Summary File Documentation

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Summary File Documentation

The American Community Survey (ACS) Summary File is a set of comma-delimited text files that contain all of the Detailed Tables for the ACS data releases. Summary File estimates, margins of error, and geography files for each release are available via the Summary File Data page.

The Detailed Tables are stored in a series of files with only the data from the tables and without such information as the table title, description of the rows, or geographic identifiers. That information is located in other files that the user must merge with the data files to reproduce full tables.

Starting with the 2009-2013 ACS 5-year data release, block groups, the lowest level of geography published by the ACS, are available in data.census.gov. For earlier years, block groups are available only in the ACS 5-year Summary File.

2019

Technical Documentation

The Summary File Core Technical Document is now available as What ACS Summary File Data Users Need to Know.

Publication | September 2019

What ACS Summary File Data Users Need to Know

This guide provides an overview of the ACS Summary File and how it can be used to access data on America’s communities.

Documentation on how to use the ACS Summary File with Excel or TIGER/Line Shapefiles

Instructions on How to Read the ACS Summary File into Excel [1.2 MB]

Instructions on Joining the ACS Summary File to TIGER/Line Shapefiles [<1.0 MB]

Templates

Includes description of variables in each column for all sequence files and for the comma delimited version (.csv) of the geography file.

1-year Templates [2.1 MB]

5-year Templates [1.6 MB]

Appendices include the sequence number and restrictions for all tables, as well as summary levels available for each release.

1-year Appendices [<1.0 MB]

5-year Appendices [<1.0 MB]

Summary File User Tools

Table Shells

Contains table ID, line number, unique ID (table ID + Line Number), stub, and data release

Table Shells [2.1 MB]

Sequence Number/Table Number Lookup File

Contains information on the relationship between the sequences and the tables

1-year Lookup File

SAS format [12 MB]

Excel format [1.0 MB]

Text format [2.0 MB]

5-year Lookup File

SAS format [9.3 MB]

Excel format [<1.0 MB]

Text format [1.6 MB]

Simplified Geography Files

Contains basic geography information, including LOGRECNO, GEOID, and name, in an Excel file with tabs for the US, as well as each state or state equivalent. Compared to the standard geography files in .csv and .txt format, these simplified files contain only the geography variables needed to read the ACS Summary File into Excel.

1-year Simplified Geography Files [<1.0 MB]

5-year Simplified Geography Files [18.8 MB]

SAS Programs

Contains SAS programs for each sequence per state, which can be used to convert each estimate and margin of error into SAS datasets with table stubs

1-year SAS programs [47.6 MB]

5-year SAS programs [37.5 MB]

Example of Creating a Table Using SAS [<1.0 MB]

Detailed example SAS program containing SAS macros which access the geography, estimate and margin of error data. It creates one table for all geographies from the ACS Summary File. Segments of the SAS codes can be used to convert geography files into SAS datasets.

1-Year Macros [<1.0 MB]

5-Year Macros [<1.0 MB]

Mapping File

TIGER/Line with Selected Demographic and Economic Data

View the available TIGER/Line geodatabases with Selected Demographic and Economic Data from the Geography program.

Related Information

American Community Survey Summary File Data

MAPPING FILE

TIGER/Line Shapefiles

Summary File Documentation

Summary File Documentation

Technical Documentation

Templates

Summary File User Tools

Table Shells

Sequence Number/Table Number Lookup File

Simplified Geography Files

SAS Programs

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