Question about change to B05011 (Year of Naturalization) - new category "2015 or later"

Diana Lavery over 4 years ago

I took a look at the recently released ACS2018_Table_Shells.xlsx and noticed a change in the year categories for B05011 (Year of Naturalization). There is the text “1,5” at the end of this, which from my understanding means that this table will be available for both the 1-year and 5-year release.

2013-2017 data		2014-2018 data
	PERIOD OF NATURALIZATION		PERIOD OF NATURALIZATION
	Universe: Foreign-born population		Universe: Foreign-born population
B05011_001	Total:	B05011_001	Total:
B05011_002	Not a U.S. citizen	B05011_002	Not a U.S. citizen
B05011_003	Naturalized citizens:	B05011_003	Naturalized citizens:
B05011_004	Naturalized 2010 or later	B05011_004	Naturalized 2015 or later
B05011_005	Naturalized 2005 to 2009	B05011_005	Naturalized 2010 to 2014
B05011_006	Naturalized 2000 to 2004	B05011_006	Naturalized 2005 to 2009
B05011_007	Naturalized 1995 to 1999	B05011_007	Naturalized 2000 to 2004
B05011_008	Naturalized 1990 to 1994	B05011_008	Naturalized 1995 to 1999
B05011_009	Naturalized 1985 to 1989	B05011_009	Naturalized 1990 to 1994
B05011_010	Naturalized 1980 to 1984	B05011_010	Naturalized before 1990
B05011_011	Naturalized before 1980

For the 2014-2018 5-year estimates, approximately one fifth of those respondents were surveyed in 2014, before they even had the opportunity to be naturalized in “2015 or later” which is the most recent category in the new table shell. I expect the value in this "2015 or later" category to grow in the 2015-2019 release and the 2016-2020 release, simply because more of the sample has had a chance to be naturalized. Is my understanding correct here?

I found a similar issue with the housing units by year built tables (B25034 and B25036).

Just curious how often ACS changes these types of tables with years as categories. Also, what is the best way to interpret categories whose year endpoints are in between survey periods?