American Community Survey (ACS)

ACS-Summary File (SF)

ACS-Summary File (SF)

Special Note: Any corrections made to the summary files are documented in the errata notes.

One of the data products supported by the long form in Census 2000 was the Summary File 3 (SF3). SF3 is a set of tables on a variety of subjects drawn from the long form that are repeated for all the supported geography down to the block group level. The goal for ACS is to provide a set of summary files (i.e., a separate ACS-SF) for estimates from each time period the ACS will cover: (1-Year, 3-Year, and 5-Year). As a step toward this goal, the ACS has developed a production version of the ACS-Summary File (SF).

The production version of the ACS-Summary File (SF) is based on the 2006-2008 ACS 3-Year detailed tables and is located on the ACS FTP site. The ACS-SF includes all detailed tables for all geographies published in the 2006-2008 ACS 3-Year products.

The main directory of the ACS-Summary File’s FTP server for the 2006-2008 ACS 3-Year production version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2008_3yr/summaryfile/ and for the 2008 ACS 1-Year production version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2008_1yr/summaryfile/

The 2005-2007 ACS 3-Year version of the ACS-Summary File is located at: http://www2.census.gov/acs2007_3yr/summaryfile/

The directory for the ACS 2007 1-Year production version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2007_1yr/summaryfile/

The directory for the 2006 production is http://www2.census.gov/acs2006/Final_Summaryfile
and for the 2005 prototype version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2005/summaryfile

Each site has documentation on using the ACS-Summary File and 53 subdirectories (nation, all states, DC, and Puerto Rico). SAS program examples are also included. The summary file is available in three formats - the estimates, standard errors, and margins of error. The README file in the main FTP directory for each year contains information on the files and their purposes.

Please review the Technical Documentation before accessing the ACS Summary File on the FTP site. This documentation is located on the following link: ACS-Summary File (SF) Technical Documentation

The Census Bureau and American Community Survey Office hope that this production version of the ACS-SF will give data users a chance to work with these files and provide the Census Bureau with useful comments. The Census Bureau will also consider comments that are received on the production version of the ACS-SF.

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