2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Pre-Release Webinar

Transcript September 6, 2018

Tyson Weister

American Community Survey Office, U.S. Census Bureau

Daniel Velez

Public Information Office, U.S. Census Bureau

Slide 1 – 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Estimates

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. Participants are in a listen only mode

until either of the question and answer sessions of today’s conference. At

those times you may press star then 1 on your touch tone phone to ask a

question. Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections

you may disconnect now at this time. And I’d like to turn the conference over

to your host Mr. Dan Velez. Thank you, sir, you may begin.

(Dan Velez): Thank you very much. Good afternoon and welcome to the American

Community Survey 2017 technical webinar. Today’s webinar is focused on

helping you prepare for the release of the 2017 1-year ACS data products.

Before I proceed, I’d like to say a special thank you to our American

Community Survey respondents for their participation in the survey. Without

them we would not have these data which are so important for America’s

communities.

Slide 2 – Speakers

I’m Daniel Velez, Public Affairs Specialist with the Public Information

Office. Our presenter today is Tyson Weister. He’s a survey statistician with

the American Community Survey Office. We will open up the lines for

questions twice during the presentation, once at the midway point and again at

the end after the using American FactFinder segment. So, now let’s get started

with our guide Tyson Weister.

Slide 3 – Webinar Outline (Tyson Weister): Thanks Dan. And thank you all again for joining the webinar this afternoon.

Here’s an outline of what we’re going to cover today. Our goal is for you all

to walk away with a high level of understanding of next week’s releases both

for the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey. For

those of you who may be new to using ACS data we’ll talk about some basics

of the ACS. Then we’ll drill into changes for the 2017 ACS 1-year data

release in terms of changes for new data collection as well as new data that’s

available to you through America FactFinder.

Then we’ll point out some noteworthy pages that have gone live today or are

coming next week on the ACS website, open it up for question and answer

and then do the live demonstration of the American Factfinder. At the

conclusion of this webinar we’ll be sharing a link for you all to complete an

evaluation as well as follow that up by email. So, please do take a moment to

do that. We try to make these as useful as possible to you each year.

Slide 4 – Next Week’s Releases: Sept 11 & 12

So, on Tuesday September 11 beginning at 10:00 am Eastern Daylight Time,

the embargo period will begin for the 2017 ACS 1-year statistics, providing

you numerous demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics for

geographies with populations of 65,000 or more.

On Wednesday September 12, we’ll be releasing the 2017 national income,

poverty and health insurance coverage estimates. This is based on the Current

Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The report

will include statistics pertaining to the 2017 calendar year and will compare

trends over time.

We’ll also release the Supplemental Poverty Measure. This is an effort to take

into account many government programs designed to assist low income

families and individuals that were not included in the current official poverty

measure. And we’ll be releasing the Health Insurance Coverage in the United

States 2017 report -- which contains national level data from the Current

Population Survey as well as state level statistics from the ACS for calendar

year 2017 comparing it back to 2008.

Slide 5 – Next Week’s Releases: Sept 13

Then beginning at 12:01am Thursday September 13, the embargo period will

be lifted and the public release for the ACS 1-year estimates for 2017 will

occur. In your press kit are links to some highlights from the release, our

Detailed and Summary Tables, ACS data tools--we’ll be refreshing My

Congressional District and QuickFacts with the latest 2017 ACS 1-year

estimates. These are fed through the application programming interface or

API which you’ll also be able to pull the latest 2017 ACS 1-year estimates

from that data source on September 13.

The press kit will have state and metro area graphics and pre-recorded sound

bites in English and Spanish. And at the link at the very bottom of the slide

here - and just so you all are aware we will make the PowerPoint available to

you through the press kit as well. So, all of these links that I’m referencing,

feel free to check back and you’ll definitely have access to visit the links as

well as all of the information in the slides. The infographics and

visualizations--we’re pushing two live on September 13. One, is What Can

You Learn from the American Community Survey. That has an interactive

visualization for ten different topics. Things like computer and internet access,

employment status and commuting to work. They provide interactive maps

and narratives for these selective topics. The other visualization is our 2017

ACS online data wheel.

Slide 6 – The American Community Survey: The Foundation

Now, before we get too far into what’s new for the 2017 ACS 1-year release

we want to make sure you all have a good understanding of what the

American Community Survey is. We are the nation’s most current, reliable

and accessible data source for local level statistics. Many of you may

remember back in Census 2000 we had a long form portion of the census

where we selected about 1 out of 6 households to answer detailed questions.

These were characteristics, things like income and educational attainment.

The American Community Survey has replaced the long form Census to

provide you fresh data every year since 2005.

What sets us apart from other federal surveys and programs as well as private

surveys is essentially our large scale. We’re the largest household survey in

the nation sampling 3 1/2 million addresses. What that means is that you can

get data for the ACS for small geographic areas down to the block group level

as well as detailed population groups. And then of course our high response

rate set us apart as well.

We release our data three times each year -- which we’ll be talking about

more here shortly.

Slide 7 – ACS Content

In the meantime, you may be wondering what can you get from the ACS in

terms of content. We provide social, economic and demographic

characteristics of America’s population. Some examples of social

characteristics include disability status, educational attainment, language

spoken at home and veteran status. Demographic characteristics include age,

sex, race, Hispanic origin and relationship to householder. These continue to

be collected through the decennial census as well as the American Community

Survey. And some examples of economic characteristics -- commuting, health

insurance, income, poverty and employment status.

We’re also collecting information on America’s housing. Some examples of

characteristics for data that’s available to you are computer and internet use,

home value, ownership status, and rent. Between these over 35 topics we’re

producing over 1,000 tables and we repeat those tables for many different

types of geographic areas. That gives you 11 billion statistics that you can

access for your new stories free of charge on America FactFinder and at the

end of the webinar we’ll show you how to do that through a live

demonstration.

Slide 8 – ACS Basics: 1-Year Geography

With this content you may be wondering what types of geographies can I get

that data for. In terms of the 2017 ACS 1-year release we’ll be pushing data

live for approximately 7,900 different geographic areas. What you’re looking

for are geographies with populations of 65,000 or more. So you’ll find data

for the nation, all states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, all

metropolitan areas and congressional districts, as well as counties and places

with populations of 65,000 or more. At the bottom of this slide is a link to a

detailed spreadsheet if you’d like to know in advance whether these estimates

will be available for a particular geography please visit the link and reference

that detailed spreadsheet.

