In case folks are interested in using TIDYCENSUS to examine the three sets of non-overlapping periods: 2006-2010, 2011-2015 and 2016-2020, I’ve updated my R script for all states, counties, places and the US. This is just for the means of transportation to work, plus a few key demographic variables.

Important to note is that the 2016-2020 ACS is based on 2020 Census geography. The older datasets are based on 2010 Census geography. This isn’t a big deal if your geographic areas haven’t changed, 2010 to 2020, but I’d be careful when comparing older (pre-2020) to newest (2016-2020) data, especially for smaller geographies such as tracts, block groups and places.

My next step would be to do some count checks of geographies included in Census 2020 PL 94-171 vs the 2016-2020 ACS. Check to make sure that the geographies (block groups, tracts, places, counties) match between the Decennial 2020 and ACS 2016-2020.

And to reiterate, there is no single year ACS data for 2020. Those tables are using the “experimental weights” and are only published at the nation and state level. 

Happy St Patrick’s Day to all!

Chuck Purvis,

Hayward, California