Census Bureau plans to stop production of 3-year ACS data

The 5 year ACS file is very useful for those of us who look at the characteristics of U.S. immigrants by national origin in different types of geographic areas. Given the small population size of all immigrant groups except Mexicans, the 5-year file is the only ACS file that has sufficient foreign-born cases for many types of analyses. It would be a big mistake to offer up the 5-year ACS in order to keep the 3-year ACS. If cost constraints are the issue, issuing the 5-year on an alternate year basis would not be a major loss but cutting it completely would force immigration researchers to focus on the total foreign born and assume homogeneity within that population. Our research based on the 5-year ACS shows that there is considerable national origin heterogeneity in settlement and integration processes and that can only becomes clear if one has a sample with a sufficient foreign-born cases to permit national origin disaggregation. I might add that the 5-year ACS (2007-11) has a smaller foreign-born sample than the 2000 PUMS 5% decennial file even though the immigrant population continues to increase annually.

The 5 year ACS file is very useful for those of us who look at the characteristics of U.S. immigrants by national origin in different types of geographic areas. Given the small population size of all immigrant groups except Mexicans, the 5-year file is the only ACS file that has sufficient foreign-born cases for many types of analyses. It would be a big mistake to offer up the 5-year ACS in order to keep the 3-year ACS. If cost constraints are the issue, issuing the 5-year on an alternate year basis would not be a major loss but cutting it completely would force immigration researchers to focus on the total foreign born and assume homogeneity within that population. Our research based on the 5-year ACS shows that there is considerable national origin heterogeneity in settlement and integration processes and that can only becomes clear if one has a sample with a sufficient foreign-born cases to permit national origin disaggregation. I might add that the 5-year ACS (2007-11) has a smaller foreign-born sample than the 2000 PUMS 5% decennial file even though the immigrant population continues to increase annually.