As legally required, the Census Bureau has submitted an information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting approval to conduct the 2022 Content Test for the American Community Survey (ACS). It will be a field test of the wording, format, and placement of select revised questions and proposed new questions.
Existing topics that will be in the field test include: household roster; educational attainment; health insurance coverage; disability; labor force question series; income; and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The following three new proposed questions will be field tested:
- solar panels;
- electric vehicles; and
- sewage disposal.
OMB is currently accepting stakeholder comment on the proposed content test.
In our recent report, ACS: America’s Data at Risk, we concluded that the Bureau could consider enhancing “the utility of ACS data” by adding “new questions in two additional areas”: (1) “parental place of birth”; and (2) “sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations.” Using the “combined race/ethnicity question—with the addition of a MENA category— that were proposed and tested by the Census Bureau for the 2020 Census could also improve data quality.”