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FW: crowding (AHS vs Decennial vs ACS)

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Since overcrowding is based on the ratio of persons to rooms, if there are
differences between the Census and AHS counts, those 2 variables would be
the first suspects.

The 2002 AHS counts of housing units (1.072M) and households (.999M) are
larger than the 2000 Census figures (1.040M and .995 respectively).
Looking at the distribution of rooms and persons shows very different
results from the 2 data collection efforts.

The 2000 Census had about 13 percent of all San Diego housing units as
containing only 1 or 2 rooms.  The corresponding figure from the 2002 AHS
was about 1 percent.

The 2000 Census had about 13 percent of households containing 5 or more
persons--the AHS had 11 percent.

So if the Census tended to record more persons and fewer rooms, while the
AHS tended to record more rooms and fewer persons, large differences in
counts of overcrowding could result.

It should be noted that the primary mandate of the Census is to count the
population while the AHS is a housing survey.  There are considerable
differences in the methodology and question wording between the 2 sets of
data.  It seems likely that these differences would account for at least
part of the discrepancy described.


----- Forwarded by Barbara T Williams/HHES/HQ/BOC on 02/06/2004 02:05 PM
-----
                ahslistserv@hudus
                er.org                   To:       Barbara.T.Williams@census.gov
                cc:
                02/03/2004 10:04         Subject:  FW: crowding (AHS vs Decennial vs ACS)
                AM
                Please respond to
                david_a._vandenbr
                oucke





From: American Housing Survey (AHS) ListServ <ahs@huduser.gov>

I'm forwarding the message below, sent to me by Erin Riches of the
California
Budget Project.  If you have any thoughts on this issue, please reply to
the
list (ahs@huduser.gov) so that we can all see it.  Notice that if you just
hit
"reply," your answer will go to me alone.

I am not including the attachment, to save disk space and bandwidth for
those
who aren't interested.  I'm sure Erin would be happy to send it anyone who
wants to see it.

Forwarded Message:

"Erin Riches" <eriches@cbp.org>

01/29/2004 03:15 PM

Hi Dav-

This may be a question for the listserv...a reporter pointed out this week
that
the 2000 Census data for at least some CA metro areas shows much higher
rates
of overcrowding than the 2002 AHS data, which I included in my housing
report
that was released yesterday.  An example of the differences for San Diego
is
attached.  Any thoughts?  I know that the ACS data generally came out
higher,
but ACS does individuals rather than households like AHS, so that made some
sense.  Not sure why 2000 Census would be so different?  Hard to believe
that
overcrowding has gone down that much in two years...

-Erin Riches
California Budget Project

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dav Vandenbroucke
Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890

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