American Community Survey (ACS)

ACS-Summary File (SF)

ACS-Summary File (SF)

Special Note: Any corrections made to the summary files are documented in the errata.

One of the data products supported by the long form in Census 2000 was the Summary File 3 (SF3). SF3 is a set of tables on a variety of subjects drawn from the long form that are repeated for all the supported geography down to the block group level. The goal for ACS is to provide a set of summary files (i.e., a separate ACS-SF) for estimates from each time period the ACS will cover: 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year. As a step toward this goal, the ACS has developed a production version of the ACS-Summary File (SF).

The production version of the ACS-Summary File (SF) is based on the 2007 ACS detailed tables and is located on the ACS FTP site. The ACS-SF includes all detailed tables for all geographies published in the 2007 ACS. The main directory of the ACS-Summary File’s ftp server for the 2007 production version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2007_1yr/summaryfile/. The directory for the 2006 production is http://www2.census.gov/acs2006/Final_Summaryfile and for the 2005 prototype version is http://www2.census.gov/acs2005/summaryfile. Each site has documentation on using the ACS-Summary File and 53 subdirectories (United States, the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico). SAS program examples are also included. The summary file is available in three formats - the estimates, the standard errors, and the margins of error. The README file in the main ftp directory for each year contains information on the files and their purposes.

Please review the Technical Documentation before accessing the ACS Summary File on the FTP site. This documentation is located on the following link: ACS-Summary File (SF) Technical Documentation.

The Census Bureau and American Community Survey Office hopes that this production version of the ACS-SF will give data users a chance to work with these files and provide the Census Bureau with useful comments. The Census Bureau will consider comments that are received on the production version of the ACS-SF.

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