census/acs-state·Available

American Community Survey (ACS) State Population

The Census happens once every 10 years, but the American Community Survey fills in the gaps with yearly updates. This dataset shows how many people live in each state according to the ACS. Unlike the full Census headcount, the ACS surveys a sample of households and estimates the total from there. You can use this to see which states are growing or shrinking between the big Census years, though the numbers are estimates, not exact counts.

Published by CENSUSView source Source and methodology

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CSV: all rows from the default table.

Table filters, sorting and pagination are not included.

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Source and methodology

Publisher

CENSUS

government

Type: government
Scope: us federal
Updates: scheduled
License: License not specified

How this data is collected

Sampled from ~3.5 million households annually across all states.
5-year rolling average combines five years of survey data for stability.
Estimates can be revised as new survey data is collected and methods are refined.
5-year estimates released annually in December for the prior 5-year period.

What to watch out for

5-year estimates are averages of multiple years, so they lag behind current conditions
Population figures are estimates based on sampling, not exact counts like the decennial Census
Each estimate includes a margin of error that varies by state size and data reliability
Data does not include detailed demographic breakdowns (age, race, income, etc.); those require accessing additional ACS variables
Estimates for small geographic areas within states may have larger margins of error

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