[CTPP] New report on (Bay Area) disability trends, based on the American Community Survey

TO: CTPP-News Listserv This item may be of interest to transportation planners interested in disability statistics from Census 2000 compared to the American Community Survey. The bottom line is that if you are interested in disability statistics, stick with data from the 2003-to-current ACS. The working paper also suggests other national databases that might provide useful information on national/statewide/metro area disability statistics. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has just released a report entitled "Disability in the San Francisco Bay Area: Comparing Data Between Census 2000 and the American Community Survey 2000-2004." The working paper is available here: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/datamart/census/Disability_BayArea_Work… The main MTC Census page is here: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/datamart/census/ MTC and ABAG staff will be working on a re-design of the Bay Area Census web site (http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/), to have page or pages devoted to American Community Survey analysis and issues. This is the very first in a long series of possible working papers and data summaries to be based on data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The abstract from this working paper discusses the purpose and intent of the study: As a characteristic of the general population, disability rates determined by the U.S. Census should not vary much year to year or survey to survey. This paper examines disability data from Census 2000 and the American Community Survey (ACS), years 2000-2004, for the 5 San Francisco Bay Area primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSA). For most of the PMSAs, statistically significant differences exist between Census 2000 and ACS disability data, particularly for the go-outside-home and employment disability items. Differences in sampling technique, sampling instruments, and information reporting between Census 2000 and ACS data that might account for this variation are discussed. Census 2000 data shows 1.1 million disabled persons (any type of disability) residing in the ninecounty Bay Area. This is 17.6 percent of the Bay Area's population (age 5+). This compares to the 2000 American Community Survey that shows 0.8 million disabled persons (13.1 percent) in the Bay Area. ************************************************************** Charles L. Purvis, AICP Principal Transportation Planner/Analyst Metropolitan Transportation Commission 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607-4700 (510) 817-5755 (office) [new, 8/1/05] (510) 817-7848 (fax) [new, 8/1/05] www: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/ Census WWW: http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/ **************************************************************