Possible elimination of the American Community Survey and the Economic Census

If you use any of the data gathered by the U.S. Census you may have already heard about cuts happening in that bureau. The Statistical Abstract has been eliminated and now there could be additional cuts that would eliminate the American Community Survey and the Economic Census.

This would reduce the information collected by the census to the 10 questions asked every ten years- which is basically are age, race, sex, the number of people in a residence, and the type of residence. To see all the questions asked on the 2010 form go to http://2010.census.gov/2010census/about/interactive-form.php .

The bill, H.R.5326 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013, may be voted on this week. More information on the bill is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.5326: .
Here is how the Census Bureau describes these resources:

The Economic Census
The 2012 Economic Census provides comprehensive information on the health of over 25 million businesses and 1,100 industries. It provides detailed industry and geographic source data for generating quarterly GDP estimates. The economic census is also the benchmark for measures of productivity, producer prices, and many of the nation’s principal economic indicators.

I will add that the Industry Snapshots, Annual Survey of Manufactures, Nonemployer Statistics, Zip Code Business Patterns, and County Business Patterns and information on foreign trade are included in this department.

The American Community Survey

The ACS is our country’s only source of small area estimates on social and demographic characteristics. Manufacturers and service sector firms use ACS to identify the income, education, and occupational skills of local labor markets they serve. Retail businesses use ACS to understand the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which they locate their stores. Homebuilders and realtors understand the housing characteristics and the markets in their communities. Local communities use ACS to choose locations for new schools, hospitals, and fire stations. There is no substitute from the private sector for ACS small area estimates. Even if the funding problems were solved in the proposed budget, the House bill also bans enforcement of the mandatory nature of participation in the ACS; this alone would require at least $64 million more in funding to achieve the same precision of ACS estimates.

ACS questions include

• family and relationships

• income and benefits

• health insurance

* education
* veteran status
* disabilities
* where you work and how you get there
* where you live and how much you pay for some essentials

To see all the questions asked in the ACS survey go to http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/forms_and_instructions/#ACSGQ

The New York Times published a good article on the proposed cuts http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/sunday-review/the-debate-over-the-american-community-survey.html

If you are interested there is also a petition to save the ACS
http://www.petition2congress.com/6825/save-american-community-survey-acs/?m=3079459

(Many thanks to Jakki Mohr for passing this along.)