Income and Poverty Estimates |
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| American Community Survey | Current Population Survey | |
|---|---|---|
| Principal purpose | Provides detailed demographic, socioeconomic and housing data on an annual basis; replaces the once-a-decade census long form. Provides median household and other measures of money income, earnings and poverty estimates. | Provides estimates of median household and other measures of money income, health insurance coverage and the official annual estimate of poverty for the nation. |
| Time frame | Data collected continuously throughout calendar year with a previous 12-month reference period. | Data collected over a three-month period in early 2008 with a previous calendar year reference of 2007. |
| Geography | Single-year estimates provide data for the nation, states, counties, places (cities), congressional districts, American Indian and Alaska Native areas and all areas with a population of 65,000 or more. | Nation and states. |
| Sample size | 250,000 addresses each month or about 3 million addresses a year. |
100,000 addresses over a three-month period. |
| Collection method | Mail, phone or personal visit. | Phone or personal visit. |
| Length and detail of questions | A series of eight questions about income. | A series of questions about more than 50 sources of income and up to 27 individual income values. |
| Group quarters in sample | Yes (institutional and noninstitutional group quarters). | Yes (noninstitutional group quarters only). |
