Estimates generated using the American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files will be slightly different from the pre-tabulated ACS estimates in data.census.gov because PUMS data:
- Include only about two-thirds of the cases used to create estimates on data.census.gov.
- Contain additional edits and modifications to protect respondent confidentiality. These modifications can include, for example, the "top-coding" of continuous variables with outlying values (such as income or transportation time) and the reduction of category availability for variables with hundreds of categories (such as ancestry or birthplace).
When data users have doubts about whether they are correctly using the weights to compute estimates, they should attempt to reproduce the estimates that are provided in the PUMS Estimates for User Verification.
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