Slide 9 – ACS Basics: 1-Year Data Products

On American FactFinder we have many different types of tables that you may

be interested in. And if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed starting out with

our 11 billion statistics, our Data Profiles is a good place for you to start.

There’re only four different kinds to search through -- social, economic,

housing and demographic. So, if you’re interested in getting data for a piece

of geography for your news story this contains data for lots of different topics

all in one table for you.

If you’d like information on how that geography has changed over time you

can reference the Comparison Profiles. It provides the same information that’s

in the Data Profiles for 2017, but in addition to that you’ll be getting one-year

data for each year dating back to 2013 with statistical significance indicated

for you. And we’ll take a look at that in our live demonstration. And if you’re

less interested in geography but more interested in a detailed population

group, such as the Japanese population or the Navajo Nation Tribe, our

Selected Population Profiles provide similar types of information as our other

types of profiles but for that specific population group.

In addition, we have many types of tables here. We’ve indicated the different

types as well as the quantities coming through the 2017 ACS 1-year release in

parenthesis. So, if you want to know how geography has changed over time

maybe you’re state to other states, take a look at the Ranking Tables and

Geographic Comparison Tables. If you’re looking for writing a new story on a

particular subject like educational attainment or veteran status you can get lots

of data cross tabulated in one location through our Subject Tables. And then

of course the most detailed information for your new stories is going to be

through our over 1,300 Detailed Tables that will be pushed live.

So, those first seven bullet points are coming through the embargo period as

well as next Thursday for the public release. In addition to that we have one

additional type of table that we tabulate on the 1-year data. It’s what we call

our Supplemental Tables. We’ll be releasing 59 of those in October. These

contain high level statistics. So because there’s less detail in terms of the topic

we provide this data at a lower population threshold of 20,000 or more

compared to the 65,000 or more population threshold that’s applied to next

week’s products.

Slide 10 – Data Collection Process

So, with that background information let’s take a look a little more closely as

to what’s new for the upcoming 2017 ACS release. We did have a change in

our data collection process beginning in October 2017. So, from that period

forward our data collection went according what you see on the slide here.

So, for most households we let the household know they were selected for the

American Community Survey -- that their address was in our sample -- by

sending a postcard. That postcard contains details for them to complete the

survey online. If we don’t get a response through that we send several mailed

reminders including a paper copy of the questionnaire. And if we still haven’t

received a response we select a sample of the remaining cases for non-

response follow up. What that means is we do personal visits for those

addresses. So, between these different data collection modes through the

American Community Survey we’ve consistently achieved response rates

above 90%.

Slide 11 – ACS Changes to Data Collection

Prior to October 2017 we did have one additional type of data collection mode

in our non-response follow up. We called that our computer assisted telephone

interview or CATI operation. So, this is where we had an outbound

centralized call center here at the Census Bureau calling addresses to get

responses over the phone. This occurred if we did not receive an online

response or a mailed response.

As people are more reluctant to provide information over the phone, over time

CATI was experiencing increasing cost associated with this operation and we

made the decision to eliminate it in October 2017. The result of this is that

respondent burden was significantly reduced and that there was a negligible

impact to the quality of the data. So, we are still recommending to compare

across 2016 and 2017 ACS.

And we also want to highlight for you all that there are telephone operations

here at the Census Bureau for the American Community Survey. One example

of that is our Telephone Questionnaire Assistance line or ACS help line. So, if

at any point in the process a respondent has questions about the ACS, needs

help navigating through the online portal to give their response, or if they

want to give their response over the phone, if they call into us we are happy to

accommodate their needs.

Slide 12 – ACS New Tables

So, looking at some more exciting things for 2017 are brand new data that’s

available to you. One of those is a set of 57 new tables for group quarters. So,

group quarters are the population that live in specialized group living

arrangements like nursing facilities, college or university housing. In 2017 we

have two new Subject Tables, S2602 and S2603 that have replaced the 2016

and previous version of S2601B. In addition to that we’re pushing live for the

first time 55 new Detailed Tables for group quarters that essentially contain a

subset of the types of information that’s available on the Subject Tables for

you.

Slide 13 – 2016 Table: S2601B Characteristics of the Group Quarters Population by Group Quarters Type

So, to look at this a little more clearly as to what value is being added, in 2016

here’s the screenshot of the table S2601B. On the left-hand side you can see

we provide data for various characteristics, things like -- sex, age, as well as

others like income and educational attainment that aren’t show here in the

screenshot. That data was provided for the total population, as well as the total

group quarters population. And then three of the most common group quarters

types -- adult correctional facilities, nursing facilities and college university

housing.

Slide 14 – 2017 Table: S2603 Characteristics of the Group Quarters Population by Group Quarters Type (5 Types)

With the set of new 57 Detailed Tables and Subject Tables for the 2017 ACS

you’re going to continue to get that same level of detail. But in addition we

provide two new group quarters types so you can get totals and characteristics

for people living in juvenile facilities, as well as military quarters and military

ships.

Slide 15 – ACS New Tables (continued)

Another item of note is our citizen voting-age population tables. So, this was

previously a topic that was published on census.gov and made publicly

available. Due to the high demand from accessing those data tables, we’ve

incorporated them in 2017 into our annual release in American FactFinder. So

you’ll be able to go to FactFinder in the embargo period as well as next week

and access data for the citizen voting-age population for particular

geographies and you can look at that breakout by age, educational attainment,

poverty status and median household income.

We also have a new subject table S2901. It provides citizen voting-age

population by those same breakouts mentioned earlier. It also provides

breakouts by sex, race and Hispanic origin.

Slide 16 – ACS New Tables (continued)

Other new tables for 2017 -- for income and earnings you can get data now for

the number of earners in a family, as well as the median earnings for the full-

time year-round workers. And a new health insurance table, C27021. This will

provide health insurance coverage status by people living in married couple

families, living in other families and living in non-family households.

