Provide comparisons of ACS estimates over time in the same layout as the Data Profiles. These tables have a “CP” prefix.

The 1-year Comparison Profiles show data side-by-side for 5 years, indicating where there is a statistically significant difference between the most current year compared to 4 prior years of data.

The 5-year Comparison Profiles show data side-by-side from two consecutive 5-year periods, indicating where there is a statistically significant difference between two sets of estimates.

Geographic areas covered: The 1-year Comparison Profiles provide estimates for populations of 65,000 or more for most available geographic areas. The 5-year Comparison Profiles are available for the nation, states, counties, places, and metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas with populations of 5,000 or more.

Tools:

data.census.gov (1-year Comparison Profile, 5-year Comparison Profile)

Census API

Provide a broad set of social, economic, housing, and demographic information in a total of four profiles, summarizing the data using both estimates and percentages for a single geographic area. These tables have a “DP” prefix.

Geographic areas covered: All areas down to the neighborhood (census tract) level.

Tools:

Data Profiles on the ACS website

data.census.gov (1-year Data Profiles, 5-year Data Profiles)

Census API

Provide the most detailed estimates on all topics for all geographies. These can be identified as base tables, which provide the greatest level of detail and often corresponding collapsed tables that provide less detail in order to avoid quality filtering. The tables have a “B” and “C” prefix, respectively. 

Geographic Areas Covered: All areas down to the block group level.

Tools: 

data.census.gov (1-year Detailed Tables, 5-year Detailed Tables)

Summary File

Census API

Provide estimates for approximately 90 key variables compared across multiple geographies. These tables, available for download, have a “GCT” prefix and are 1-year products only.

Geographic Areas Covered: States, metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas, cities, counties, congressional districts, and several other geographic areas.

Tool: Geographic Comparison Tables on the ACS website

Provide short, analytic reports derived from the ACS 5-year estimates. Covering 18 different topic areas, each Narrative Profile provides text and bar charts to display highlights of selected social, economic, housing, and demographic estimates for a selected geographic area.

Geographic areas covered: Nation, states, counties, metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas, places, ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, American Indian Areas/Alaska Native Areas/Hawaiian Home Lands, and neighborhoods (census tracts).

Tool: Narrative Profiles on the ACS website

Provides a set of records from individual people or housing units, devoid of personalized information, to create custom estimates and tables that are not available through ACS pretabulated data products.

The U.S. Census Bureau produces ACS 1-year and 5-year PUMS files and typically releases these files 1 month after the release of the published ACS tables. The 5-year PUMS file is a combination of five 1-year PUMS files. The 1-year PUMS file includes records for about 1 percent of the total population and the 5-year f ile includes records for about 5 percent of the total population.

Geographic areas covered: States, Puerto Rico, and Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs).

Tool: 

Microdata on the ACS website

data.census.gov Microdata Access Tool (MDAT)

Census Microdata API

Census File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Provide state rankings for approximately 90 key variables; available for download. These tables have an “R” prefix and are 1-year products only. 

Geographic Areas Covered: Nation, states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Tool: Ranking Tables on the ACS website

Provide a broad set of statistics iterated for race, Hispanic origin, ancestry, and place of birth population subgroups. The table ID for this product is S0201 for U.S. geographies and S0201PR for Puerto Rico geographies. These tables are available for ACS 1-year estimates only.

Geographic Areas Covered: There are two thresholds used for SPPs. First, the SPPs are released for geographic areas with a total population of at least 500,000. (Prior to the 2007 ACS, SPPs were produced for geographic areas with a total population of at least 1 million).

Second, we look at the size of the population group of interest. The SPPs are released for population groups with an estimated population of 65,000 or more.

Tools:

data.census.gov (1-year Selected Population Profiles)

Census API

Provide social, economic, housing, or demographic information for a particular topic or subpopulation. These tables have an “S” prefix. The ACS Table List provides a complete list of tables and universes for ACS 1-year and 5-year data products.

Geographic Areas Covered: All areas down to the neighborhood (census tract) level.

Tools: 

Subject Tables on ACS website

data.census.gov (1-year Subject Tables, 5-year Subject Tables)

Census API

Provides a pipe-delimited text file that contains all the Detailed Tables from the ACS; available for download.

Geographic Areas Covered: All geographies published for the ACS.

Tool: Summary File on the ACS website

Provide simplified tables with the most recent ACS statistics at a lower population threshold than the standard 1-year Detailed Tables. These tables have a “K20” prefix. 

Geographic areas covered: Most available geographic areas with at least 20,000 people.

Tool:

data.census.gov (1-year Supplemental Estimates)

Census API

Provide augmented versions of selected 5-year Detailed Tables that contain variance replicates; available for download. The replicates allow for more accurate calculations of margins of error for estimates aggregated within tables or across geographic areas. The VRE tables follow the data release rules applied to the Detailed Tables they are based on. 

Geographic Areas Covered: Nation, states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Homeland, metropolitan/micropolitan statistical area, county, county subdivision, place, congressional district, and ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA).

Tool: Variance Replicate Estimate (VRE) Tables on the ACS website