Esri provides the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) data for the United States and Puerto Rico. ACS uses a continuous measurement, or rolling, sample, in which a small percentage of the population is sampled every month. The ACS is updated and released more frequently than the decennial census—every year instead of every 10 years. Smaller sample sizes and variable collection times have introduced a margin of error into their estimates. See the Understanding margin of error section for more information. ACS data categories provided by Esri include the following:
- Population—Total Population, Language Spoken, Health Insurance
- Age
- Race and Ethnicity
- School—School Enrollment, Educational Attainment
- Work—Labor Force, Travel Time, Means of Transportation to Work, Class of Worker, Veteran Status
- Income—Total Income, Income by Age, Poverty Status, Public Assistance Income
- Households—Total Households, Tenure, Rent, Vehicles Available, Mortgage Status, Computer/Internet Service
- Families
- Housing—Total Housing Units, Number of Units in Structure, Heating Fuel, Year Built
Vintage
American Community Survey data is available for:
- ACS 2016–2020 (in 2020 Census geography).
- ACS 2015-2019 (in 2010 Census geography).
Available geographies
Update frequency
ACS data is updated annually.
Methodology
Esri uses the following methodology:
Sample reports
The following sample ACS reports are available:
- ACS Housing Summary (PDF)
- ACS Key Population & Household Facts (PDF)
- ACS Population Summary (PDF)
- Puerto Rico ACS Housing Summary (PDF)
- Puerto Rico ACS Key Population & Household Facts (PDF)
For more information about reports and the products that contain them, visit ArcGIS Apps.
For information about the number of credits needed to run reports, see Credits by capability.
Variable lists
The following variable lists are available:
Data availability
The Esri ACS demographics data is available in various products including the following:
- ArcGIS Business Analyst
- ArcGIS Community Analyst
- ArcGIS for Office
- ArcGIS for Power BI
- ArcGIS GeoEnrichment Service
- ArcGIS Online—Browse maps and layers.
- Buy Esri Reports online.
For information about purchasing Esri ACS demographics data as a stand-alone dataset, contact datasales@esri.com.
Additional ACS demographics are available in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. These hosted feature layers are updated annually to reflect the most current data values and geographical boundaries for state, county, and census tract geographies. For more information, visit the American Community Survey (ACS) Hosted Feature Layers FAQ.
Understanding margin of error
The Census 2000 sample, with data collected using the long form, represented approximately 1 in 6 households and one point in time, April 1, 2000. ACS represents approximately 1 in 40 households on a rolling sample basis, but the smaller sample sizes can produce larger sampling errors.
With each ACS estimate, the Census Bureau reports a margin of error (MOE), or measure of the variability of the estimate due to sampling error. The MOE enables data users to measure the range of uncertainty around each estimate. For example, if the ACS estimate is 100 and has a MOE of +/- 20, you can be 90 percent certain the value for the whole population falls between 80 and 120. The larger the MOE, the lower the accuracy of the estimate—and the less confidence one should have that the estimate is close to the true value.
Esri improves confidence in using ACS
Decisions about the quality of an estimate based on the MOE are difficult to make. Esri has simplified this process by adding symbols to flag reliability of data based on sample size. Symbols are based on thresholds of reliability that Esri has established using an estimate's coefficient of variation (CV).
High reliability
—Small CVs,
less than or equal to 12 percent, are flagged green to indicate
that the sampling error is small relative to the estimate, and the
estimate is reasonably reliable.
Medium reliability 
—Estimates
with CVs between 12 and 40 are flagged yellow; use with
caution.
Low reliability 
—Large CVs,
over 40 percent, are flagged red to indicate that the sampling
error is large relative to the estimate. The estimate is considered
unreliable.
The CV is a measure of relative error in the estimate, calculated as the ratio of the standard error to the estimate itself.
Read an in-depth explanation of margin of error from Esri's data team.
For more information about effectively using margins of error in maps, visit the Learn path Mapping with Margins of Error.
Understanding suppression
The ACS data is derived from a sample of housing units. Estimates are provided along with margins of error to assess estimate quality. Some values for medians and aggregates will be reported as missing by the Census Bureau due to their suppression rules. Averages are computed from aggregates. If an aggregate value is missing, averages cannot be determined. When this occurs, Esri displays the variable's value as N/A (not applicable). This applies to not only standard and nonstandard geographic areas, but also to any user-defined polygons such as rings and drive times when one or more component block groups include a missing value for a variable.