U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2012-2016 ACS 5-Year Estimates

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2012-2016 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. The ACS is the most relied-on source for up-to-date social, economic, housing, and demographic 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 the Census API to start exploring these estimates.

For more information, visit the links below:

• 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.
• 2012-2016 ACS 5-year Narrative Profiles: 2012-2016 ACS 5-year Narrative Profiles are available for state, county, place, metropolitan/micropolitan statistical area, ZIP Code Tabulation Area, American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Land and census tract. Narrative Profiles summarize many topics using nontechnical text and graphs. Visit both the ACS Narrative Profiles page and American FactFinder for continuous profile data since 2009.
• Updated ACS 5-year and Census 2000 SF3 Table Comparisons: Visit our ACS/Census 2000 Table Comparisons tool to find comparable tables between ACS 5-year estimates and Census 2000 Summary File 3 detailed tables.
• Summary File Data: The 2012-2016 ACS 5-year Summary File data on the FTP site are now available. Supporting materials were released last week.
• Updated County Profiles: Like the Geography Profiles for states, the County Profiles provide visuals of QuickFacts data, presenting charts and maps to give a snapshot for each county. These profiles have been updated with 2012-2016 ACS 5-year data. To test things out, visit data.census.gov and search for your county.  Then let us know what you think by emailing your thoughts to cedsci.feedback@census.gov.

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.

To request a free data workshop, training, or presentation from the U.S. Census Bureau, please contact the Data Dissemination Office at census.askdata@census.gov or 1-844-ASK-DATA (1-844-275-3282).

 Thank you,

American Community Survey Office

U.S. Census Bureau