This is a very interesting table note to an ACS table.
This table, of sex by age
https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Populations%20and%20People&g=0400000US36&d=ACS%205-Year%20Estimates%20Detailed%20Tables&tid=ACSDT5Y2018.B01001&hidePreview=true
has **** in the margin of error column, and this note of explanation
“An "*****" entry in the margin of error column indicates that the estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.”
I’m not really sure what this means. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Gene
Essentially it means it has a SE of zero. Because the weights are designed in such a way that the certain margins (age, sex, et al) are fixed to independent estimates, usually from the population estimates…
yes as Matthew mentions this comes from the annual Age-Sex-Race-Hispanic estimates so not from the survey which would have sampling error.
I would just think it as one of the variables used to factor and adjust the sample. This is not the statistical answer but its the way I came to peace with the footnote.