Slide 17 – ACS Noteworthy Data Product Modifications

And of course, we continue to make improvements to our existing tables on

American FactFinder every data release season. For 2017 we’ve made

modifications and changes to the six topics listed here, with the greatest

number of changes occurring for health insurance tables. So, if you use these

tables across years and you want details on a particular table and what those

changes were, we encourage you to visit our table changes through the link at

the bottom. For the purposes of the webinar -- on a high level we can say that

the changes were made across different topics to improve age categories

within the table, the total population that the table refers to. We’ve also

increased the level of detail for income breakouts and poverty thresholds.

We’ve improved some tables to display both counts and percentages and

we’ve made improvements in the level of details to ensure the confidentiality

of ACS respondents.

Slide 18 – ACS Geography Update

Other new items are new geographies. So with the 2017 ACS data release

season there are nine new American Indian and off reservation trust lands in

California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington. Nine new county

subdivisions in Louisiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. As well as

seven new cities, villages, and census designated places in the states listed

here. So, as a note these are new throughout the 2017 data release season. So

for the 2017 ACS 1-year estimates you’ll only see data for those geographies

that have populations of 65,000 or more, but as we do our other releases for

the Supplemental Estimates and the 5-year estimates you’ll progressively see

data for the 2017 release through all of these geographies for the first time

from the ACS.

And of course, other geography changes of note, there are a number of

boundaries that have changed due to annexation, disincorporation and

geocoding updates. If you are comparing data over time we recommend that

you take a look at the boundaries and whether they may have changed over

time. That should give you a sense as to whether the change you’re seeing in

the data is a true reflection of the change in the characteristics of the

population or whether it might be a reflection of a change in geographic

boundaries.

Slide 19 – Guidance for ACS Users

While we’re talking about comparison guidance -- some more general

guidance we do recommend comparing across geographies and populations

subgroups using the 2017 American Community Survey. We also recommend

comparing the 2016 to 2017 ACS. There haven’t been a lot of changes

between those two years. As always, we recommend caution when comparing

income, earnings and poverty. And there’s two reasons for this. One, is that

you want to make sure your dollars are in a consistent value and that you’ve

accounted for inflation. The second reason is that the reference periods can

overlap. So, we ask our respondents to report income in the previous 12

months. Because we collect data on an ongoing basis throughout the year, the

time periods are not the same for each respondent in a particular vintage of the

ACS year.

Also, we recommend comparing percentages, means, medians and rates

instead of totals whenever possible. Totals from the American Community

Survey are tied to totals from the Population Estimates Program for particular

types of data. So, changes that you may be seeing in ACS totals could be a

result of a change in that underlying methodology. Those derived measures

are less likely to be impacted by those changes.

Slide 20 – ACS vs. CPS

And don’t expect ACS estimates to match decennial census counts or

estimates from other surveys. This includes the Current Population Survey.

Again, as a reminder on Wednesday September 12 we’ll be releasing income,

poverty and health insurance data from the Current Population Survey. The

ACS covers the same topics. What you’ll find are that the estimates from the

surveys will be different but you’ll tend to see similar trends over time across

both of those surveys. The Census Bureau recommends if you’re citing a

national estimate use the Current Population Survey. If you’re citing a

subnational estimate use the American Community Survey.

Slide 21 – ACS Website

Now, let’s take a moment here to show you some new items that have gone

live today on the ACS website. To get to our main page simply visit

census.gov/acs. The first thing you’ll notice is a refreshed look and feel that

has been applied across census.gov including all the ACS webpages. And on

the left-hand side is how you navigate within the ACS website.

Slide 22 – 2017 Data Release Information

So, we want to show you a couple of items of note. One, is under News and

Updates then Data Releases. We have our schedule for the 2017 data release

season posted here. That will take you through January releases. And then

items that are new and of note that we’ll continue to post between now and

January. This page also has a link to our table and geography changes that we

talked about earlier.

Slide 23 – Data Tables & Tools

Next under Data in Data Tables and Tools, for the sections on Subject Tables

and Ranking Tables, on next Thursday you’ll see this refreshed with the 2017

ACS 1-year statistics. So, there’s lots of different ways to access data from

our survey. If you see a table title that’s of interest to you and you click on it

from one of these pages it’ll take you directly to American FactFinder without

having to do any additional searches on your own. So, just keep that in mind

as another user-friendly way to access our data.

Slide 24 – Comparison Guidance

Earlier we talked about general guidance for comparing ACS data. We’ll be

posting topic-specific guidance next week under Guidance for Data Users

comparing ACS data and 2017. So, as an example you could click under any

topic for instance Race -- which is subject number 02. In that it will tell you if

you can compare data from the 2017 ACS 1-year estimates on race with race

data from the 2016 ACS, the 2010 Census and the 2000 Census. It will say

“Compare,” “Do not Compare,” or “Compare with Caution” and give

additional guidance when necessary.

Slide 25 – Documentation

And you’ll be sure to want to check out our documentation that we posted

today as well under Technical Documentation – Code lists, definitions and

accuracy. Our code lists contain the categories for variables that contain a

large number of coded responses. So, this is ancestry, occupation, language

spoken at home and many others that have free form, write-in boxes. Also, our

subject definitions are posted if you’re seeing something in American

FactFinder table and you’re not quite sure what it means or the exact

connection to the question on the American Community Survey you can find

that information out here. We also have our group quarters definitions to

specify how we classify the different types of group living arrangements.

And on the right-hand side of this screen are the instructions for applying

statistical testing and our Statistical Testing Tool. So, even though we are the

largest household-based survey in the United States, because we’re still a

survey there’s error associated with the estimates that we put out. And we

want to make sure that people take that error into account when comparing

estimates. So, the easiest way to do that comparison is to use the Statistical

Testing Tool. You can copy and paste the ACS estimates and its associated

margin of error into the tool. The tool will then instantly tell you if that

difference you’re seeing in the estimate is statistically significant at the 90%

confidence level or if it’s likely to have occurred by chance.

Slide 26 – Why We Ask

Moving onto another update on the ACS website. If you’re writing new

stories on the importance of the American Community Survey or addressing

concerns on whether it’s a legitimate survey we’d like to share this new

resource with you. Within the past year we’ve released this new collection of

interactive webpages. So, for each topic you can browse some of the most

popular results from each of our questions, you can view the question as it

appears on the form and see information about the origin of the question, how

we protect your privacy and how ACS statistics help communities.

