Information for Researchers

Census 2010 marks a complete transition from the traditional system of decennial censuses to a new model. The profound changes in data collection and census geography create specific challenges for researchers. These include:

  • To become sufficiently informed about details of ACS procedures to make appropriate decisions about the reliability of reported data at the county, place, block group, or tract levels and about how to use data that are pooled across a variable number of years;
  • To determine how sampling variability should be taken into account in creation of aggregate measures that draw at least in part on estimates, and how full count decennial census data should be used in conjunction with sample count annual or pooled ACS data;
  • To deal with changes in census geography that make it more difficult to analyze changes over time in characteristics of places.

The purpose of this section of the US2010 webpage is to make available information and resources for researchers to deal with such questions. It draws on the experience of several advisors to US2010 who have dealt with the ACS in its early phases. These include Warren Brown (Georgia State Data Center), Paul Voss (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Ren Farley (University of Michigan) and Linda Gage (California Department of Finance).

Select a general category of information to examine:

 

© Spatial Strucures in the Social Sciences, Brown University