Assuming that the American Communities Survey (ACS) continues to be funded (a previous set of posts tracked a legislative move to eliminate all funding for the ACS, while a second piece of legislation has been proposed to make the ACS voluntary, thus effective eliminating it's local usability), there is a schedule for the release of the one year, three year and five year estimates for later this year.The one year estimates of the American Community Survey statistics from 2012 are planned for release September. 12. These one-year statistics cover a wide range of demographic information for populations greater than 65,000. The three-year statistics, generated from ACS data collection from 2010 to 2012, will cover populations of 20,000 or more and are planned for release October 24. The five-year statistics generated from data collection from 2008 to 2012 will follow December 5, covering all areas regardless of population size down to the block group. All three sets of statistics provide a wide range of important statistics about people and housing for every community across the nation. The results are used by everyone from town and city planners to retailers and homebuilders. The American Community Survey is the only source of local statistics for most of the 40 topics it covers — such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs — for even the smallest communities.
