When using the American Community Survey (ACS) Summary File some values show -222222222, -666666666, and other numeric or character values. What do these values mean?


These special data values are known as Jam Values, and are used to explain the absence of data in the ACS Summary File:

  • -222222222 = Margin of Error not computed due to insufficient number of sample cases.
  • -666666666 = Estimate not computed due to insufficient number of sample cases.

For more information on these values, visit the Jam Values section in both the Table-Based Summary File Handbook and Sequence-Based Summary File Handbook.

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