The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities a fresh look at how they are changing. It is a critical element in the Census Bureau's re-engineered decennial census program. The ACS collects and produces population and housing information every year instead of every ten years. A few examples of the data include:
- * The highest housing costs for homeowners with mortgages were in California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticut and Massachusetts. While those costs nationally were about the same as the year before, the drop in median income meant that more owners with a mortgage (29 percent) and renters (41 percent) were paying 35 percent or more of their income for housing.
- * The statistics showed that real median household income declined nationwide, rising in only five states New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas compared with 33 states in 2007. It ranged from $37,790 in Mississippi to $70,545 in Maryland.
- * The proportion of workers who commuted by driving without anyone else decreased slightly, to 75.5 percent from 76.1 percent, and ranged from 54 percent in New York to 83 percent in Alabama.