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Sept 7, 2010 Update: Looks like the 2010 Census is running a bit behind. The QA/QC phase was supposed to be completed on 9/3 but still no indicator that it’s finished.

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Below is an up-to-date Census 2010 Schedule. It shows where we are now and when we can expect updated demographic data. I’ll keep updating the schedule below with up-to-date information as it becomes available from the Census Bureau. You can get more information about the Census 2010 on the Census Bureau’s website

Current Census 2010 Schedule

April 2010 – November 2010: Quality Assurance Operations
May 2010 – December 2010: Questionnaire Capture and Processing
December 31, 2010: Population Counts Report to the President by law

Future Key Census 2010 Schedule Dates

March 2011: Census Bureau delivers redistricting data to states
April 2011 to September 2013: Summary files for the 2010 Census data will be released “on a flow basis”

Past Census 2010 Schedule Dates

Fall 2008: Census Job Recruiting Begins
Spring 2009: Census employees updated nationwide address list
Fall 2009: Additional Recruitment of Census Takers
March 2010: Census Forms Mailed
April 2010: National Census Day – Day to use as reference for sending completed forms back
April to July 2010: Census takers visit households that did not return a form by mail

Get an email when the 2010 Census Data becomes available.

I hate SPAM–so I won’t send you any. I promise not to sell or rent your email address to other people. I’ll just send you a quick email about the 2010 Census data.

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This post explains the differences between the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Decennial Census and how those differences will impact your work.

Background: Long Form and Short Form

Remember back to the Census 2000 when some people were complaining about the Census form taking forever to fill out? Well, those people received the Census 2000 Long Form which was sent to about 18 million households and collected detailed demographic, economic and housing data. The rest of the US households received the simple Census 2000 Short Form, which was used to count the population and collect basic demographic data. So for the Census 2000, 2 forms were used: the Long Form and the Short Form.

Fast-forward to the Census 2010. The Census 2010 did not use the Long Form, only the Short Form. Enter the ACS. The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographic survey of the United States. It provides the detailed demographic, economic and housing data that was once supplied by the Decennal Census Long Form.

	2000	2010
Count + Basic Data	Short Form	Census 2010
Detailed Data	Long Form	ACS 5 year estimates

However, the ACS is only sent to 3 million households each year, a statistically small sample especially when compared to the Census 2000 Long Form which was sent to 18 million households in 1 year. So to produce the detailed demographic data, the ACS combines data from several years to produce multi-year estimates. For example, the ACS combines data collected from 2006 + 2007 + 2008 to get 3-year ACS estimates for geographies with at least 20,000 persons. ACS 5 year estimates, which will be out in December 2010, will provide data for geographies with fewer than 20,000 persons.

Similar Data; Different Methodologies & Format

The ACS and the Decennial Census provide the same types of data data–that is, demographic, economic and housing data for the US. However, the methodology of these 2 tools differs greatly.

	ACS	Decennial Census
What is It?	Continuos demographic survey	Count of the population
Data	Average characteristics OVER TIME	Counts characteristics for a SPECIFIC DATE
How Often	Every 1 year (more timely)	Every 10 years (less timely)
Households	11 million households over 5 years	18 million households in 1 year
Sampling Error	Higher Error (1.75 percent higher than Census 2000*)	Lower Error
Accuracy	Less Accurate	More Accurate

*[Revised: this information (and much of the blog post) is based on the Census Bureau's Brian McKenzie's awesome presentation here]

To sum up the table above, the ACS more timely but less accurate than the Decennial Census, because the data is collected over a series of years (instead of just 1 year), and fewer households are surveyed.

Because the ACS is less accurate, ACS data includes margins or error and is released at 90% confidence limits. Here’s an example of ACS data.

	Austin city
	Estimate	Error	Percent	Error
Hispanic/Latino	261,672	+/-3,404	35.0	+/-0.4

This means that we can say with 90% confidence that the number of Hispanic persons in Austin is between 258,268 and 265,076 (or 261,672 plus or minus 3,404). We can also say with 90% confidence that the percentage of Hispanic persons in Austin is between 34.6% and 35.4%.

How Does All of this Impact You?

1. ACS demographic data is less reliable than Decennial Census data. It’s going to be more important than ever use ACS data as a starting point only and to support the data fieldwork, interviews, and data from other sources.
2. Doing basic calculations with ACS data is going to require an elementary understanding of statistics. For example, calculating percentage change between Census 2000 data and ACS estimates will require basic statistics, because the numbers are not comparable (they are apples to oranges).

If you’re interested, let me know in the comments if a blog post on how to accurately calculate comparisons using Decennial Census data and ACS estimates would be helpful. Or you can check out the Census’ guidance on the topic.  Any questions about the differences between ACS and Decennial Census data? Are there still points of confusion?

Right now, you can get ACS data for your projects in seconds with the Free Poverty Report beta. When the ACS 5 year estimates come out in December, this data will be part of the Cubit system.

Bottom Line

The 2010 federal poverty guidelines are exactly the same as the 2009 federal poverty guidelines.

The Messy Details

After a long delay, the US Department of Health & Human Services will be publishing the 2010 federal poverty guidelines on August 3, 2010 in the Federal Register [Revision: here's a link to the Federal Register publication.]

Recent legislation delayed the publication of revised 2010 poverty guidelines (see this post about when HHS poverty guidelines have historically been released). The reason for the delay was that for the first time since the poverty guidelines were issued in 1965, the annual average Consumer Price Index actually decreased from the previous year.  Therefore, if the 2009 guidelines weren’t frozen, the HHS would have had to issue 2010 poverty guidelines that were lower than the 2009 poverty guidelines according to the procedure for updating poverty guidelines.

However, legislation to further delay the publication of the 2010 poverty guidelines did not pass. So, the procedure for updating poverty guidelines was changed, and the 2010 federal poverty guidelines are now exactly the same as the 2009 federal poverty guidelines.

Helpful Resources

Official Federal Poverty Guidelines for the Remainder of 2010

2010 Federal Poverty Guidelines for

48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia

Persons in family	Poverty guideline
1	$10,830
2	14,570
3	18,310
4	22,050
5	25,790
6	29,530
7	33,270
8	37,010
For families with more than 8 persons, add $3,740 for each additional person.

2010 Federal Poverty Guidelines for
Alaska

Persons in family	Poverty guideline
1	$13,530
2	18,210
3	22,890
4	27,570
5	32,250
6	36,930
7	41,610
8	46,290
For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,680 for each additional person.

2010 Federal Poverty Guidelines for
Hawaii

Persons in family	Poverty guideline
1	$12,460
2	16,760
3	21,060
4	25,360
5	29,660
6	33,960
7	38,260
8	42,560
For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,300 for each additional person.

HHS webpage about 2010 federal poverty guidelines

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/10poverty.shtml

Federal Register Announcement

http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/TEXTgate.cgi?WAISdocID=A5n2w9/0/1/0&WAISaction=retrieve

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