Background

Nearly every study that has assessed the stability of the emerging ACS results has looked at the total population. An important product of the Census results is the classification of the demographic and socioeconomic data by race and Hispanic origin (e.g., SF-4 from Census 2000). This presentation uses a special file from the Multi-year Estimates Study to examine the consistency of the ACS results at the county level from race and Hispanic origin groups.

We examine 1-year estimates for race/original groups of 65,000 or more in population size, 3-year estimates for groups from 20,000-65,000, and 5-year estimates for groups of less than 20,000. The Census estimates for 1990 and 2000 are included as benchmarks to assess the stability of the ACS results.

Two population characteristics are the focus of this presentation: the poverty rate and the percent of housing units that are owner-occupied. The poverty rate is a key characteristic of interest. The ownership rate is a characteristic that should not change much over short time intervals - this variable is a good test of ACS stability for race/origin groups.

This demographic evaluation addresses the following research questions:

1. Do the differentials in the ACS estimates by race and Hispanic origin appear to be reasonable?
2. Are the measured differentials stable over time and consistent with the Census benchmarks?