Evaluation of the Marital Events Items on the ACS

• Activity Number: 453
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Diana B. Elliott*+ and Tavia Simmons and Jamie M. Lewis
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Keywords: American Community Survey (ACS)

Abstract

Beginning in 2008, marital history items were added to the American Community Survey (ACS) to collect national and state-level marriage and divorce data previously obtained only with vital records. This paper first compares new estimates of marriage, divorce, and widowhood from the 2008 ACS with comparable vital records and other survey data. Then, marriage and divorce rates derived from the ACS are examined for men and women at the state level, given different population bases (total population; those 15 and older; and the population at risk). Finally, median ages at first marriage for men and women from the ACS are compared to historical data and recent modeled estimates. Overall, this paper shows that the ACS data are reasonable and provide valid marriage and divorce rates for the population of interest.