README File for ACS Multi-Year Estimates Data Products Delivered via FTP

**NOTE. The data products are limited to the housing unit population and
exclude the population living in institutions, college dormitories, and
other group quarters.**

**I) Multi-Year Estimates Data Available at this FTP Site**

The Multi-Year Estimates Data are released in a Profile format. Profiles
provide estimates of selected demographic, social, economic, and housing
characteristics for each geographic area. Each profile estimate is
accompanied by its margin of error and confidence interval based on the
90% level of confidence.

**II) Finding the Data**

Under the FTP main directory,
http://www2.census.gov/acs/MultiYearEstimates/ there are three
sub-directories, *1 Year Profile, 3 Year Profile,* and *5 Year Profile.*
Also there are two excel spreadsheets *geography.xls* and
*mye_profile.xls*

**A. *Geography.xls***

The Geography.xls file contains a Geography Code, Geography Name, and
for which time period each of the possible geographies in the Multi-Year
Estimates study was produced.

  ------------------- ------------------ --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------
  **geoid**           **name**           **in_2001thru2005**   **in_2000thru2004**   **in_1999thru2003**   **in_2003thru2005**

  06000US1810301018   Allen township,    Y                     Y                     Y                     
                      Miami County,                                                                        
                      Indiana                                                                              
  ------------------- ------------------ --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- ---------------------

For example, Allen township, Miami County, Indiana was produced for all
three of the 5-year estimate intervals but was not published for any
other interval.

**B. mye_profile.xls**

The mye_profile.xls file contains a layout of the profiles produced in
the Multi-Year Estimates study. Note the profile layout applies to all
time intervals.

  ------------------- -------------------- ------------------------------
  **TBLID**           **PROFLN**           **STUB**

  DP01                1                    Total population

  DP01                1.5                  SEX AND AGE
  ------------------- -------------------- ------------------------------

TBLID would be the ID of the table (DP01, DP02, DP03, DP04)

PROFLN would be the line in each of the Profile Tables. Note: if a line
contains a decimal it does not have data associated with it in all file
formats (excel, text and SAS).

STUB would be the corresponding description of each line.

**C. 1-Year Profile, 3-Year Profile, and 5-Year Profile Directories**

## Excel Files

The Profiles are organized in the following directory structure

1-Year Estimates

\\1 Year Profile\\2000\\

\\1 Year Profile\\2001\\

\\1 Year Profile\\2002\\

\\1 Year Profile\\2003\\

\\1 Year Profile\\2004\\

\\1 Year Profile\\2005\\

3-Year Estimates

\\3 Year Profile\\1999-2001\\

\\3 Year Profile\\2000-2002\\

\\3 Year Profile\\2001-2003\\

\\3 Year Profile\\2002-2004\\

\\3 Year Profile\\2003-2005\\

5-Year Estimates

\\5 year Profile\\1999-2003\\

\\5 year Profile\\2000-2004\\

\\5 year Profile\\2001-2005\\

The following geography summary levels are available for 1-year
estimates

Geography summary level Description

050 State-County

060 State-County-County Subdivision

160 State-Place

795 State-Public Use Microdata Area (5%)

960 State-School District (Secondary)

970 State-School District (Unified)

The following geography summary levels are available for 3-year
estimates

Geography summary level Description

050 State-County

060 State-County-County Subdivision

160 State-Place

795. State-Public Use Microdata Area (5%)

> 950 State-School District (Elementary)

960 State-School District (Secondary)

970 State-School District (Unified)

The following geography summary levels are available for 5-year
estimates

Geography summary level Description

050 State-County

060 State-County-County Subdivision

140 State-County-Tract

> 150 State-County-Tract-Block Group

160 State-Place

250 American Indian Area/Alaska Native Area/Hawaiian Home Land

795 State-Public Use Microdata Area (5%)

871 5 Digit Zip Codes

950 State-School District (Elementary)

960 State-School District (Secondary)

970 State-School District (Unified)

In each of the above-mentioned three time intervals the files themselves
are organized in the same manner.

1\. The files will be under a geography summary level directory. For
example, if you want tract level data for 2001-2005 you would find the
files under "140 Tract Level".

2\. The files will be under their corresponding state directory. For
Example, Black Hawk County, Iowa would be at "Iowa\\County Level\\ Black
Hawk County, Iowa.xls

Within each spreadsheet are the following 4 worksheets:

Demographic -- Contains the profile estimates for selected demographic
profile

Social -- Contains the profile estimates for selected social
characteristics profile

Economic -- Contains the profile estimates for selected economic
characteristics

Housing -- Contains the profile estimates for selected housing
characteristics

Column A -- Is the corresponding description of each line

Column B -- Is the estimated total

Column C -- Is the estimate margin of error (Please information below)

Column D -- Is the estimated percentage

Column E -- Is the percent margin of error

**Margin of error (MOE)**

A margin of error is the maximum difference between an estimate and its
upper or lower confidence bounds. A confidence interval can be created
by adding the margin of error to the estimate (for an upper bound) and
subtracting the margin of error from the estimate (for a lower bound).
In doing this, it is important not to allow either the lower bound or
the upper bound of the confidence interval to go beyond the range of
possible values for an estimate. For example, an estimate of children
enrolled in school in a geographic area cannot be less than 0.
Therefore, its lower bound can also not be less than 0. All published
margins of error for the American Community Survey are based on a 90
percent confidence level.

**D. Profiles in Text Format**

[Text Files]{.underline}

Percent-delimited text files are located under the text directory.

/acs/MultiYearEstimate/text/

There will be a corresponding zip file named by the time interval. For
example 1999thru2003.zip will be for the 5-year time interval 1999 thru
2003.

The zip file will contain 1 text file, with the following naming
convention.

\<Time Interval\>combined_profiles .txt (1999throug2003combined_profiles
.txt)

Each one of these text files will be \"%\" delimited with the following
columns

Column 1 - Geography ID

Column 2 - Table ID

Column 3 - Table line

Column 4 -- Estimated total

Column 5 - Estimated margin of error

Column 6 -- Estimated percentage

Column 7 -- Percentage margin of error

To get the stubs you can use the

<http://www2.census.gov/acs/MultiYearEstimates/mye_profile.xls>

To get the geography information use

<http://www2.census.gov/acs/MultiYearEstimates/geography.xls>

**E. Profiles in SAS Format**

[SAS Files]{.underline}

SAS data sets are located under the SAS directory.

/acs/MultiYearEstimate/sas/

There will be a corresponding zip file named by the time interval. For
example 1999thru2003sas.zip will be for the 5-year time interval 1999
thru 2003.

The zip file will contain a SAS data set for each geography summary
level, with the following naming convention.

a\<Time Interval\>\<Geography Summary level\> .sas7bdat

(Ex. 1999 through 2003 County level: 1999throug2003g050.sas7bdat)

The SAS files will have the following variables

Variable Description

TBLID The Table ID (DP01, DP02, DP03, DP04)

GEOID The unique Geography Identifier

PROFTBL Profile Table in TBLID (this will be a constant of '1')

PROFLN Profile Line

CEST Character estimated total

CME Character estimated total margin of error

PEST Character estimated percent

PME Character percent margin of error

STUB Metadata for each profile line

To get the geography information use

<http://www2.census.gov/acs/MultiYearEstimates/geography.xls>