What is American Community Survey?
The Census Bureau surveys people and households across the United States. The sample describes education, jobs, earnings, and where people live.
- Full name
- American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample
- Published by
- U.S. Census Bureau
- Edition in EduInsights
- 2024 1-year national person file
- Current availability
- Used in the current EduInsights data release.
Why it matters
Why we use American Community Survey
This survey helps us understand how education, work, earnings, and place fit together across the country.
Education
You can see a person's highest education and college field. The college itself is not named.
Work and pay
Job, hours, employment, and income sit in the same survey response. Pay refers to the survey's stated period.
Who and where
Age, household details, and location let you compare groups and places.
Good to know
What to keep in mind
- These are estimates, not head counts
- The Census surveys a sample. Its weights turn those responses into estimates for the wider population.
- Small groups can swing
- An estimate gets less steady when few respondents share the same field, job, and location.
On its own
Questions this source can answer by itself
These questions need no facts from another source.
- Which jobs employ people who studied a given field?
- How do earnings differ across fields of study?
- How often do graduates work in jobs related to their education?
With other sources
Questions this source helps answer
We use another source only when it describes the same college, field, career, place, or time.
- How do national graduate patterns compare with a college's reported programs?
- Do projected careers match the jobs held by people with related degrees?
Where it stops
What this source cannot tell you
- It does not identify a person's college or named program.
- Survey estimates describe populations, not guaranteed outcomes for one person.
- Small groups may have too few responses for a stable estimate.
Use this source in a real question.
Ask about a college, field, career, place, or change over time.
