[CTPP] CB Federal Register Notice: ACS 5-year data products proposal

[pbecker at umich.edu]

Elaine,

I'm in DC, having attended today's COPAFS meeting, and so am not in a  
position to print and read this FR notice. I will do it on Monday.   
However, a key issue is that the Census Bureau had promised, years  
ago, not to have any suppression in the 5 year products; otherwise,  
they would not "be the same as" the census long form. If this FR  
notice says otherwise, all hell is going to break loose.

Patty Becker



Quoting "Murakami, Elaine" <Elaine.Murakami at fhwa.dot.gov>:

> Dear Everyone:
>
> Today, the Census Bureau issued this Federal Register notice.   The
> 5-year ACS is the first ACS product for small area geography, e.g.
> census tracts and block groups.    I have extracted KEY POINTS that will
> GREATLY IMPACT data availability for transportation tables and result in
> a lot of DATA SUPPRESSION at the tract and block group level.  As this
> FR was just issued today, we have not had a chance to estimate the
> amount of suppression that would occur given these proposed conditions.
>
>
>
>
> We are currently working on profile sheets using the 2005-2007 ACS
> (3-year data) that was released in December 2008.  We are finding many
> tables to be suppressed.   So, even with the population threshold of
> 20,000 for the 3-year ACS data, there is considerable suppression on the
> current ACS standard table production, at least those tables of key
> interest to transportation planners.
>
>
>
> As most of you know, the first CTPP using ACS is a planned 3-year
> accumulation from ACS 2006-2008.  The table list will be re-submitted by
> AASHTO to the Census Bureau in a few weeks.
>
>
>
> The next CTPP product is envisioned as a 5-year accumulation from ACS
> 2006-2010.  Because of the many rules the CB has established to protect
> individual confidentiality not just for the ACS Standard tables, but
> also for custom tabulations like the CTPP, we believe that the 5-year
> CTPP for small area tabulation (e.g. TAZs) will need to rely on
> synthetic data generated inside the CB using the ACS microdata records.
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________
>
> *Federal Register Notice: The 5-Year ACS Data Products Release Plan
>
>
>
> Today the U.S Census Bureau published its data release plan for the ACS
> 5-year data products in the Federal Register (E9-4803).  Beginning in
> late 2010, the Census Bureau plans to introduce 5-year data products
> covering the January 2005 through December 2009 data collection period.
> The release of the 5-year estimates will achieve the goal of the ACS to
> provide small area data similar to the long-form sample data published
> after Census 2000.
>
> The Census Bureau is proposing to modify its current line of data
> products to accommodate the 5-year estimates and is requesting comments
> from current and potential users of ACS data products to help guide this
> modification.
>
>
>
> We invite you to review the 5-Year ACS Data Release Plan and provide
> your response to the contact listed in the Federal Register notice.
> Please follow this link to the Federal Register notice (PDF files)
> posted in the Highlights section on the ACS Main page:
>
>
>
> http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
>
>
>
> Comments are due to the contact listed in the Federal Register notice by
> April 20, 2009
>
>
>
>
>
>> From the Census Bureau's pdf document:
>
>
>
> 2. Detailed tables with more than 100 cells cannot be released at the
> block group level.
>
>
>
> 5. For the Selected Population Profiles, there must be at least 50
> unweighted sample cases
>
> over the 5-year period in the universe (specific population subgroup) in
> a given
>
> geographic area for the profile to be released.
>
>
>
> 6. For workplace tables, there must be at least 50 unweighted or 300
> weighted workers in
>
> sample over the 5-year period in a given workplace for the table to be
> released.
>
>
>
> 7. For the residence and workplace tables where means of transportation
> (mode) is crossed
>
> with one or more other variables, there must be at least three
> unweighted workers in
>
> sample for each transportation mode in a given place for the table to be
> released.
>
> Otherwise the data must be collapsed or suppressed and complementary
> suppression must
>
> be applied. There is no threshold on univariate tables.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Elaine Murakami
>
> FHWA Office of Planning
>
> elaine.murakami at dot.gov
>
> Note:  please update my contact information. My previous email address
> will likely expire on March 11.
>
> 206-220-4460
>
>
>
>