Africa 
China 
Japan 
MENA 
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Introduction
Published in Ian Foster, Rayid Ghani, Ron S. Jarmin, Frauke Kreuter, Julia Lane, Big Data and Social Science, 2020
Ian Foster, Rayid Ghani, Ron S. Jarmin, Frauke Kreuter, Julia Lane
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) “helps local officials, community leaders, and businesses understand the changes taking place in their communities. It is the premier source for detailed population and housing information about our nation” (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs). The summary statistics are used by planners to allocate resources—but it’s important to pay attention to the standard errors, particularly for small samples. For example, in one county (Autauga) in Alabama, with a total population of about 55,000, the ACS estimates that 139 children under age 5 live in poverty—plus or minus 178! So the plausible range is somewhere between 0 and 317 (Spielman and Singleton, 2015).
Racial/ethnic, social characteristics and geographic disparities of childhood cancer late-stage diagnosis in Texas, 2005 to 2014
Published in Annals of GIS, 2021
Niaz Morshed, F. Benjamin Zhan
The study used the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (2006–2010) for census tracts in the state of Texas. The ACS is a continuing national survey that generates period estimates of demographic, housing, and socioeconomic characteristics of the U.S. population. There are three primary uses of ACS estimates, including (a) understanding the demographic characteristics of an area for local planning purposes, (b) comparing across areas, and (c) measuring change over time. It is recommended to use 5-year estimates for small geographic areas (populations of less than 20,000) because of the strong statistical reliability of the data for small population subgroups. (US Census Bureau 2008)