American Community Survey (ACS)

Launched in 2005, the American Community Survey (ACS) is the current embodiment of the long form of the decennial census. Each year, the ACS is delivered to a sample of the U.S. population to provide current data that is needed more often than once every ten years. In December of 2010, five years after its launch, the ACS program accomplished its primary objective with the release of its first set of es timates for every area of the United States and Puerto Rico. The Census Bureau conclude d it was an appropriate time to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the ACS program. The assessment provided an opportunity to begin examining and confirming the value of each question on the ACS. In August 2012, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and th e Census Bureau chartered the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) Subcommittee on the American Community Survey (ACS) to oversee policies guiding the development and maintenance of content for the survey. The subcommittee charter states: “Each year there will be an annual review of questions to consider any deletion or addition of questions.”