Mar 25 -- The Census Bureau invites comments by April 25, 2024 regarding the proposed 2025 American Community Survey and Puerto Rico Community Survey. [Comments due 30 days after submission to OMB on March 26.]
The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for revisions to the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is one of the Department of Commerce's most valuable data products, used extensively by businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local governments, and many federal agencies. In conducting this survey, the Census Bureau's top priority is respecting the time and privacy of the people providing information while preserving its value to the public.
In June 2018, the Census Bureau solicited proposals for new or revised ACS content from over 25 federal agencies. For new questions, the proposals explained why these data were needed and why other data sources that provide similar information were not sufficient. Proposals for new content were reviewed to ensure that the requests met a statutory or regulatory need for data at small geographic levels or for small populations.
The Census Bureau, in consultation with the OMB and the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy Subcommittee on the ACS, determined which proposals moved forward. Approved proposals for new content or changes to current content were tested via the ACS content change process. This process included cognitive testing and field testing of several topics, including household roster, educational attainment, health insurance coverage, disability, and labor force questions.
The testing also included evaluating the addition of three new topics on electric vehicles, sewage disposal, and solar panels. A Federal Register notice (FRN) posted on February 9, 2021, solicited public comments on the initial proposals for testing changes and additions to the ACS content. Another FRN was posted on March 21, 2022, which contained more details on the proposed changes for each topic and the operational details of the 2022 ACS Content Test.
The most recent FRN, posted on October 20, 2023, invited the public to comment on the proposed changes to the 2025 ACS and PRCS after analyzing the result of the 2022 Content Test. The public provided comments through December 19, 2023. The Census Bureau received over 12,000 comments on the most recent 60-day FRN for the 2025 ACS content changes. Over 98 percent of the comments received were about the changes to the disability questions. One point three percent were on the other topics with a proposed change or the topic was not specified in the comment. An additional 0.7 percent were on other topics or proposed new questions not included in the 2022 ACS Content Test, general comments about the ACS, recommendations about data collection methods, or were not applicable to the 60-day FRN.
The majority of commenters expressed concerns about the changes proposed to the disability questions and asked the Census Bureau not to proceed with the changes. Most commenters also expressed dissatisfaction with not having been included in the process. They indicated that the Census Bureau should conduct more comprehensive public engagement before proposing modifications to the disability questions. Some of these comments also suggested that a taskforce be formed. Many letters incorporated the motto and sentiment of, “Nothing About Us Without Us.” In deference to the large number (12,188) of comments that expressed concerns about the proposed change to the disability questions, the Census Bureau plans to retain the current ACS disability questions for the 2025 ACS. Refer to the Census Bureau Director's Blog on the Next Steps on the ACS Disability Questions.
The vast majority of comments on the other topics acknowledged the value of the data from the new and revised questions. The Census Bureau will proceed with the proposal of changes on all other topics for the 2025 ACS.
The Census Bureau and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) stand behind the statistical validity of the 2022 ACS Content Test results and the practical utility of the proposed disability change. However, we recognize that statistical validity and practical utility for NCHS should be only two components of the decision about whether to change questions on the ACS—we must also consider the needs of other data users inside and outside of government.
The Census Bureau developed the ACS to collect and update demographic, social, economic, and housing data every year that are essentially the same as the “long-form” data that the Census Bureau formerly collected once a decade as part of the decennial census. The ACS is an ongoing monthly survey that collects detailed housing and socioeconomic data from about 3.54 million addresses in the United States and about 36,000 addresses in Puerto Rico each year. The ACS also collects detailed socioeconomic data from about 170,000 residents living in group quarters facilities in the United States and about 900 in Puerto Rico. The ACS is now the only source of comparable data about social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics for small areas and small subpopulations across the nation and in Puerto Rico. Every community in the nation continues to receive a detailed, statistical portrait of its social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics each year through one-year and five-year ACS products.
The 2025 ACS changes cover several topics: household roster, educational attainment, health insurance coverage, and labor force questions. Additionally, three new questions are proposed to be added to the ACS and the PRCS on solar panels, electric vehicles, and sewage disposal. A summary of changes for each topic is as follows:
-- Household Roster – The roster instructions have not changed since the 1990s while household living arrangements have increased in complexity. Instructions on who to include and not include on the roster were revised for the paper questionnaire. For the internet and CAPI instruments, the roster is built through a series of probes. These probes were modified to focus on situations and people who are more likely to be omitted from the roster or erroneously included. Overall, the revised version resulted in similar or better data quality indicators than the current roster instructions and probes. The revisions to the instructions for the paper questionnaire resulted in a lower item missing data rate and lower count discrepancy rates. In the internet instrument, the help text was accessed a significantly lower percentage of the time. An analysis of the roster actions in the CAPI and internet modes found a higher percentage of people were originally rostered on the first screen, a significantly lower percentage of people were deleted, a higher percentage of young children (0-4) were added during the second roster screen, and a higher percentage of added people were ultimately kept on the final roster.
-- Educational Attainment – A relatively high percentage of adults are selecting the response category, “No schooling completed.” Ongoing research suggests that this includes adults who have completed some level of schooling. The revision reduces erroneous reports in this category through formatting and wording changes to clarify the response options.
-- Health Insurance Coverage – Since implementation in 2008, research has found that Medicaid and other means-tested programs are underreported in the ACS and the PRCS and that direct-purchase coverage is overreported, in part due to misreporting of non-comprehensive health plans and reporting multiple coverage types for the same plan (Mach & O’Hara, 2011; Lynch et al., 2011; Boudreaux et al., 2014; O’Hara, 2010; Boudreaux et al., 2011; Boudreaux et al., 2013). Moreover, revisions to the health insurance coverage question would help capture changes to the health insurance landscape that occurred with and since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Changes to the health insurance coverage question include a change in formatting of the question that adds an explicit response category for those who are uninsured, reordering some response options and rewording response options for direct purchase, Medicaid, employer, and veteran’s health care.
-- Labor Force – Labor force questions related to when the person last worked, the number of weeks, and the number of hours worked are being updated to clarify instructions to only include work for pay, to include all jobs a person may hold, and to ensure that military service is included.
-- Electric Vehicles – This new question asks if there are plug-in electric vehicles kept at the housing unit. By adding this question, we will be able to provide data to stakeholders to project future energy sources, infrastructure, and consumer needs for the growing popularity of electric vehicles. The ACS and the PRCS would be the only data source at the housing unit level to adequately inform these projections.
-- Solar Panels – This new question asks if the housing unit uses solar panels that generate electricity. By adding this question, we will be able to obtain data for operational solar panels on a housing unit level across the country. This information will help the Energy Information Administration (EIA) match energy consumption to energy production across the United States.
-- Sewage Disposal – This new question asks if the housing unit is connected to a public sewer, septic tank, or other type of sewage system. By adding this question, we will be able to obtain consistent data on the decentralized wastewater infrastructure status in rural and other communities. These data are needed to protect public health, water quality, and to understand and meet the country's growing infrastructure needs. The ACS and the PRCS are the only available surveys that can provide these levels of data in a timely, consistent, and standardized manner.
ACS:
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
New and revised ACS questions for 2025:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/DownloadDocument?objectID=140811900
Census submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202403-0607-005 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-06256
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806