ACS Subjects not available for block groups?

Ian over 7 years ago

Hi all,

I'm trying to find ACS 2011-2015 data for block groups, but evidently some of the tables I'm interested in (e.g. B26001 - Population in Group Quarters) are not available for block groups.

I can't find anything in the handbooks or on the ACS website that mentions some tables being available for tracts but not block groups - indeed, the handbooks frequently mention that all data is available down to the block group level.

Can anyone verify that some tables are actually not available, and that I'm not making an error in my search? And if this is true, what might the reason for this exclusion be?

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Bernie over 7 years ago

Hi Ian,

Indeed, there are a number of tables for which block group data is not available. The reason for this (as far as I know) is that there's not a large enough sample at that level. In other words, the margin of error would be unacceptable.

In the past, I've found FactFinder as a good resource to see which tables do and don't contain block group data, but when I looked last week, it was not working correctly.
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Bernie over 7 years ago

Hi Ian,

Indeed, there are a number of tables for which block group data is not available. The reason for this (as far as I know) is that there's not a large enough sample at that level. In other words, the margin of error would be unacceptable.

In the past, I've found FactFinder as a good resource to see which tables do and don't contain block group data, but when I looked last week, it was not working correctly.
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Ani over 7 years ago in reply to Bernie

A search for "Population in Group Quarters" only shows it available for 2010. See, for example,

https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_SF1/P29/0500000US01001.15000
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Bernie over 7 years ago in reply to Ani

That's the 2010 Decennial Census (not ACS). That may be a good alternative if you need block group data. I imagine they were able to include this data at the block group given that this is full census data, not sample data.
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Bernie over 7 years ago in reply to Bernie

Within FactFinder, if you filter by block group FIRST, searching for "group quarters" won't bring up the ACS data, since none exists at the block group level.
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Ian over 7 years ago in reply to Bernie

Hmm yeah that's what I was thinking. The sample size explanation makes sense. If I look at different tables though, like B09019 "HOUSEHOLD TYPE (INCLUDING LIVING ALONE) BY RELATIONSHIP", I see there is a total for "In Group Quarters".

factfinder.census.gov/.../productview.xhtml

In my project, I'm trying to recreate a Social Vulnerability Index (originally created with tracts) for block groups. Documentation if interested: svi.cdc.gov/.../SVI2014Documentation.pdf.

The SVI documents what ACS tables it used, so I'm thinking that while I may not be able to use those exact tables, the same estimates might exist but housed in different tables.
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