Slide 27 – Application Programming Interface (API)

Moving onto to updates outside of the ACS website on census.gov/developers.

We’ll be pushing live the 2017 ACS 1-year estimates in our API. You can use

API’s to create mobile and web applications. Also, the Census data API

presents data to you in a standardized way. So if you’re trying to access data

across multiple datasets through the Census Bureau, using the API may reduce

the learning curve needed for you to access that data. The API includes many

Census Bureau sets including the ACS 1-year, 5-year, migration flows and

supplemental data.

You can learn more by visiting the link at the very bottom. In June we put on

a webinar: Using the Application Programing Interface with the American

Community Survey. It includes a live demonstration to walk you through the

process and see if this may be the right data source for you or if you might

want to continue to download our data in bulk through American FactFinder

or the ACS Summary File.

Slide 28 – data.census.gov – PREVIEW SITE In the spirit of reducing the learning curve associated with accessing Census

Bureau data we wanted to let you know about a new initiative from the

Census Bureau Center for Enterprise Dissemination Services and Consumer

Innovation. So, they are moving us in a new direction towards an intuitive,

single search experience where data users won’t need to know which of the

Census Bureau’s many tools to go to or how to navigate our jargon. When

we’re finished developing, the dissemination platform will take over

census.gov. Until then we have a preview site for you all to review and pass

along comments.

Data.census.gov is not a new tool or replacement for American FactFinder.

It’s a new way of accessing Census Bureau data intended to meet the needs of

all of our data users from novice to intermediate and expert users. On

September 13, selected tables from the 2017 ACS 1-year release will go live

on data.census.gov. This will include Detailed and Subject Tables and Data

and Comparison Profiles. Data will not be available on the preview platform

during the embargo period. However what is being built here will eventually

support the search for all of census.gov.

Slide 29 – Email your feedback: cedsci.feedback@census.gov

So, once you’ve got that a chance to explore the site and by explore we mean

take a few minutes to play around with the features in the site and not stress

yourself out too much over the details. We really want to know what you

think. Your feedback is critical in the development process to make sure we’re

giving data users what they want and need. So, visit data.census.gov and email

your feedback to cedsci.feedback@census.gov.

Slide 30 – Future ACS Data Releases

While we’re talking about forward thinking items we wanted to also remind

you about some upcoming releases from the American Community Survey.

On Thursday October 18, we’ll be releasing the 2017 ACS 1-year

Supplemental Estimates. Again, for the population threshold of 20,000 or

more compared to the standard 65,000 or more population threshold for this

release happening next week. On Thursday December 6, we will release the

2013 to 2017 ACS 5-year estimates for all geographic areas down to the block

group level. We will have an embargo period two days prior to that release

and we’ll also put on a pre-release webinar.

Another new product in the 2017 data release is our Public Use Microdata

Sample files that we put out every year. On Thursday October 18, we release

the 1-year PUMS and the 5-year PUMS will be available on January 17, 2019.

So, the PUMS files is where we take about 2/3 of the responses that we

receive from the American Community Survey. We strip confidential

information so you can’t identify any particular person or household. Then we

give you that set of responses for you to conduct your own statistical analysis

and create custom tables that aren’t available on the American FactFinder.

When we release the 5-year PUMS file we will also release the 5-year

Variance Replicate Estimate Tables on January 17. This is an advanced data

product for users that want to calculate exact margins of error when

aggregating data within a table or across geographies. So, if you’re not using

that advanced product we do have approximation formulas for more

intermediate users.

Slide 31 – Data Tell Stories. Tell Us Yours!

Now, let’s talk about some ways to stay in touch. First, we want to invite you

to let us know how you use data from the American Community Survey. For

example, have you or your organization used the ACS to make an important

decision, help your community or expand a business? Visit the link at the

bottom to share your story and explore how data nerds across the country are

engaging in ACS data in creative ways.

Slide 32 – Continue the Conversation #ACSdata

And of course, continue the conversation using hashtag ACS data on social

media as well as please source us in your new stories. It’s U.S. Census

Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey. In the upper left we also

included a link here for you to get email alerts to stay up-to-date on upcoming

webinars, data releases and program updates. As well as our phone numbers at

the bottom for the general public, as well as our Public Information Office

which all needed inquiries should come through at 301-763-3030.

So, with that I’m going to turn it over to Dan so we can get this opened up for

some questions.

Slide 33 – Questions?

(Dan Velez): Thanks Tyson. We’ll open it up for questions here in just a second. We just

ask when it’s your turn that you state your name and affiliation and because

we want to give everyone an opportunity to ask questions we’re allowing just

one question and just one follow up. Operator we are now ready for questions.

Coordinator: Thank you very much. So, if you would like to ask a question please press star

then 1. Unmute your phone and record your name and affiliation clearly when

prompted. That is needed to introduce your question. If you care to withdraw

your request press star 2, but again to ask a question at this time please press

star then 1 and one moment please.

Slide 34 – Embargo Area Press Kit

(Dan Velez): Okay, while we wait for calls I’d like to remind you embargo subscribers will

have access to 2017 ACS 1-year statistics beginning at 10:00 am Eastern

Standard Time Tuesday September 11. And that’s for public release at 12:01

am Thursday September 13. To see the data prior to the release of the

September 13 or release date of September 13 please visit the embargo area

which you’ll find by going to census.gov and then clicking on Newsroom then

Embargoed Releases. After you sign in you’re going to have access to

embargoed data in the press kit, the presentation slides, the webinar and

everything else that we load into our press kits.

Operator do we have anyone on the line with a question?

Coordinator: Yes, we do. Our first request from (Gregory Jero) Bloomberg Government, sir

your line is open.

(Gregory Jero): Thank you, (Greg Jero) Reporter with Bloomberg Government. Thank you for

this. In light of Pennsylvania revising its congressional district lines for the

2018 election and starting with the 116th congress in January, do you know

when the 2017 ACS 1-year data for the revised Pennsylvania districts may

become available?

