Wednesday, October 28, 2009

New Three-Year Estimates Released for 2006-2008

The Census Bureau released the newest 3-year estimates for 2006-2008 from the American Community Survey on October 27, 2009. In September the Bureau released 1-year estimates from the 2008 ACS. If all of these releases are beginning to get confusing, here is a quick explanation.

The American Community Survey is an ongoing survey and is being released in three primary data sets; one-year estimates, three-year aggregate estimates and five-year aggregate estimates. The aggregated data over several years allows the Bureau to create estimates for geographies with smaller populations. The population thresholds are as follows:

1-year estimates are released annually for geographic areas with 65,000+ population.
3-year estimates are released annually for geographic areas with 20,000+ population.
5-year estimates will be released annually down to the Block Group level beginning in 2010. Block Groups vary in population but average around 1,500 people.

Areas with 65,000+ will have estimates from all three of these data sets, so you will need to choose which is best for your purposes for these geographic areas: a 1-year estimate with the smaller sample and greater margin of error, or a 3-year or 5-year sample that has smaller margin of error, but some of the data will be older than in the 1-year estimates.

Here is a link to some great resources for better understanding the different ACS data releases. And the Bureau has made available a series of handbooks in PDF that do a good job of addressing how different groups of people can access and understand the ACS data, with illustrated examples of how to download the data and understand what you are looking at when you do.

The biggest thing to remember is that the Decennial Census is a point-in-time sample reflecting totals on April 1 of the census year and the ACS data are obtained throughout the year, and even aggregated over a period of years. Here is a link to estimates for poverty status, income, home values for the 55 Kentucky counties that are available in this newest data release.

Monday, October 26, 2009

New Maps Available at KSDC

KSDC has a large selection of maps downloadable as PDF files for printing or viewing online. Recently updated maps include a map of the nine Metropolitan Statistical Areas in Kentucky and color and black and white maps of the 15 Area Development Districts (ADD).

Links to these and other maps are conveniently collected on one KSDC Maps Page. If you have suggestions for these or new maps, please email them to the Kentucky State Data Center using the email link on the home page: ksdc@louisville.edu.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Economic data from 2008 ACS 1-Year Estimates Now Available

The 2008 ACS poverty and income data that was delayed due to a coding error has been released. Shortcut links to the Economic and Narrative profiles for Kentucky Counties and MSA's are available here on the KSDC American Community Survey page. The economic data may be of special interest to people researching the effects of the current economic recession which officially began in December 2007, meaning that the entire 2008 sample was taken during a recession.

This latest ACS data release is from the 1-year sample. On October 27 the Bureau plans to release the newest 3-year estimates for geographic areas with 20,000+ population.