The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that embargo subscribers will receive early access to the 2020-2024 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates starting January 27 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The public release of these statistics is scheduled for January 29.
The ACS offers data on a variety of topics related to people and housing in the United States, including language use, education, commuting patterns, employment status, mortgage and rent information, income levels, poverty rates, and health insurance coverage. For many of these subjects, the ACS is the only source providing local-level estimates.
According to the Census Bureau, “The statistics will be available to embargo subscribers beginning Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. ET for a variety of geographic areas, including all states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, congressional and state legislative districts, metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas, counties, places, and other geographies down to census tracts and block groups.”
Embargoed access allows certain subscribers to review this information before it becomes publicly available. The embargo period lasts from January 27 at 10 a.m. ET until January 29 at 12:01 a.m. ET. During this time frame wire services and distribution outlets are not permitted to publish stories or data files based on the embargoed content.
All related data products—including those on data.census.gov as well as through APIs and summary files—will be accessible by the general public starting at 10 a.m. ET on January 29.
Those interested in obtaining embargo access can register through www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/embargoed_releases.