(Tyson Weister): So, for the American Community Survey the 2017 ACS 1-year estimates that

are being pushed live on the embargo date as well as next week, I do know

that that is for the 115th congress. I’m not sure when the ACS data will be

tabulated on the 116th congressional district boundaries. But you could email

your question in to us and we’d be happy to get back with you.

(Gregory Jero): Okay. Thank you.

Coordinator: Our next request now from (Collin McCarter) Nelson, sir your line is open.

(Collin McCarter): Thank you. I just wanted to ensure that in the ACS 1-year PUMS file

should be released October 18, that Puerto Rico 2017 files will be included in

that? And also, just asking more generally if there are any planned delays in

the Puerto Rico Community Survey products considering the hurricanes that

occurred in fall of last year.

(Nathan Walters): Hi, this is Nathan Walters from the ACS (unintelligible) and specifically on

Puerto Rico hurricanes and disruption to data collection activities from

September onward for the remainder calendar year. However Puerto Rico

(unintelligible) in the 2017 (unintelligible) normal based on data collected

prior to Hurricane Maria will reflect characteristics of Hurricane Maria.

There’s no change in the estimates that are being released in terms of what is

being released or when. So, it will be (unintelligible). The disruption of the

data (unintelligible) did lead to higher margins of errors than in previous years

so you’ll want to carefully consult the MOE’s when comparing

(unintelligible) estimates to 2017 versus previous years other geographies of

interest.

Also note that (unintelligible) data collection was (unintelligible) number

through 2017 (unintelligible) Puerto Rico (unintelligible) collection

(unintelligible) January 2018 and those estimates will be included as normal

when (unintelligible) 2018 data (unintelligible) year is released in 2019 will

reflect characteristics for (unintelligible) following Hurricane Maria.

(Collin McCarter): Okay, thank you.

(Nathan Walters): Yes, sir.

Coordinator: Thank you, our next question David who is (unintelligible) your line is open.

(Deborah Rivera-Nieves): Operator, excuse me we are having some feedback on the line. It

sounds like echo. Is there anything that you can try to do to correct that?

Coordinator: That was with our last question, so I’ll monitor of course. That line is now

closed.

(Deborah Rivera-Nieves): Okay, thank you.

Coordinator: Thank you.

(David): I’d like to hear more about the October 18 release of the geographies of

20,000 or more being that I have some planned stories about some smaller

cities, one, may be very close to the 65,000 but I think it may still fall under

the 65,000. Are there many differences in the way the data is collected and so

forth?

(Tyson Weister): Yes, so for the supplemental estimates release -- that’s based on the same set

of responses that was collected over the sample from calendar year 2017 -- so

the same data that’s being tabulated for the release for next week. If you want

to see the particular geographies that are going to be available for that we have

that posted live on the ACS Web site. So, here I have census.gov/acs, under

Geography and ACS and then Areas Published, at the very top here you’ll just

click on that first link that says “1-year supplemental estimates” and you can

go to the tab that says Places and see if the geographies of interest are going to

be getting that estimate or if you’ll need to wait until the 5-year data release in

December.

(David Velez): Thank you and so this page is under - from a very basic level, how would I

find this page?

(Tyson Weister): census.gov/acs on the left-hand side select Geography and ACS then select

Areas Published.

(David): Okay, thank you.

Coordinator: Our next request from (Hal Turner) with the US Senate. Your line is now

open.

(Hal): Thank you. I’m part of the instate staff to Senator Todd Young of Indiana. We

generally when the ACS goes out we get a large number of calls from

constituents who are concerned about whether this is a scam or whether they

are required to fill this out. We in the past had been telling them that it is

legitimate and that they’re required by law to fill it out. Is that legality

correct?

(Tyson Weister): Thank you for your question. The American Community Survey is required

by law to complete.

(Hal): Has anybody ever been prosecuted for not doing it?

(Dan Velez): Yes, hello sir this is Dan Velez from PIO. We’re more about encouraging

participation and not going after folks for not filling out the survey. There

isn’t -- to my knowledge -- there hasn’t been anyone prosecuted since the

60’s.

(Hal): Okay. So, we’ll continue to tell them it’s required by law. Thank you.

(Dan Velez): Thank you. Hey Operator, we have time for one more question and then we’ll

move on.

Coordinator: Thank you, our last now is from (Ed Fox), National Indian Health Board, sir

your line is open. (Mr. Fox) please check your Mute button.

(Ed Fox): Yes. I was wondering if it’s still true that when you have - can you hear me?

This is (Ed Fox), National Indian Health. My question, sometimes your

summary tables American Indian alone that you don’t also publish tables with

American Indian alone and in combination.

(Tyson Weister): So, you…

(Ed Fox): Could you hear me or no?

(Tyson Weister): Yes, I did hear your question. It sounds like you’re having trouble accessing

data for a particular population groups for American Indian Tribes. You

should be able to access that information for the alone population and the

alone and in combination population. Do keep in mind though that the

population thresholds are applied to those tables for particular geographic

thresholds as well as thresholds for the population. So there are some

instances where you won’t see data through particular releases for the alone

populations but you may see data for the alone and in combination population

simply because that’s a larger population group that meets the population

thresholds criteria.

(Ed): Understood, but I was wondering in the 5-year summary file a lot of the tables

are just for American Indian alone and don’t have separate tables for

American Indian alone and in combination? And thank you for your answer.

(Tyson Weister): I see. So, the way that that data product is tabulated -- it is true that for the 5-

year and 1-year releases many of the tables are for the alone populations.

However we did recently release a special release for detailed population

groups -- the American Indian Alaskan Native Tables. That’s based off of the

5-year data collected between 2011 to 2015. So, you might want to take a look

at using that data source. It is a special release that happens only once every 5-

years but the population thresholds for that particular release are much lower

and you’ll see data for many geographies and population subgroups that aren’t

available to our standard releases. If you go under Guidance for Data Users

and Training Presentations on the ACS website we do have a pre-release

webinar if you scroll down, you’ll find for our New ACS statistics on

Population Subgroups. We’ll also kind of touch in this in the live demo so

that’s actually a good transition over to American FactFinder for us. Thank

you.

(Ed Fox): Thank you.

