American Community Survey 2009-2013 ACS 5-Year PUMS File

The Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) contains a sample of actual responses to the American Community Survey (ACS). The PUMS dataset includes variables for nearly every question on the survey, as well as many new variables that were derived after the fact from multiple survey responses (such as poverty status). Each record in the file represents a single person, or--in the household-level dataset--a single housing unit. In the person-level file, individuals are organized into households, making possible the study of people within the contexts of their families and other household members. PUMS files for an individual year, such as 2013, contain records of data from approximately one percent of the United States population. As such, PUMS files covering a five-year period, such as 2009-2013, contain records of data from approximately five percent of the United States population.<br><br>The PUMS files are much more flexible than the aggregate data available on American FactFinder, though the PUMS also tend to be more complicated to use. Working with PUMS data generally involves downloading large datasets onto a local computer and analyzing the data using statistical software such as R, SPSS, Stata, or SAS.<br><br>Since all ACS responses are strictly confidential, many variables in the PUMS file have been modified in order to protect the confidentiality of survey respondents. For instance, particularly high incomes are "top-coded," uncommon birthplace or ancestry responses are grouped into broader categories, and the PUMS file provides a very limited set of geographic variables.