Notice2026-09582
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; The American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS)
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 14, 2026
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 93 (Thursday, May 14, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 93 (Thursday, May 14, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27241-27242]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-09582]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; The American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community
Survey (PRCS)
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the
Federal Register on December 19, 2025, during a 60-day comment period.
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.
Title: The American Community Survey and the Puerto Rico Community
Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0810.
Form Number(s): ACS-1, ACS-1(SP), ACS-1(PR), ACS-1(PR)SP, ACS-
1(GQ), ACS-1(PR)(GQ), ACS Housing Unit internet questionnaire (no form
number), ACS nonresponse follow up CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal
Interview) electronic instrument (no form number), ACS Failed Edit
Follow up CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) electronic
instrument (no form number), ACS Telephone Questionnaire Assistance
CATI electronic instrument (no form number), ACS Group Quarters
internet listing instrument (no form number), ACS Group Quarters
Facility Questionnaire CAPI electronic instrument (no form number), ACS
Group Quarters internet electronic instrument (no form number), ACS
Group Quarters Resident CAPI electronic instrument (no form number),
and ACS Reinterview CATI/CAPI electronic instrument (no form number).
Type of Request: Regular submission. Request for a Revision of a
Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 3,576,000 for household respondents; 20,100
for facility contacts in group quarters; 158,680 people in group
quarters; 22,875 households for reinterview; and 1,422 group quarters
facility contacts for reinterview. The total estimated number of
respondents is 3,779,077.
Average Hours per Response: 40 minutes for the average household
questionnaire; 15 minutes for a group quarters facility contact
questionnaire; 25 minutes for a group quarters person questionnaire; 10
minutes for a household reinterview; 10 minutes for a group quarters
facility contact reinterview.
Burden Hours: 2,384,000 for household respondents; 5025 for
contacts in group quarters; 66,120 for group quarters residents; 3,813
households for reinterview; and 237 group quarters contacts for
reinterview. The estimate is an annual average of 2,459,195 burden
hours.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from
the OMB for revisions to the ACS. The ACS is one of the Department of
Commerce's most valuable data products, used extensively by businesses,
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local governments, and many
federal agencies. In conducting this survey, the Census Bureau's top
priority is respecting the time and privacy of the people providing
information while preserving its value to the public.
In 2027, the ACS plans to introduce an internet self-response
option to the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) data collection
operation. The Census Bureau believes there is value in offering an
internet self-response option to households and people living in
certain types of group quarters--college/university student housing,
group homes, military barracks, workers' group living quarters, and
emergency and transitional shelters in Puerto Rico.
ACS/PRCS Background
The Census Bureau developed the ACS/PRCS to collect and update
social, economic, housing and demographic data every year that were
previously collected once a decade as part of the decennial census. The
ACS/PRCS is an ongoing monthly survey that collects detailed housing
and socioeconomic data from about 3.54 million addresses in the United
States and about 36,000 addresses in Puerto Rico each year. The ACS
also collects detailed socioeconomic data from about 158,000 residents
living in group quarters facilities in the United States and about 680
in Puerto Rico. The ACS/PRCS is now the only source of comparable data
about social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics for
small areas and small subpopulations across the nation and in Puerto
Rico. Every community in the nation continues to receive a detailed,
statistical portrait of its social, economic, housing, and demographic
characteristics each year through one-year and five-year ACS/PRCS
products.
ACS Contact Strategies for Housing Units
To collect ACS data, the Census Bureau uses a well-researched mail
contact strategy to encourage self-response to the survey. For
addresses that were mailed survey materials but did not respond by
mail, internet, or by calling our telephone questionnaire assistance
line, the Census Bureau selects a subsample and assigns them to the
nonresponse follow-up data collection operation. Unmailable household
addresses are sampled and also included in the nonresponse follow-up
data collection operation.