(Dan Velez): Okay, thank you for your questions. Don’t worry if you didn’t get on the line.

We’re going to open it up for questions again at the end of Tyson’s

presentation on using American FactFinder.

Slide 35 – Using American FactFinder

(Tyson Weister): Thanks Dan. So, to get started I’m going to start on the live demonstration

here by visiting factfinder.census.gov. And again, these PowerPoint slides will

be made available to you in the press kit and we can also email a copy out to

the group so look for that in your email box. In case you’re following along

with me and you get lost on a little detail, we do have this broken out step by

step including the portion that I’m demonstrating live for you. You’ll have

that for a resource to look back on.

So, on American FactFinder’s you’ll be able to access the 11 billion statistics

from the American Community Survey that we push out every year, many of

those coming from the 2017 ACS 1-year release. There’s lots of different

ways to look through. I’m going to show you the Advanced Search tab. It’s

the fourth option on the top hand ribbon.

Slide 36 – Advanced Search Page

Once you clicked in that tab, in the upper left please make sure the Your

Selections Box is empty. Anything that’s in there will influence your search

results. And I’m going to show you how to navigate using the blue options

here on the left-hand side. It’s a guided approach that shows you the different

searches that are available to you as you go along.

Slide 37 – Selecting 2017 ACS 1-Year Estimates

To get started we’ll click here on the Topics box and you may want to make

sure you’re getting the most recent data. You can specify your dataset under

Topics then click on the Plus Sign or the word Dataset here at the bottom. On

Tuesday what you’ll see in the embargo website is that the 2017 ACS 1-year

estimates will appear towards the very top. For the purposes of this

demonstration because the public release isn’t until next week I’m going to

search the 2016 ACS 1-year estimates. So, I’m going to click where it says

that in blue. It adds it into the upper left and made that selection. So, other

than that everything else will be exactly identical to the way you’ll search for

data next week.

Slide 38 – Selecting Product Type

We also talked earlier about a number of different types of tables if you have a

particular one in mind. Under Product Type we drill into that. I’m going to

show you all a Comparison Profile to start. I’m going to click in blue where it

says Comparison Profile. And once again, it’s going to drag that into the

upper left of my selections box. So, I’ve selected the topics that I wanted to

start with. I’m going to click Close in the upper right. And if I were to start

clicking on tables here I’d get data for the default geography which is

typically the United States or in some cases Puerto Rico.

Slide 39 – Selecting Geography

The benefit of the ACS is the ability to drill into smaller level geographies and

it’s probably what you want for your new stories and it’s really easy to select

that. As you may have guess it’s the blue box that says Geographies, the

second option. Most of your geographic areas you can get from this very first

drop down that’s available to you but there are other options if you click the

all geographic types radio button or if you use the Name tab.

Slide 40 – Select Geography Type

I’m going to show data for the state of Arizona. So, I’m going to click the

drop down select state, summary level 040.

Slide 41 – Finding Your Geography of Interest

And then to show you an additional feature in FactFinder I’m actually going

to choose all states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico so we can map the data as

well. Once I have my selection in blue I click the add to your selections box at

the bottom of this screen to drag it into the upper left. So, I’m going to Close

in the upper right out of this geography overlay.

Slide 42 – AFF Search Results

And we can see on the left we have our search criteria for 2016 ACS 1-year

estimates, Comparison Profile for all states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. To

open up a table we just click here on the title. So, if I click on Comparative

Economic Characteristics I’m going to choose to show some data on

commuting to work. So, I just click that in blue to open up the table.

Slide 43 – Comparison Profile

In the upper left you’ll see the table ID, CP03 and the table title, Comparative

Economic Characteristics from the 2016 ACS 1-year estimates. Scrolling

down here I’m going to click the single arrow just one time to get over to

Arizona and start zooming in on some of the data. So, you see on the left-hand

side we have Employment Status as well as many -- many different types of

characteristics that this particular table covers in one place for you.

Here on commuting to work we can focus in on a particular line such as mean

travel time to work. In 2016 we can see for Arizona that was 25.3 minutes.

The estimate in 2015 was 25.1 minutes and the Comparison Profile has the

column 2016 to 2015 statistical significance. There’s nothing here which tells

us that those two estimates are not statistically different from each other.

However, if we look at the 2016 estimate of 25.3 minutes compared to the

2014 estimate of 24.5 minutes in Arizona we do see an asterisk indicated in

the 2016 to 2014 statistical significance so we can conclude that those

commute times increased from that two-year period.

Slide 44 – Create a Map

Scrolling up just to show you a couple of other features in all of our tables.

There’s a link here – a button that you can click for Bookmark and Save. This

generates a unique URL that will take you back to this exact table so you can

access it later without doing your searches or share it with a colleague. You

can also print the tables as well as download them into CSV, PDF, Rich Text

format and Microsoft Excel. And when you have multiple geographies of the

same level in your selections you’ll be able to click on the button on the far

right that says Create a Map. And once we click that, scrolling down into the

table, you may notice all of the data in the table turned to blue clickable links.

So, as I scroll back down to mean travel time to work if I click on 25.3

minutes that 2016 estimate for the state of Arizona it will ask me if I want to

map that out across all of the states in my selection. So, I clicked Show Map

and we’ll give it just a moment to load up here and we’ll take a look at our

results.

Slide 45 – View Map

So, here we can see a map of the United States and zoom in if we’d like. It’s

just an easy way to visualize how commute times are across the country. So

we can see that the states in darker shades of green have higher commute

times to work whereas the states in lighter shades have lower commute times.

Slide 46 – Detailed Table In the interest of time, moving back to the PowerPoint here, I’m going to walk

through a couple of types of tables that are available on American FactFinder.

We talked about these earlier but seeing is believing. So here’s one example

of B08006 Sex of Workers by Means of Transportation to Work. Here I’m

showing data for the city of Phoenix to show you another type of geography.

You can see the level of detail is much higher. We can look at people that

commuted to work by bus, streetcar, subway, railroad or ferry boat.

