The U.S. Census Bureau today released 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates for the first time, making available social, economic, housing and demographic statistics for every community in the nation.

Until now, small geographic areas had to rely on outdated 2000 Census figures for detailed information about the characteristics of their communities. Consisting of about 11.1 billion individual estimates and covering more than 670,000 distinct geographies, the 5-year ACS estimates give even the smallest communities more timely information on topics ranging from commute times to languages spoken at home to housing values.

Public officials, including mayors and governors, and private organizations such as chambers of commerce, rely on ACS estimates on education, housing, jobs, veteran status and commuting patterns to help them make informed decisions that will affect their community, such as where to build new schools, hospitals and emergency services.

The extensive data are based on a rolling annual sample survey mailed to about 3 million addresses between Jan. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2009. By pooling several years of survey responses, the ACS generates detailed statistical portraits of smaller geographies.

Separate from the 2010 Census, ACS estimates complement the decennial count and provide estimates of population characteristics that are far more detailed than the basic demographic information that will be released from the 2010 Census starting in February.  |  Noticias en español

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke attended the President’s Export Council (PEC) meeting at the White House today, where he updated PEC members on the Commerce Department’s efforts to increase U.S. exports and help American businesses compete globally.

During the meeting, the president announced proposed regulations to reform the U.S. export control system and strengthen national security.  The Commerce Department’s proposed regulations for dual-use items will facilitate more robust secure trade with our partners and allies while imposing new safeguards to ensure that sensitive items are not exported to other locations without U.S. government authorization. 

In addition, the administration launched a new webpage at www.export.gov that will help small- and medium-sized business comply with U.S. export control requirements by consolidating, for the first time, the various screening lists maintained by different departments.

The President also reiterated the critical importance of export promotion in spurring job creation and economic growth in the U.S.  For more information on the president’s announcement, please go to: http://bit.ly/hoSGZv.

Today Secretary Locke joined seven other U.S. government agencies in launching the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative, a coordinated effort to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency exports.

Through the Initiative, the U.S. government will support renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE) exporters by offering new financing products, enhancing market access, increasing trade promotion and improving the delivery of export promotion services to current and future RE&EE companies. The federal government is also launching a new online portal as part of the Initiative to provide renewable energy companies easy access to government export resources, and the Commerce Department is committing to an increased number of RE&EE trade and trade-policy missions.

Energy is a $6 trillion global market, and clean energy is the fastest growing sector.

The Initiative is the federal government’s first-ever coordinated effort to support the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency exports and is designed to facilitate an increase of RE&EE exports during the next five years, helping to meet the goals of the National Export Initiative and President Obama’s challenge to become the leading exporter of clean energy technologies

The U.S. Census Bureau today released its 2010 Demographic Analysis estimates at a news conference at George Washington University – the first of three major Census Bureau releases in December. The data involve five series of national-level estimates of the population by age, sex, two race groups (black and non-black) and Hispanic origin (for under age 20). Demographic Analysis attempts to estimate the national population of 2010 but uses a very different technique than is used for the 2010 Census. Demographic Analysis estimates are developed from historical vital statistics and estimates of international migration. Separate from 2010 Census counts, these estimates provide one way of measuring the size of the U.S. population and will be used to analyze the 2010 Census results coming later this month.

On Dec. 14, the Census Bureau will also release American Community Survey (ACS) data for the 5-year period from 2005 to 2009. The ACS is a sample survey sent to 3 million households every year that provides vital social, economic, housing and demographic characteristics about our country. This is the first set of 5-year estimates for the ACS, which every year will produce more than 11 billion pieces of data covering some 670,000 geographical areas, including every county and community in the country.

Finally, by Dec. 31 as required by law, the Census Bureau will report the first set of data from the 2010 Census: the national and state populations as well as the apportionment of seats to each state in the U.S. House of Representatives. See today’s Demographic Analysis press release and the complete Demographic Analysis tables. Visit http://www.census.gov/ to learn more about upcoming Census releases.