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Releases « American Community Survey (ACS)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, OCT. 27, 2009
Census Bureau Releases 2006-2008 American Community
Survey Data
The U.S. Census Bureau released new American Community Survey (ACS) data today covering the
three-year period between 2006 and 2008 on a wide range of socioeconomic, housing and demographic
characteristics for communities across the nation, part of an ongoing statistical portrait of America.
Among the dozens of topics covered in the survey are educational attainment, commute times, housing
characteristics, occupation, language ability and various other social, economic and housing topics.
The data provide a portrait of communities throughout the nation with populations as small as 20,000,
including all states, congressional districts and metropolitan areas; about half of all counties; and about 8
percent of all places. This is the second set of ACS data released this fall; in September 2009, the Census
Bureau released the 2008 ACS one-year estimates on a similar set of topics for all areas with populations
of 65,000 or more.
While the 2010 Census will produce a count of the nation’s population and basic demographics, the ACS
provides statistics about the social, economic and housing characteristics of states and local communities.
What is now the American Community Survey was part of the decennial census in earlier decades as the
“census long form” that went to about one-in-six residential addresses in Census 2000.
Moving the once-a-decade, long-form questions to an ongoing survey throughout the decade has
enabled the Census Bureau to produce annual, detailed socioeconomic and housing data that help leaders,
planners and businesses make better-informed decisions. Combined, data from the 2010 Census and the
ACS will help determine the distribution of more than $400 billion in federal tax funds to states and local
areas every year.