Households and Persons PerHousehold
Sources: U.S.Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey(PRCS), 5-Year Estimates. The PRCS is part of the Census Bureau's ACS, customized for Puerto Rico. Both Surveys areupdated every year.
Definition
A household includes all thethe people who occupy ahousing unit. (People not living in households are classified as living ingroup quarters.) A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, agroup of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intendedfor occupancy) as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are thosein which the occupants live separately from any other people in the buildingand which have direct access from the outside of the building or through acommon hall. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, twoor more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelatedpeople who share living arrangements.Persons per household, or averagehousehold size, is obtained by dividing the number of people in households bythe number of households. For the complete definition, go to ACS subject definitions "Average householdsize."
Source and Accuracy
This Fact is based on datacollected in the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Puerto Rico CommunitySurvey (PRCS) conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. A sample of over3.5 million housing unit addresses is interviewed each year over a 12 month period.This Fact (estimate) is based on five years of ACS and PRCS sample data anddescribes the average value of person, household and housing unitcharacteristics over this period of collection.
Statistics from all surveys aresubject to sampling and nonsampling error. Sampling error is the uncertaintybetween an estimate based on a sample and the corresponding value that would beobtained if the estimate were based on the entire population (as from acensus). Measures of sampling error are provided in the form of margins oferror for all estimates included with ACS and PRCS published products. TheCensus Bureau recommends that data users incorporate this information intotheir analyses, as sampling error in survey estimates could impact theconclusions drawn from the results. The data for each geographic area arepresented together with margins of error at Using margins of error. A more detailed explanationof margins of error and a demonstration of how to use them is provided below.
For more information on samplingand estimation methodology, confidentiality, and sampling and nonsamplingerrors, please see the Multiyear Accuracy (US) and the Multiyear Accuracy(Puerto Rico) documents at "Documentation - Accuracy of the data."
Margin of Error
As mentioned above, ACS estimatesare based on a sample and are subject to sampling error. The margin of errormeasures the degree of uncertainty caused by sampling error. The margin oferror is used with an ACS estimate to construct a confidence interval about theestimate. The interval is formed by adding the margin of error to the estimate(the upper bound) and subtracting the margin of error from the estimate (thelower bound). It is expected with 90 percent confidence that the interval willcontain the full population value of the estimate. The following example is fordemonstrating purposes only. Suppose the ACS reported that the percentage ofpeople in a state who were 25 years and older with a bachelor's degree was 21.3percent and that the margin of error associated with this estimate was 0.7percent. By adding and subtracting the margin of error from the estimate, wecalculate the 90-percent confidence interval for this estimate:
21.3% - 0.7% = 20.6% =>Lower-bound estimate
21.3% + 0.7% = 22.0% => Upper-bound estimate
Therefore, we can be 90 percentconfident that the percent of the population 25 years and older having abachelor's degree in a state falls somewhere between 20.6 percent and 22.0percent.
For this Fact, its estimates andmargins of error along with percents and percent margins of errors can be foundon American Community Survey, Data Profiles-Social Characteristics
More Information