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Data Dictionary: ACS 2013 (3-Year Estimates)
you are here: choose a survey survey data set table variable details
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Universe: Universe: Housing units
Variable Details
B99254. Imputation of Rooms
Universe: Universe: Housing units
B99254001Universe: Housing units
Percent base:
None - percentages not computed (variable is table universe)
Aggregation method:
Addition
Relevant Documentation:
Excerpt from: Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2013 3yr Summary File: Technical Documentation.
  ACS 2013-3yr Summary File: Technical Documentation -> Appendix A: Supplemental Documentation -> 2013 Subject Definitions -> Quality Measures -> Imputation Rates
Imputation Rates
Missing data for a particular question or item is called item nonresponse. It occurs when a respondent fails to provide an answer to a required item. The ACS also considers invalid answers as item nonresponse. The Census Bureau uses imputation methods that either use rules to determine acceptable answers or use answers from similar housing units or people who provided the item information. One type of imputation, allocation, involves using statistical procedures, such as within-household or nearest neighbor matrices populated by donors, to impute for missing values.

Overall Person Characteristic Imputation Rate - This rate is calculated by adding together the weighted number of allocated items across a set of person characteristics, and dividing by the total weighted number of responses across the same set of characteristics.

Overall Housing Characteristic Imputation Rate - This rate is calculated by adding together the weighted number of allocated items across a set of household and housing unit characteristics, and dividing by the total weighted number of responses across the same set of characteristics.

These rates give an overall picture of the rate of item nonresponse for a geographic area.


Excerpt from: Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2013 3yr Summary File: Technical Documentation.
  ACS 2013-3yr Summary File: Technical Documentation -> Appendix A: Supplemental Documentation -> 2013 Subject Definitions -> Housing Variables -> Rooms
Rooms
The data on rooms were obtained from Housing Question 7a in the 2013 American Community Survey. The question was asked at both occupied and vacant housing units. The statistics on rooms are in terms of the number of housing units with a specified number of rooms. The intent of this question is to count the number of whole rooms used for living purposes.

For each unit, rooms include living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, finished recreation rooms, enclosed porches suitable for year-round use, and lodger's rooms. Excluded are strip or pullman kitchens, bathrooms, open porches, balconies, halls or foyers, half-rooms, utility rooms, unfinished attics or basements, or other unfinished space used for storage. A partially divided room is a separate room only if there is a partition from floor to ceiling, but not if the partition consists solely of shelves or cabinets.

Rooms provide the basis for estimating the amount of living and sleeping spaces within a housing unit. These data allow officials to plan and allocate funding for additional housing to relieve crowded housing conditions. The data also serve to aid in planning for future services and infrastructure, such as home energy assistance programs and the development of waste treatment facilities.

Median Rooms
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This measure divides the room distribution into two equal parts: one-half of the cases falling below the median number of rooms and one-half above the median. In computing median rooms, the whole number is used as the midpoint of the interval; thus, the category "3 rooms" is treated as an interval ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 rooms. Median rooms is rounded to the nearest tenth. (For more information on medians, see the discussion under "Derived Measures.")

Aggregate Rooms
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Aggregate rooms is calculated by adding all of the rooms for housing units in an area. (For more information on aggregates, see "Derived Measures.")

Question/Concept History

The 1996-1998 American Community Survey question provided a space for a write-in entry on the number of rooms. From 1999-2007 the question provided response categories from "1 room" to "9 or more rooms." Starting in 2008, the response categories were removed and a write-in box was added for the respondent to enter the number of rooms. Additional changes introduced in 2008 included adding the word "separate" to the question stem, adding an instruction that defines a "room," adding an inclusion instruction to include bedrooms and kitchens in the count of rooms, and changing the current exclusion instruction by removing the word "half-room" and adding the phrase "unfinished basements."

Limitation of the Data

The Census Bureau tested the changes introduced to the 2008 version of the rooms question in the 2006 ACS Content Test. The results of this testing show that the changes may introduce an inconsistency in the data produced for this question as observed from the years 2007 to 2008, see "2006 ACS Content Test Evaluation Report Covering Rooms and Bedrooms" on the ACS website (http://www.census.gov/acs).

Comparability

Caution should be used when comparing American Community Survey data on rooms from the years 2008 and after with both pre-2008 ACS and Census 2000 data. Changes made to the rooms question between the 2007 and 2008 ACS involving the wording as well as the response option resulted in an inconsistency in the ACS data. This inconsistency in the data was most noticeable as an increase in "1 room" response and as a decrease in "2 rooms" to "6 rooms" responses.