Inquiry about ACS and 2020 census tract boundaries

Kathy Pettit over 3 years ago

I'm passing these questions on (that I didn't know the answers too offhand) for a friend at USC...

Does anyone know when the American Community Survey (ACS) data will start to be released with the new 2020 tracts? Perhaps when the 2020 5-year estimates are released in December?
Will we need to rely on crosswalks to convert all of our old ACS data (i.e. they won’t be re-releasing previous years of data with new boundaries)?

Thanks for any help!

-Kathy Pettit

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Matthew Brault over 3 years ago

If they follow the usual schedule (which I don't know because of COVID), the 2020 data products (2020 1-year and 2016-2020 5-yr) should be using 2020 Census geography vintages. They don't re-release old data with the updated geography boundaries because small changes in borders might make some respondents identifiable.

More info: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/acs/acs_geography_handbook_2020.pdf#page=18
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Matthew Brault over 3 years ago

If they follow the usual schedule (which I don't know because of COVID), the 2020 data products (2020 1-year and 2016-2020 5-yr) should be using 2020 Census geography vintages. They don't re-release old data with the updated geography boundaries because small changes in borders might make some respondents identifiable.

More info: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/acs/acs_geography_handbook_2020.pdf#page=18
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Kathy Pettit over 3 years ago in reply to Matthew Brault

This is a great resource - thank you!
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Glenn Rice over 3 years ago in reply to Matthew Brault

But this document says: "More specifically, ACS data generally reflect the geographic boundaries of legal areas as of January 1 of the estimate year." Were the new 2020 geographies already in use by Jan. 1, 2020?
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