U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2011-2015 ACS 5-Year Estimates and 2016 Determinations for the Voting Rights Act

2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. The ACS is the most relied-on source for up-to-date social, economic, and housing information every year. These statistics cover all geographic areas regardless of size, down to the block-group level.

The ACS is the only source of local statistics for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as educational attainment, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry, and selected monthly homeowner costs.

Visit the Census Bureau's American FactFinder or use Census application programming interface (API) to start exploring these estimates.

For more information, visit the links below:

• New 5-Year Comparison Profiles: 5-year Comparison Profiles are available for the first time. These tables compare the 2011-2015 ACS 5-year estimates with the most recent nonoverlapping ACS 5-year estimates, and indicate statistically significant differences between the datasets. For more detail about comparing ACS 5-year estimates, please visit our 5-year to 5-year comparison guidance page.
• Guidance for Data Users: Learn more about the types of data tables and tools available, and get guidance about when to use 1-year and 5-year estimates.
• 2011-2015 5-Year Changes: Visit our 2015 Data Release page to learn about table and geography changes, and our ACS/Census 2000 Table Comparisons tool to find comparable tables between ACS 5-year estimates and Census 2000 Summary File 3.
• 2011-2015 ACS 5-Year Narrative Profiles: 2011-2015 ACS 5-year Narrative Profiles summarize popular topics using nontechnical text and graphs for select geographies down to the census tract level. Visit the ACS Narrative Profiles page and American FactFinder for continuous profile data since 2009.
• 2011-2015 ACS 5-Year Summary File: Download all of the ACS Detailed Tables via the Summary File on the FTP site. Instructions and other technical information is available on the Summary File Documentation page.

2016 Determinations for Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act

We are also pleased to announce the 2016 determinations for Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, released Monday December 5.

The 2016 determinations list 263 jurisdictions that are required to provide language assistance during elections for groups of citizens who are unable to speak or understand English adequately. Specific Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Asian language groups are eligible for language assistance, and determinations were made using 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. 

31.3 percent of the total U.S. citizen voting-age population live in the covered jurisdictions, including 16,621,136 Hispanic, 4,760,782 Asian, and 357,409 American Indian and Alaska Native voting-age citizens.

To learn more, please visit:

• Federal Register Notice: View the complete list of jurisdictions and languages covered
• Census Redistricting Data Webpage: Access the statistics used to make determinations 

The ACS provides reliable statistics that are used to make informed decisions about the future. These statistics are required by all levels of government to manage or evaluate a wide range of programs, but are also useful for research, business, education, journalism, and advocacy. If you have questions about this survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.  

Thank you,

American Community Survey Office

U.S. Census Bureau