Slide 47 – Ranking Table

A Ranking Table here R0801 here we’re looking at mean travel time to work

across the state level. In the upper right-hand corner of our Ranking Tables is

a button that says With Statistical Significance. If you click that and select a

base geography of comparison. Here I’ve selected Arizona which is indicated

by the double pound sign in the statistical significance column. So, for

Arizona we have comparisons highlighted here. In this particular table a

presence of a pound sign indicates that there’s no statistical difference

between the estimates. So, Arizona’s commute time of 25.3 minutes is not

statistically different from West Virginia’s 25.4 minutes or Rhode Island’s

24.8 minutes. However, we can conclude that Arizona has a shorter commute

time than the neighboring state of Texas at 26.5 minutes as well as a higher

commute time compared to South Carolina.

Slide 48 – Geographic Comparison Table

Our Geographic Comparison Table is another way to look at mean travel time

to work or other key metrics across geographies. Here we’re looking at that

data point across all congressional districts in the state of Arizona.

Slide 49 – Selecting Detailed Population Group

And referring to the question earlier there is a particular type of table through

the 1-year data release that you can access in American FactFinder using the

Race and Ethnic Groups tab. This is also the same way that you access data

for the Selected Populations Tables and American Indian Alaska Native tables

that are released once every 5-years.

So, here in the upper left you can see I’ve already selected Arizona in my

selection. And I want to get data for Navajo Nation Tribe in the state of

Arizona. So, under Race and Ethnic Groups if I click that option, then choose

the Detailed Groups tab. The easiest way is to search a single key word. Here

I’ve typed in Navajo and clicked Go into that free form box. And I get a list

off results here on the right for Navajo Nation Tribal grouping alone or

Navajo Nation Tribal grouping alone or in combination. You’ll see this

pattern across different types of population groups. In this instance I clicked

on Navajo Nation alone and I opened up the first table from the 2016 ACS 1-

year release.

Slide 50 – Selected Population Profile

This is a Selected Population Profile S0201. In the upper right for this table

we see we’re getting data for the state of Arizona for people who identify their

race as Navajo Nation Tribal grouping and no other race category. We can

focus on a particular line and see that for this population subgroup in Arizona

60.7% own their home.

So, that wraps up our live demonstration of American FactFinder. We’re

going to turn it back over to Dan so we can take more questions from you all.

Slide 51 – Embargo Area Press Kit

(Dan): Thank you Tyson. Just another quick reminder, our embargo is going to take

place - embargo subscribers will have access to 2017 ACS 1-year statistics

beginning 10:00 am Eastern Time Tuesday September 11 and that’s for public

release at 12:01 Thursday September 13. We’re going to open up the lines

once again for questions. When it’s your turn we ask that you state your name

and your affiliation. Also, please mute your computer to prevent feedback. We

want to make sure we give as much people the chance to ask a question so

we’re just going to allow one question per caller.

Operator we are now ready for questions.

Coordinator: Thank you very much. To ask a question at this time please press star then 1,

unmute your phone, record your name and affiliation when prompted. Our

first request now is from (Alden Lowery), Chicago Public Media. Your line is

open now.

(Alden Lowery): Hi, thanks for taking my question. You’ve covered a little bit of this in going

through the demo there but I was just thinking back to a mention during the

webinar earlier about focusing on percentages, rates, medians, means as

opposed to totals. And just was hoping for a little more clarity in situations

where we should not look so much for totals and look more to those other

things. Just as an aside, you know, when these numbers come out one of the

first things we’ll be looking at is, you know, what do our total percentage or

so total numbers in terms of population groups on and so forth, for the 2017 1-

year estimates compare with 2016 1-year estimates. And so, for that comment

earlier I’m wondering is that something that we should avoid doing? So,

anyway just wanted to hear your thoughts.

(Tyson Weister): One moment. We have our subject matter expert coming up to answer your

question.

(Mike Starsinic): Hi this is Mike Starsinic ACS Variance Estimation Statistical Support area. It

sort of tends what type of estimates you’re looking at. Especially if you’re

looking at totals that are also available through our annual Population

Estimates Program that those values are - you’re generally better off using the

population estimates for those. Obviously if the only kind of estimates that are

available are through the ACS and you want to make comparison that’s what

you can do. But if it’s a total population for example for an area, the

Population Estimates Program values are another source that you can use for

those comparisons.

(Dan Velez): Okay Operator, do we have another question?

Coordinator: Yes, (Cindy Misera), City of La Vista, Nebraska. Ma’am your line is open.

(Cindy Misera): Yes, I just need some guidance on how to access the press kit.

(Dan Velez): If you go to census.gov and then click on Newsroom the press kit should be

the first link once you go into the Newsroom and you click - go to Newsroom

and then click on Press Kits. So, census.gov first. We’re going to show you

here on the slide. Now, once you get to census.gov if you just click on

Newsroom and then Press Kits and you scroll down you can see it’s our pre-

Embargo press kit is already in there but on September 13 for the full release

we’ll have everything included in that press kit. Does that answer your

question ma’am?

(Cindy Misera): Yes, very good. Thank you.

(Dan Velez): Okay, you’re welcome. Operator next caller please.

Coordinator: (Cindy Chang), UCLA Hospital, your line is open.

(Cindy Chang): Hi, I was just wondering in regards to the foreign-born population. I have an

interest in studying basically legal immigrants and undocumented immigrant

and I was wondering if we have any statistics on citizenship to study race and

poverty and health care access and possibly homelessness among immigrants?

(Max Spence): I’m (Max Spence) I’m the Chief of the Foreign Population Branch. We as the

Census Bureau for the American Community Survey collect data on

citizenship status. We’re not looking at legal status or anything like that. So,

we typically ask questions, you know, whether “yes born in the US, yes born

in Puerto Rico or an island area, or abroad of American parents, naturalized or

non-citizens.” So, we don’t get into specifics there.

(Cindy Chang): Do we have any data in terms of like the health care access specifically or any

homelessness among them?

(Max Spence): So, my colleague is bringing up that these are household surveys and we

aren’t getting great measures of homelessness. I do know that using our Public

Use Microdata you can really drill into specifics of the - for example the

foreign-born and population or the non-citizen population. You can look at

specific race. I would also encourage you to take a look at our S20 - why

don’t you send an email to see me to go to the census.gov, go to Population

and go to Foreign-Born and that’s the Foreign-Born Branch. Send me a link,

I’ll tell you the exact link to a table that will allow you to see some great

statics for the foreign-born. It might have information that would be relevant

for your needs.

