DOI: 10.6077/gy7a-jt98
title: American Community Survey, 2009: 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample

description: &lt;p&gt;American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. It uses a series of monthly samples to produce annually updated data on housing, demographic, and economic characteristic of Americans previously included in the decennial census long-form sample. Survey topics include housing costs and amenities, household and family type (including presence of multigenerational households), linguistic isolation, citizenship and ancestry of residents, employment and commuting patterns, education level, demographic characteristics, disability and veteran status, and income and poverty, The public use microdata sample (PUMS) files contain information collected about each person and housing unit. PUMS files are extracts from the confidential microdata that avoid disclosure of information about households or individuals. These extracts cover all of the same characteristics contained in the full microdata sample files. The only geography other than state provided in PUMS files is the public use microdata area (PUMA). PUMAs are special nonoverlapping areas that partition a state, each containing a population of about 100,000.&lt;/p&gt;
description: American Community Survey: Public Use Microdata Sample
description: collection_notes: The 2009 PUMS was designed to sample one percent of the housing units and one percent of the GQ persons in the United States and Puerto Rico. The PUMS sample sizes were based on the Population Estimates Program estimates for housing units and GQ persons.

The PUMS sample was selected for Housing Units (HUs) and GQ persons separately. The PUMS sample of persons in households was selected by keeping all persons in PUMS HUs. The systematic sampling method used sampling intervals chosen to yield the sample sizes given in Table 1 and Table 2 by state, DC and PR. The sampling interval for each state and HU/GQ sample is the ratio of the number of records available for sampling and the required sample size (sampling intervals are not rounded to integers). (See pums_accuracy-09.pdf for tables)

The sampling for PUMS HUs was performed on ACS sample of HUs as follows:

1. Records of ACS HUs were sorted within each state by: PUMA, ACS weighting area, interview mode, type of vacant, tenure, building type, household type, householder
demographics (race, Hispanic origin, sex and age), county, tract, and housing unit weight.
2. Systematic sampling was applied to ACS HUs as described below:
 a. Within each state, a random number is chosen between zero and the sampling interval. A counter is initialized with the random number.
 b. At each HU record, the value of the counter is incremented by one and compared to the sampling interval.
 i. If the counter’s new value is greater than the sampling interval, the HU record is selected for the PUMS and a flag is set to 1. The counter is decreased by the sampling interval with the new value passed to the next record.
 ii. If the counter is less than the sampling interval, the HU record is not selected for the PUMS and the value of the counter is passed to the next record without altering its value.
3. All HUs selected for PUMS were placed in the PUMS HU sample file.
4. The PUMS HU sample file was matched to the ACS sample of persons. All persons in selected HUs were placed in the PUMS person sample.

The sampling for PUMS GQ persons was performed on the ACS sample of GQ persons as follows:

1. GQ persons were sorted within each state by the size of their GQ facility (large vs. small), the type of GQ facility, PUMA, demographics (race, Hispanic origin, sex and
age), county, tract, and GQ person weight.
2. Systematic sampling was applied as described above under HUs.
3. All selected GQ persons were added to the PUMS person sample. A placeholder record was also placed in the PUMS HU file for each PUMS GQ person.

Collection mode varied, CATI and CAPI phases followed mailings.