Glossary

acs

The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year – giving communities the current information they need to plan investments and services. The ACS covers a broad range of topics about social, economic, demographic, and housing characteristics of the U.S. population. Much of the ACS data provided on the Census Bureau’s Web site are available separately by age group, race, Hispanic origin, and sex. Summary files, Subject tables, Data profiles, and Comparison profiles are available for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more.

2018 example: https://api.census.gov/data/2018/acs/acs1.html

acs1

ACS for 1-year data.

acs5

ACS for 5-year data.

dec

This indicates data that is collected by decennial census. The data collected by the decennial census have changed over the decades. In 1790, each household provided the name of head of family and the number of persons in each household in five categories.

pums

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files enable data users to create custom estimates and tables, free of charge, that are not available through ACS pretabulated data products.

sf1

[TODO] …

sf3

[TODO] …

zcta

Zipcode Tabulation Area