(Cindy Chang): Wonderful. Thank you very much.

(Max Spence): Okay.

Coordinator: Our next question, (Patrick Simmons) of Fanny Mae. Your line is open now.

(PatrickSimmons): Thank you. Thanks for today’s presentations -- very helpful. This goes

back to the earlier part of the presentation on the schedule of future releases.

For the 1-year PUMS day release on the 18, is the plan also to have those data

available through DataFerrett on that date? Thank you.

(Tyson Weister): Hi, thank you for your question. Yes, the plan would be to have that data

available on DataFerrett as well as the downloads that are typically available

through the FTP site with quick links through American FactFinder and the

ACS website.

(Patrick Simmons): All right. Thank you.

Coordinator: Thank you, our next question now is from (Sabrina Tabernise), New York

Times. Your line is open.

(Sabrina Tabernise): Hi, thanks for you taking our questions. I’m just trying to get a sense of

what the sort of top line kind of real sort of new pieces to this data might be? I

mean, if you’re sort of - I’m thinking of a national audience not a specific

location. I mean, would it be kind of the change in the foreign-born

population? Would it be migratory patterns? What would be kind of the main

headline, you know, points to come out of this big data release as presumably

it happens every year.

(Tyson Weister): One moment. We have our subject matter expert coming up to the phone to

help answer your question.

Woman 2: So, unlike the estimates of income, poverty and health insurance that’ll be

coming out on Wednesday of next week from the Current Population Survey

Annual, Social and Economic Supplement, the big stories from the American

Community Survey tends to be the value of that data at the state and local

level. And the richness of the geographies that are included in those estimates.

(Sabrina Tabernise): So, there’s nothing really nationally that comes out of it?

(Tyson Weister): Hi this is Tyson. You definitely can access national level data. From

highlighting the data we typically focus on the smaller level geographies or

the hot topics which happen to come from within the Current Population

Survey for income, poverty and health insurance but if there’s a topic that’s

not addressed through the CPS, the ACS could definitely be a source for you

to look at that information too. But our goal is to collect the data and provide

access to it. We do some research but that’s a little bit beyond our expertise to

answer that type of data analysis question.

(Sabrina Tabernise): In migration, is that something that is locatable in this data?

(Tyson Weister): We have our subject matter expert also coming up to give you some details on

that.

(Nathan Walters): Hi, this is Nathan Walters again. So yes, migration patterns are available in

the ACS data among many other topics if that is something you’re interested

in you can call PIO and they can put you into contact with the appropriate

subject matter expert to delve deeper into that topic as well as other topics that

you may be interested in.

Coordinator: Thank you. Our next request now from (Vikram D’Mello) Symphony LLC.

Your line is open.

(Vikram D’Mello): Hello. Good afternoon. This is (Vikram D’Mello) from Symphony Talent.

We study labor market data so our (unintelligible) was interesting too. So,

your example earlier of commuting time. I was wondering whether my

observation is correct that in ACS you do have commuting time but not

commuting distance and that the only place from the Census Bureau anywhere

else for that matter where we can get commuting distance is the On the Map

Program -- which is part of the LODES, is my analysis correct.

(Tyson): Thank you for your question. So, we can confirm yes. The ACS only has data

on commuting time, not commuting distance. As far as additional sources

from the Census Bureau because the focus of the webinar is the ACS and we

have those experts here in the room, if you want to email in your question

we’d be happy to investigate it further to see if there’s other data sources

beyond the ACS and the LEHD On the Map Program that maybe useful for

you.

(Vikram D’Mello): Thank you very much.

(Tyson Weister): Thank you.

Coordinator: Our next request from (Thad Burk), Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Your line is now open.

(Thad Burk): Yes, unfortunately I was not able to dial in the webinar until the end of the

presentation. Will this be recorded and archived so we can access after the

webinar? Thank you.

(Tyson Weister): Hi thank you for your question. The webinar will be - the PowerPoint will be

emailed as well as posted in the press kit and the recording will also be

available in the press kit and throughout census.gov.

(Thad Burk): Thank you.

Coordinator: My last question at this time is from (Kimberly Handly), a Private

Independent and your line is open ma’am.

(Kimberly Handly): So, thank you for that. Great overview for someone who (unintelligible)

through this. I am interested in graduation rates and trying to drill down and

gain an understanding. I know that I can do a Google and see what the

graduation rates are but sometimes doing analysis on zip codes, I know there’s

a formula like for unemployment and for poverty rates and I’m trying to

simulate that same formula to arrive at graduation rates but what I come up

with is in 30% and I know this was the USA graduation rate is 84.1 so is there

some where I can go to learn better how to create proper statistics?

(Camille Ryan): Hi, this is Camille Ryan answering. We actually do not collect information

about graduation rates within the American Community Survey. What we do

collect is information about educational attainment which is the highest level

that somebody has reached at the time of the interview of the survey. So,

unfortunately there wouldn’t be a way to calculate that particular statistic from

the American Community Survey.

(Kimberly Handly): Got it. Okay so the 84.1 comes from the NCES or something like that not

from Census Bureau?

(Camille Ryan): That’s correct. That would be a better source to look at that type of

information.

(Kimberly Handly): Okay, thank you so much.

Coordinator: At this time, I have no further questions in queue, thank you.

Slide 56 – How Did We Do?

(Dan Velez): Thank you ma’am. Just as a reminder before we wrap up, please take a

moment to complete a quick evaluation. Tell us how we can improve or tell us

what we did well. Check the webinar chat box to easy access the link or you

can find the evaluation on your browser at https://questionweb.com/59212.

And that’s going to wrap up today’s webinar. Thanks to everyone who joined

us today. Thank you Tyson. As a reminder the data we discussed today are

embargoed until 12:01 Eastern Time on Thursday September 13. We look

forward to next week’s release and look forward to see your stories. If you

have additional questions or wish to arrange interviews on the topics covered

in today’s news conference make sure you call the Census Bureau’s Public

Information Office at 301-763-3030.

Coordinator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference call. Conference is

now concluded. You may please disconnect. Thank you very much for joining

today.

END