DOI: 10.3886/icpsr29263.v1
title: American Community Survey (ACS): Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), 2008
title: Version 1

description: The American Community Survey (ACS) is a part of the Decennial Census Program, and is designed to produce critical information about the characteristics of local communities. The ACS publishes social, housing, and economic characteristics for demographic groups covering a broad spectrum of geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico. Every year the ACS supports the release of single-year estimates for geographic areas with populations of 65,000 or more. Demographic variables include sex, age, relationship, households by type, race, and Hispanic origin. Social characteristics variables include school enrollment, educational attainment, marital status, fertility, grandparents caring for children, veteran status, disability status, residence one year ago, place of birth, United States citizenship status, year of entry, world region of birth of foreign born, language spoken at home, and ancestry. Variables focusing on economic characteristics include employment status, commuting to work, occupation, industry, class of worker, income and benefits, and poverty status. Variables focusing on housing characteristics include occupancy, units in structure, year structure was built, number of rooms, number of bedrooms, housing tenure, year householder moved into unit, vehicles available, house heating fuel, utility costs, occupants per room, housing value, and mortgage status. The American Community Survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 193, and response is mandatory.
description: The data in the household and population files contain weights. The initial weights reflect the probability of selection and are adjusted for interviewed households to account for noninterviews. Additional weights reflect independent housing unit and population estimates.When programming the replicate weight standard errors, note that the full PUMS weight is never zero or negative. However, the eighty replicate weights can be zero or negative.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Alabama Housing 
 DS2: Alabama Population 
 DS3: Alaska Housing 
 DS4: Alaska Population 
 DS5: Arizona Housing 
 DS6: Arizona Population 
 DS7: Arkansas Housing 
 DS8: Arkansas Population 
 DS9: California Housing 
 DS10: California Population 
 DS11: Colorado Housing 
 DS12: Colorado Population 
 DS13: Connecticut Housing 
 DS14: Connecticut Population 
 DS15: Delaware Housing 
 DS16: Delaware Population 
 DS17: District of Columbia Housing 
 DS18: District of Columbia Population 
 DS19: Florida Housing 
 DS20: Florida Population 
 DS21: Georgia Housing 
 DS22: Georgia Population 
 DS23: Hawaii Housing 
 DS24: Hawaii Population 
 DS25: Idaho Housing 
 DS26: Idaho Population 
 DS27: Illinois Housing 
 DS28: Illinois Population 
 DS29: Indiana Housing 
 DS30: Indiana Population 
 DS31: Iowa Housing 
 DS32: Iowa Population 
 DS33: Kansas Housing 
 DS34: Kansas Population 
 DS35: Kentucky Housing 
 DS36: Kentucky Population 
 DS37: Louisiana Housing 
 DS38: Louisiana Population 
 DS39: Maine Housing 
 DS40: Maine Population 
 DS41: Maryland Housing 
 DS42: Maryland Population 
 DS43: Massachusetts Housing 
 DS44: Massachusetts Population 
 DS45: Michigan Housing 
 DS46: Michigan Population 
 DS47: Minnesota Housing 
 DS48: Minnesota Population 
 DS49: Mississippi Housing 
 DS50: Mississippi Population 
 DS51: Missouri Housing 
 DS52: Missouri Population 
 DS53: Montana Housing 
 DS54: Montana Population 
 DS55: Nebraska Housing 
 DS56: Nebraska Population 
 DS57: Nevada Housing 
 DS58: Nevada Population 
 DS59: New Hampshire Housing 
 DS60: New Hampshire Population 
 DS61: New Jersey Housing 
 DS62: New Jersey Population 
 DS63: New Mexico Housing 
 DS64: New Mexico Population 
 DS65: New York Housing 
 DS66: New York Population 
 DS67: North Carolina Housing 
 DS68: North Carolina Population 
 DS69: North Dakota Housing 
 DS70: North Dakota Population 
 DS71: Ohio Housing 
 DS72: Ohio Population 
 DS73: Oklahoma Housing 
 DS74: Oklahoma Population 
 DS75: Oregon Housing 
 DS76: Oregon Population 
 DS77: Pennsylvania Housing 
 DS78: Pennsylvania Population 
 DS79: Puerto Rico Housing 
 DS80: Puerto Rico Population 
 DS81: Rhode Island Housing 
 DS82: Rhode Island Population 
 DS83: South Carolina Housing 
 DS84: South Carolina Population 
 DS85: South Dakota Housing 
 DS86: South Dakota Population 
 DS87: Tennessee Housing 
 DS88: Tennessee Population 
 DS89: Texas Housing 
 DS90: Texas Population 
 DS91: Utah Housing 
 DS92: Utah Population 
 DS93: Vermont Housing 
 DS94: Vermont Population 
 DS95: Virginia Housing 
 DS96: Virginia Population 
 DS97: Washington Housing 
 DS98: Washington Population 
 DS99: West Virginia Housing 
 DS100: West Virginia Population 
 DS101: Wisconsin Housing 
 DS102: Wisconsin Population 
 DS103: Wyoming Housing 
 DS104: Wyoming Population 
 DS105: United States Housing 
 DS106: United States Population
description: American Community Survey (ACS) Series
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), mail questionnaire, telephone interview 
Parts 105 and 106 represent, respectively, the entire United States Housing and Population datasets for the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS). Both parts 105 and 106 are quite large and should be downloaded at the discretion of the user.
 ICPSR suggests SDA online analysis for those users who wish to use the United States ACS housing and population datasets but have decided not to download the respective parts: United States Housing SDA, United States Population SDA. 
Any state's housing and population data files can be merged via the variable SERIALNO to create a hierarchical data file. The hierarchical data structure represents the responses of all individuals reported living in a given housing unit. Individuals can be distinguished by the variable SPORDER (Person Number). If users are merging files, keep in mind that estimates of family, household, and housing characteristics will make use of the housing weights. Estimates of person characteristics will use the person weights.
 Users are strongly encouraged to read all documentation regarding sampling errors and weights prior to merging files. Documentation is available for download or can be accessed on the American Community Survey Web site.
description: All persons and housing units in the United States.