For the majority of
geographic areas, especially those expected to be undergoing continual
population growth or other demographic changes at a relatively steady
rate, it may be better to perform a linear regression on the annual ACS
data with respect to year, then interpolate or extrapolate to the year of
interest, than to average the annual ACS data. Obviously there are other
areas that have experienced significant discontinuities in population or
demographic characteristics for which this method would not be very reliable,
but then neither would using multi-year ACS averages.
Glen Ahlert
Director
Lee County MPO
(239) 338-2550 ext. 224