get ACS-5 out. Perhaps its best to just wait until things settle down after the release and submit questions. Or I can send them now and maybe they can look at them (if anyone is there). I don't have the right math yet (not a math person) to analyze all the data, just looking at measure and table names for now. Here is an example of a 2023 vs 2022 question. Where "Estimate!!Race alone or in combination with one or more other races!!Total population!!White"  becomes "

"Estimate!!RACE!!Total population!!Two or More Races!!Black or African American and American Indian and Alaska Native"

https://api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5/profile/variables/DP05_0066E.json

https://api.census.gov/data/2022/acs/acs5/profile/variables/DP05_0066E.json

So, some of these issues will continue into 2024 data, unless of course these are actualy fixes, the 2022 names were corrected in 2023 and therefore 2024 is OK. Just looking for feedback because I think some of these issues need to be addressed but this is not a great time to bring them up.

You should check the ACS documentation pages. Table changes are documented every year. DP05 in particular changes constantly. These are not "issues", just normal practice. 

You may find these pages informative:

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/technical-documentation/table-and-geography-changes/2022/5-year.html

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/technical-documentation/table-and-geography-changes/2023/5-year.html

In general: Table and Geography Changes page

Thanks i have those pages bookmarked, I'll be sure to review the ACS5 updates whenever they happen. I am better prepared to understand difference this year, and I like to cross ref the ACS table list and ACS table shells. I have a fav set of about 100 tables and they typically don't have any /many updates on measures definitions etc.