American Community Survey (ACS)

The American Community Survey (ACS) has a housing unit (HU) sample and a group quarters (GQ) sample. For the HU sample, the ACS data is collected using three main methods to contact sample households:

Mail

      Several items are mailed to each sample household:

• A prenotice letter to inform the residents of the sample address that they will receive an ACS questionnaire that should be completed and returned promptly. This letter includes information on the topics included in the survey and uses of the data.
• An ACS questionnaire along with an instruction booklet, a Frequently Asked Questions brochure, a letter and a business reply return envelope.
• A reminder postcard is sent a few days after the questionnaire is mailed to encourage the residents to complete the questionnaire or to thank them if they have already sent it.
• A replacement questionnaireis mailed several weeks after the prenotice letter is mailed if the original questionnaire has not been returned.

      To see the mail items, go to the Survey Questionnaires webpage

Telephone

Approximately six weeks after the first ACS questionnaire is mailed, the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) operation begins. Sample addresses that have not returned a completed paper questionnaire, and for which we have a telephone number will be called by Census Bureau telephone interviewing staff to complete the ACS interview over the phone.

Personal Visits

Following the CATI operation, a sample will be taken from the addresses for which we do not have a mail or CATI interview to conduct the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) operation. Census Bureau field representatives visit these addresses to conduct the ACS interview in person

Two additional operations support HU data collection:

Telephone Questionnaire Assistance (TQA)

Respondents may call a toll free telephone number printed on the ACS questionnaire to obtain answers to general questions about the survey, to obtain help completing the paper questionnaire, or to complete the ACS interview over the phone.

Telephone Follow-up

The ACS questionnaire form has space to collect detailed information for five persons. For that reason, if the sample address has more than five residents, ACS staff will call to collect the detailed information for the additional persons and to obtain any other missing information.

For further information about ACS data collection visit the Design and Methodology Report

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