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American Community Survey: New Survey Questions Enable Measurement of Marital Transitions
Beginning in 2008, the American Community Survey (ACS) will ask about marital events that have occurred in the last 12 months, the number of times a person has been married, and the year the most recent marriage occurred. The new data content can be combined with the demographic, economic and community data in the survey to analyze marriage and divorce rates, events, and transitions.
The ACS and Information on Marriage and Divorce
Since its inception, the ACS has included a question on marital status
(never married, divorced, separated, widowed, or married). With the
addition of the new questions, the ACS will fill a large data gap
and allow for the calculation of marriage and divorce rates and a
more complete study of family formation trends. Because of the size
of the sample and the kinds of information collected on the ACS, these
rates and trends can be analyzed at the person, family, household
and community level. This new data will provide program managers,
government analysts, policymakers, researchers, demographers and others
with the information needed to analyze marriage and divorce rates
and marital transitions nationally, by state and by locality.
The ACS, the Census Bureau’s replacement for the decennial
census long form, provides estimates of demographic, housing, social,
and economic characteristics. It is a continuous measurement survey
with an annual sample of three million households plus a large sample
of group quarters (e.g., college dormitories, prisons, military barracks).
The data are collected monthly and reported annually. Because of its
large sample size, the ACS allows for sub-national analyses. Statistics
can be computed annually for all 50 states, the District of Columbia,
and population areas with 65,000 or more people; reliable county-level
and Census tract-level statistics can be computed using three years
and five years of data, respectively.
New Marriage- and Divorce-Related Questions
Prior to 2008, the ACS asked respondents whether they were now married,
widowed, divorced, separated or never married and about his or her
relationship to each household member. Thus, ACS data could be used
to calculate the number and proportion of people who were never married,
divorced, separated, widowed, or married. The ACS could also provide
information by relationship status, such as the percent who are cohabiting,
are biological parents who live with their children, and are step-parents
living with their step-children. For the 2008 ACS, the Census Bureau
added questions that can be used to calculate marriage and divorce
rates and the duration of the most recent marriage. The questions
also measure respondents’ marital history.
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The New Data Will Benefit Many Program Areas
Information about marriage and divorce— including rates, duration
of events, and transitions into and out of each status—is used
by analysts, program managers, policymakers, researchers, and other
interested parties for a variety of purposes, such as to analyze potential
eligibility for program services and benefits and to assess behavioral
changes resulting from policies and programs.1
For example, data can be used to:
- Calculate marriage and divorce rates and document the characteristics of individuals transitioning into and out of marriage (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, income, presence of children) at national and sub-national levels over time.
- Track and forecast changes in family structure at the national, state and local levels, thus identifying needs for child care, child support, housing, and other services.
- Formulate, assess, and evaluate policies at the national and state levels for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grant programs, and other initiatives.
- Analyze tax policies that can create or mitigate “marriage penalties” (that is, higher taxes for married couples compared to what they would pay if filing as unmarried individuals).
- Improve cost and eligibility projections and analysis for Social Security disability and retirement benefits.
- Identify needs and evaluate policies and state- and local-level programs operated by governmental or non-governmental programs.
Other Questions of Interest on the ACS
The ACS collects a wealth of demographic, economic, and community
data that will be helpful in analyzing marital transitions and trends.
In addition to the standard demographic categories of age, sex, race,
ethnicity, education, and employment, marriage and divorce data can
be analyzed using information about home ownership, military service,
participation in social safety net programs, nationality, size of
household, presence of children, and hours worked and geographic location.
All of these factors could provide important new information about
the context in which marital transitions are likely to occur.
Data Availability
Data from the American Community Survey is available but only the
information regarding current marital status is included in the data
files. Publication of the new marital data is anticipated in late
2009. Because this is a new data collection effort, the marital history
items will be evaluated with other survey data and existing tabulations
from the vital statistics system at both the national and state levels.
It is anticipated that published tables from the ACS in the American
Factfinder will initially be limited to data at the National level
and for individual states. More geographic detail will be available
over time. ACS data can be accessed by visiting the Census Bureau
website:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/index.html
American Community Survey Overview
The ACS is cross-sectional, as opposed to longitudinal, meaning that
it collects data from a national sample of people only once, rather
than collecting data from the same people multiple times. The survey
is sent to about 250,000 people monthly resulting in an annual sample
of over three million. The survey is sent and returned through the
mail. The Census Bureau follows up with non-respondents through phone
calls, and, for a subset, in-person visits, to complete the survey.
ACS Goals
The stated goals of the ACS are three-fold:
- Provide federal, state and local governments an information base
for the administration and evaluation of
governmental programs; - Improve the Decennial Census by allowing its data collection to focus on population numbers; and
- Provide data users with annually updated demographic, housing, social and economic statistics that can be compared across states, communities and population groups. The ACS provides more information than the Census does and allows for quicker access to survey results—usually six to eight months after a survey year has been completed.
Survey Structure
Questions on the ACS include information about household composition,
income and program participation. One respondent per household fills
out the survey but the survey collects information on each person
living in the household as well as information about the entire household
unit. The ACS collects data on a wide variety of topics. Sections
of the survey ask about:
- The household roster (name of all people in the household; their relationship to the respondent; their sex, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity).
- Housing (the type and characteristics of the respondent’s home; number of automobiles owned by members of the household; rent, mortgage and utility costs; home value).
- Information about each person in the household (place of birth, nationality, schooling, ancestry or ethnic origin, languages spoken at home, health insurance, disabilities, marital status and marital transitions, child birth, participation in social safety net programs, military service, employment, income and if the household member is a grandparent raising a grandchild).
Unique Attributes
The ACS has several unique attributes that set it apart from other
surveys and data collection tools. First, its size. The ACS is the
largest annual survey in the United States and is designed to be representative
down to the Census tract level. State-level statistics can be computed
for all 50 states and the District of Columbia on an annual basis;
annual statistics are also available for all population areas with
65,000 people or more. Reliable county-level statistics also can be
computed using three years of data and Census tract-level statistics
can be computed using five years of data. Second, the ACS is the only
survey for which completion by the surveyed household is mandatory.
The ACS response rate of 97.5 percent (2006) is the highest of any
Census Bureau demographic survey. Finally, changes to the ACS are
not easily made or implemented. Most of the ACS content is mandated
or required by law and modifications to the survey require Office
of Management and Budget approval.
1 Census Bureau, Subjects Planned for the 2010 Census and the American Community Survey: Federal Legislative and Program Use, page 92. (back to footnote 1)
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