API Format Changes: 2010 to 2014 ACS Estimates

[tyrauber]

About a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau began the process of centralizing all data in the Census API into a uniform and consistent format across all datasets and surveys. We are continuing with that transformation by releasing a more consistent format for 2010 to 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) estimates. We understand that standardization means changes for our developers, but the tradeoff will be greater data accessibility in an easier, more customer-focused experience.

We released new endpoints as a Beta to allow time for you to become familiar with the new format and adjust your programs to reflect these changes. Specifically, these endpoints now include annotation fields for all estimates. This will enable the estimates to be numeric and the character overrides will be stored in the corresponding annotation field. To accommodate this format change, the endpoints will change to add 'acs/' into the URI after the year. These changes are to the same format that data users are currently using to access the 2015 and 2016 ACS. The old endpoints will be removed on August 30th. Please reference our guide for specific examples located here:

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/data/developers/acs/acs-data-variables-guide.pdf