American Community Survey (ACS) Series

The American Community Survey (ACS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, replaced the long form of the decennial census in 2000. The ACS allows researchers, policy makers, and others access to timely information about the U.S. population to make decisions about infrastructure and distribution of federal funds. The monthly survey is sent to a sample of approximately 3.5 million U.S. addresses, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The ACS includes questions on topics not included in the decennial census, such as those about occupations and employment, education, and key areas of infrastructure like internet access and transportation.

When studying large geographic areas, such as states, researchers can use a single year's worth of ACS data to create population-level estimates. However, the study of smaller groups of the population, such as those employed in arts-related fields, requires additional data for more accurate estimation. Specifically, researchers often use 5-year increments of ACS data to draw conclusions about smaller geographies or slices of the population. Note, the Census Bureau produced 3-year estimates between 2005 and 2013 (resulting in seven files: 2005-2007, 2006-2008, 2007-2009, . . . 2011-2013), which remain available but no additional 3-year estimate files have been created.

Individuals wishing to describe people working in occupations related to the arts or culture should plan to use at least five years' worth of data to generate precise estimates. When selecting data from the U.S. Census Bureau or IPUMS USA, users should select data collected over 60 months, such as 2020-2024. NADAC's Guide to Creating Artist Extracts and Special Tabulations of Artists from the American Community Survey provides information about the occupation codes used to identify artists.

The American Community Survey: Public Use Microdata Sample: Artist Extract, 2018-2022 can be downloaded from the IPUMS USA website. The extract captures information on the number of artists, by occupation, demographic group, and other individual characteristics.

To explore social, housing, and economic characteristics within the arts sector, the 2018-2022 ACS 5-year sample can narrowed down to only respondents in arts-related occupations (identified by the variable name: OCC):

• 1300 Architects, Except Naval

• 2600 Artists and Related Workers

• 2630 Designers

• 2700 Actors

• 2710 Producers and Directors

• 2740 Dancers and Choreographers

• 2750 Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers

• 2760 Entertainers and Performers, Sports and Related Workers, All Other

• 2700 Announcers

• 2850 Writers and Authors

• 2910 Photographers

• 2920 Television, Video, and Motion Picture Camera Operators and Editors

Users can also visit the IPUMS USA website to analyze the 2018-2022 ACS 5-year sample online in the IPUMS SDA system.

About the American Community Survey (ACS): The ACS is an ongoing statistical survey that samples a small percentage of the population every year -- giving communities the information they need to plan investments and services. The 5-year public use microdata sample (PUMS) for 2018-2022 is a subset of the 2015-2019 American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) samples. It contains the same sample as the combined PUMS 1-year files for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. The 2018-2022 ACS 5-year PUMS contains five years of data for housing units (HUs) and the population from households and the group quarters (GQ) population. The GQ population, housing units and population from households are all weighted to agree with the ACS counts, which are an average over the five year period. The ACS sample is selected from all counties across the nation and all municipios in Puerto Rico.

The 5-year dataset is a 5-in-100 national random sample of the population, comprising all households and individuals from the 1% American Community Survey (ACS) samples for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, identifiable by year. It includes persons in group quarters and is weighted. The smallest identifiable geographic unit is the PUMA, which contains at least 100,000 persons and does not cross state boundaries. However, the updating of some geography variables has been delayed due to the usage of two different census definitions (2010 and 2020) of PUMA across the five years in the sample. Regarding data quality issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census Bureau revised its methodology for weighting households in the 2017-2020 5-year sample, resulting in larger coefficients of variation for some key estimates. Users should proceed with caution when using the 2020 1-year ACS PUMS file and should not compare it to other ACS years in the multi-year data samples. Please see ACS and COVID-19: Guidance for Using the PUMS with Experimental Weights for more information.

Additionally, data collection errors occurred in certain years, notably in 2016, 2017, and 2019, affecting specific variables in particular counties. These errors should be considered when analyzing the data. Users should read the FAQ on the multi-year data.

The special tabulations of artists, taken from the 2015-2019 American Community Survey, were prepared by the Bureau of the Census at the request of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). These tables show labor force estimates for detailed artist occupations for the United States as a whole; each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; and the largest 25 metropolitan areas.

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. It provides estimates on a broad range of population, housing unit, and household characteristics for states, counties, cities, school districts, congressional districts, census tracts, block groups, and many other geographic areas. In 2010, the ACS replaced the census long form as the nation's source of social and economic data for population and housing characteristics.