Proposed changes to the ACS Summary File format

The ACS Office at the Census Bureau is currently testing a new format for the ACS Summary File, which is a comma-delimited text file that contains all the Detailed Tables for the ACS.  

Information about the proposed updates to the ACS Summary File are described on the Census Bureau's website. 

We are starting this new Discussion Thread so that ACS data users can post any comments or questions about the proposes changes. ACS Summary File users are also encouraged to participate in the webinar scheduled for this afternoon on this topic.

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  • As someone who uses SAS to build datasets from the raw ACS data files and perform subsequent data analysis, I would strongly advise against naming the fields/variables with an "E' or "M" at the end of the name.  This would make it more difficult to use a range of variables in calculations, for example, when collapsing a table into broader categories like age groups, educational attainment, etc.  So instead of fields/variables formatted like this:

    B01001_001E
    B01001_001M
    B01001_002E
    B01001_002M
    B01001_003E
    B01001_003M

    I would suggest a naming convention more like this:

    B01001_E001
    B01001_M001
    B01001_E002
    B01001_M002
    B01001_E003
    B01001_M003

    Just my .02

  • It'll be a bit confusing since some tables have letter suffixes (like B01001E_001). Someone could easily confuse B01001E_E001 with B01001_E001. Not to say it shouldn't be done, but something to consider. Also, it would kill continuity of column headers with previous years' data (which I assume will not be re-released in the new format).

    Also, I've been using this data since the beginning of ACS, and I still think "Error" and not "Estimate" every time I see that E. Am I the only one?

  • you're not the only one!

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