Dollar for Dollar: Rating the Income Data from the American Community Survey

• Activity Number: 331
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): John Czajka*+
• Companies: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Keywords: income measurement ; poverty ; ACS ; CPS ; policy analysis

Abstract

The income data collected in the decennial census long form from one-sixth of all U.S. households supported estimates of economic well-being and program eligibility for detailed geography and small subpopulations every ten years. The advent of the American Community Survey (ACS), which has replaced the long form with a system of continuous measurement, provides subnational estimates of income that are both timely and able to support trend analysis. It is important to understand how these new data compare to established income data--in particular, the data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, the nation's official source of income and poverty statistics. The first part of this paper examines measurement issues that differentiate the two surveys' estimates of income. The second part presents comparative estimates of income from the two surveys.