To encourage self-response in the ACS, the Census Bureau sends up
to five mailings to housing units selected to be in the sample. The
first mailing, sent to all mailable addresses in the sample, includes
an invitation to
[[Page 27242]]
participate in the ACS online and states that a paper questionnaire
will be sent in a few weeks to those unable to respond online. The
second mailing is a letter that reminds respondents to complete the
survey online, thanks them if they have already done so, and informs
them that a paper questionnaire will be sent at a later date if the
Census Bureau does not receive their response. In a third mailing, the
paper questionnaire package is sent only to those sample addresses that
have not completed the online questionnaire within two and a half
weeks. The fourth mailing is a postcard that reminds respondents to
respond and informs them that an interviewer may contact them if they
do not complete the survey. A fifth mailing is a letter sent to
respondents who have not completed the survey within five weeks. This
letter provides a due date and reminds the respondents to complete
their survey to be removed from future contact. The Census Bureau will
ask those who fill out the survey online to provide an email address,
which will be used to send an email reminder to households that started
but did not complete the online form. The email reminder asks them to
log back in to finish responding to the survey. If the Census Bureau
does not receive a response, the address may be selected for
nonresponse follow-up data collection. An additional mailing is sent to
this sub-sample of addresses to encourage respondents to complete the
survey online to avoid an in-person interview. During nonresponse
follow-up interviews are collected by a trained Census Bureau
interviewer via telephone or personal visit using computer-assisted
interviewing technology.
Some addresses are deemed unmailable because the address is
incomplete or directs mail only to a post office box. The Census Bureau
currently collects data for these housing units using both online and
computer-assisted personal interviewing. A small sample of respondents
from the nonresponse follow-up data collection interview are
recontacted for quality assurance purposes.
PRCS Contact Strategies for Housing Units
The Census Bureau sends up to five mailings to a Puerto Rico
address selected to be in the sample for the Puerto Rico Community
Survey, following a similar methodology as used for the ACS. The first
mailing includes an invitation to participate in the PRCS online. The
second and fourth mailings serve as a reminder to respond to the
survey. The third mailing includes the paper questionnaire. A fifth
mailing is a letter sent to respondents who have not completed the
survey within five weeks. This letter provides a due date and reminds
the respondents to complete their survey to be removed from future
contact. The Census Bureau will ask those who fill out the PRCS online
to provide an email address, which will be used to send an email
reminder to households that started but did not complete the online
form. The reminder asks them to log back in to finish responding to the
survey. If the Census Bureau does not receive a response, the address
may be selected for nonresponse follow-up data collection. An
additional mailing is sent to this sub-sample of addresses to encourage
respondents to complete the survey online to avoid an in-person
interview. During nonresponse follow-up data collection interviews can
be collected by a trained Census Bureau interviewer via telephone or
personal visit using computer-assisted interviewing technology.
Puerto Rico addresses that are unmailable because the address is
incomplete or directs mail only to a post office box are collected by
computer-assisted personal interviewing. A small sample of respondents
from the nonresponse follow-up data collection interview are
recontacted for quality assurance purposes.
ACS/PRCS Contact Strategy for Group Quarters
The Census Bureau collects data for group quarters through personal
interview, online, or by paper. The Census Bureau first obtains
information about the group quarters facility by allowing the group
quarters contact to upload the roster of residents online or by
conducting a personal visit interview with a group quarters contact.
Once the interviewer obtains the roster of residents, they randomly
select residents for person-level interviews. For each sampled
resident, a Census Bureau interviewer collects the survey data via a
computer-assisted personal interviewing instrument. Interviewers also
have the option to distribute a paper questionnaire to residents for
self-response. Interviewers may also offer residents in some group
quarters facilities (such as college dorms) the option to self-respond
to the survey online. A small sample of respondents are recontacted for
quality assurance purposes.
Statistics produced from the American Community Survey may include
a combination of data collected on the survey from respondents as well
as administrative data from other sources.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Frequency: Monthly.
Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C. 141, 193, 221, and 223.
This information collection request may be viewed at
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>.
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB
Control Number 0607-0810.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Compliance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce.
[FR Doc. 2026-09582 Filed 5-13-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 14, 2026.
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