ACS estimates of "grandparents responsible for grandchildren" (S1002)

Ok, I have several email chains on grandparents, ( long email chains). Here is the bottom line on S1002 regarding the last percents. AND PLEASE NOTE never ever look at allocations.

I hope this helps.

Tom

With regards to these last two percents in table S1002, I would disregard them.

I don't think you're going to have any need for these percents, and I'm not 100% sure that you could easily verify them even if you wanted to. The reason for this is that they are the percent allocated. Respondents don't always provide an answer to a question in the questionnaire during their interview, so we have different statistical methods for dealing with those missing values. Allocation typically refers to the imputation that is done for these missing values. I won't get into the whole thing with allocation, but please suffice it to say that these are not related to the data in a way that I imagine you could or would want to directly use. Including the percent allocated in a table simply gives you more information to take into account when you are looking at the data in the rest of the table; it gives you an idea of how much or how little of a role allocation played in determining the estimates you see in the rest of the table. If you would like to learn more about allocation in the ACS, please go to www.census.gov/.../item-allocation-rates-definitions.html.

Please let me know if you have any other questions about this.

Very best,

Jessica Barnett
Dissemination Outreach Branch

Census Enterprise Dissemination Services and

Consumer Innovation (CEDSCI)

U.S. Census Bureau

Branch phone: 301.763.8327

Perhaps I could use the variable "Householder or spouse responsible for grandchildren with no parent of grandchildren present" from table S1002. However, for this particular variable, the denominator would be "Grandparents living with own grandchildren under 18 years in households", correct? (Ideally, I would like "total number of grandparents" as my denominator.

There is no universal total number of grandparents per ACS in my experience.  

There is no universal total number of grandparents per ACS in my experience.