The 2024 Design and Methodology Report contains descriptions of the basic design of the American Community Survey and details of the full set of methods and procedures. We archived the previous versions of the report.

Introduction

The American Community Survey (ACS) is the cornerstone of the U.S. Census Bureau's effort to keep pace with the nation's ever-increasing demands for timely and relevant data about population and housing characteristics. The ACS is conducted throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, where it is called the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS). For ease of discussion, the term ACS is used here to represent both surveys. The ACS is an ongoing monthly survey that collects detailed housing and socioeconomic data. The ACS includes people living in both housing units (HUs) and group quarters (GQs). The ACS allows the Census Bureau to provide timely and relevant statistics, even for low levels of geography. Resulting tabulations from the data are provided on a yearly basis.

American Community Survey and Puerto Rico Community Survey Design and Methodology Report Version 4.0

ACS Design & Methodology Report-2024 [3.0 MB]

The purpose of this document is to provide data users and other interested individuals with documentation of the methods used in the ACS. This document describes the basic ACS design and methodology through 2021, unless otherwise indicated. Several key developments since the previous version was published in 2022 include the following: the addition of the internet as a response option for residents in certain types of group quarters facilities, the use of administrative data for workload optimization, the use of email reminders for partially complete internet responses, changes to content through 2024, weighting adjustments for late internet and mail returns, and the results of the 2022 Content test.