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Content Changes

American Community Survey (ACS) content is designed to meet the needs of federal government agencies and is a rich source of local area information useful to state, local, and tribal governments, universities, and businesses.  

However, constraining the content of the ACS is critical due to the mandatory reporting requirement and burden to the American people.  Content tests involve the testing, research, and evaluation processes used to determine the best wording, format, and placement of proposed new questions or revisions to existing questions on the ACS.  This process ensures that each new or modified question has been carefully considered, tested fully, and will collect quality data without reducing overall respondent participation.  If you are interested in learning more about how a question gets added to the ACS, check out the How a Question Becomes a Part of the American Community Survey infographic, as well as the below Policy for Adding New Content to the ACS document.

Through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Interagency Committee for the ACS (co-chaired by the OMB and the Census Bureau), more than thirty Federal agencies participate in the review of the ACS instrument.  Proposed changes, including new content to the ACS content must meet certain criteria laid out by the OMB and the Interagency Council for Statistical Policy (ICSP) Subcomittee for the ACS.   Final question wording must be vetted by ICSP Subcommittee and OMB before field testing.  In general, Content Tests evaluate alternatives for questions which show some indication of a problem, for example, high missing data rates, estimates which differ systematically from other sources of the same information, or low reliability.

The methodology used for content testing is designed to be similar to ACS data collection in a regular production cycle. The Census Bureau collects data on the quality of the responses obtained in the test. Response variance, gross difference rates, item nonresponse rates, and measures of distributional changes from the regular production cases serve as indicators of the quality of the test questions relative to current ACS questions. Content testing and analysis takes place over approximately two years, so that the results are not implemented until at least two years following the date associated with the content test.

Content Test Evaluation Reports


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  • 2007

Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Labor Force
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the Labor Force series of questions.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: SNAP
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the questions about SNAP.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Solar Panels
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the question about solar panels.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Respondent Burden
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test respondent burden analysis.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Health Insurance
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the questions about health insurance.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Sewer
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the sewer question.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Educational Attainment
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the question about educational attainment.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Electric Vehicles
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the Electric Vehicles question.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Income
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the questions about Income.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test: Household Roster
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the questions about household roster.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Disability
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test of the questions about disability.


Working Paper
2022 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Unit-Level Response
Results from the 2022 ACS Content Test report for the unit-level response analysis.


Working Paper
2022 ACS Content Test: Round 3 Cognitive Testing Results
This report summarizes results from Round 3 of cognitive testing, which gathered feedback from individuals in groups quarters facilities and Puerto Rico.


Working Paper
2022 ACS Content Test: Round 1 and Round 2 Cognitive Testing Results
This report summarizes results from two rounds of cognitive testing for the 2022 ACS Content Test.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Industry and Occupation
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Industry and Occupation.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Class of Worker
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Class of Worker and Employer Name.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Health Insurance
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Health Insurance.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Race and Hispanic Origin
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Race and Hispanic origin.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Retirement Income
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the question about Retirement Income.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Weeks Worked
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the question about Weeks Worked


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Journey to Work
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Journey to Work: Travel Mode of Commute and Time of Departure for Work.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Telephone Service
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the question about Telephone Service.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Computer and Internet Use
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the questions about Computer and Internet Use.


Working Paper
2016 American Community Survey Content Test: Relationship
Results from the 2016 ACS Content Test of the question about Relationship.


Working Paper
2016 ACS Content Test: Summary of Round 1 and 2 Cognitive Testing
Obtain a summary of the feedback gathered during Round 1 and Round 2 of cognitive testing the revised questions for the 2016 Content Test.


Working Paper
2016 ACS Content Test: Round 3 Cognitive Testing
Learn more about Round 3 of cognitive testing, which gathered feedback on revised survey questions from individuals in group quarters and Puerto Rico.


Working Paper
2016 ACS Content Test: Round 2 Cognitive Testing
Learn more about the feedback gathered during Round 2 of cognitive testing the revised questions for the 2016 Content Test.


Working Paper
2016 ACS Content Test: Round 1 Cognitive Testing
Learn more about how the Census Bureau started gathering feedback on potential questions for the 2016 Content Test.


Working Paper
2010 ACS Content Test Evaluation: Behavior Coding Results
Behavior coding results from the 2010 American Community Survey Content Test.


Working Paper
2010 Evaluation Report Covering Wages
Results of proposed changes to the wages content as tested in the 2010 American Community Survey Content Test.


Working Paper
2010 Evaluation Report Covering Computer and Internet
Results of the proposed addition of computer and Internet use content as tested in the 2010 American Community Survey Content Test.


Working Paper
2010 ACS Content Test Evaluation Report Covering Military POS
This report evaluates the 2010 ACS Content Test to simplify the period of military service question and to improve the quality of the data for this topic.


Working Paper
2010 ACS Content Test Evaluation Report Covering Veteran Status
This report evaluates the 2010 ACS Content Test to simplify the veteran identification question and generate more reliable and accurate estimates of veterans.


Working Paper
2010 ACS Content Test Eval. Report Covering Parental Place of Birth
This report describes the results of testing the parental place of birth questions in two locations on the ACS questionnaire.


Working Paper
2010 Evaluation Report Covering Public Assistance
Results of proposed changes to the public assistance content as tested in the 2010 American Community Survey Content Test.


Working Paper
2010 Evaluation Report Covering Food Stamps/SNAP
Results of proposed changes to the food stamp/SNAP content as tested in the 2010 American Community Survey Content Test.

Page Last Revised - March 26, 2024
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