The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year—giving communities the current information they need to make important decisions. The ACS covers a broad range of topics about social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics of the U.S. population.

Supplemental Estimates are a subset of simplified Detailed Tables providing access to the most recent ACS data at a lower population threshold than the standard 1-year tables. Supplemental Estimates are available for geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or more.  

To create an API call, you must enter a specific URL into the address bar of a web browser. The call will vary depending on the following factors:

• Year of data release

• Dataset (ACS 1-year or 5-year)  

• Table ID

• Geography level

Please review the example API calls for each of the table types listed below and use those examples to build your API calls. API calls are also available for tables found in data.census.gov by selecting the API function in the tool bar. Visit the API Resources page for tutorial videos, workshops and other tools.

The API is one of several ways to access ACS data. Visit the ACS Data page to find all the ways to access ACS data.