Definition of ACS Disabilities

Any Disability: The ACS definition of disability is based on six questions. A person is coded as having a disability if he or she or a proxy respondent answers affirmatively for one or more of the six disability types.

Hearing Disability (asked of all ages): Is this person deaf or does he/she have serious difficulty hearing?

Visual Disability (asked of all ages): Is this person blind or does he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?

Cognitive Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?

Ambulatory Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Does this person have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?

Self-care Disability (asked of persons ages 5 or older): Does this person have difficulty dressing or bathing?

Independent Living Disability (asked of persons ages 15 or older): Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?

Glossary of Terms

American Community Survey (ACS):

The ACS is a household survey developed by the Census Bureau to replace the long form of the decennial census program. The ACS is a large demographic survey collected throughout the year using mailed questionnaires, internet responses,telephone interviews, and visits from Census Bureau field representatives to about 3.5 million household addresses annually. Starting in 2005, the ACS produces social, housing, and economic characteristic data for demographic groups in areas with populations of 65,000 or more. The ACS also accumulates sample over 5-year intervals to produce estimates for smaller geographic areas, including census tracts and block groups. The estimates provided in this report are based on these 5 year samples unless otherwise noted as many counties and municipios have populations less than 65,000. For more information regarding the ACS see: About the American Community Survey

Base Population:

The estimated number of individuals upon which the calculation is based. (For percentages, this is the denominator).

Educational Attainment:

Is based on the responses to the question: "What is the highest degree or level of school this person has completed? If currently enrolled, mark the previous grade or highest degree received." Our category "high school diploma/equivalent" includes those marking the ACS option "Regular high school diploma — GED or alternative credential." The category "Some college/Associate's degree" includes those marking the ACS options: some college credit, but less than 1 year of college credit; one or more years of college credit but no degree, or "Associate's degree (for example: AA, AS)." The category "a Bachelor's or more" includes those marking the ACS options: "Bachelor's degree (for example: BA, BS)"; "Master's degree (for example: MA, MS, MEng, MEd, MSW, MBA)"; "Professional degree (for example: MD, DDS, DVM, LLB, JD)"; or "Doctorate degree (for example: PhD, EdD)."

Employment:

A person is considered employed if he or she is either: “at work”: those who did any work at all during the reference week as a paid employee (worked in his or her own business or profession, worked on his or her own farm, or worked 15 or more hours as an unpaid worker on a family farm or business) or “with a job but not at work”: had a job but temporarily did not work at that job during the reference week due to illness, bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation or other personal reasons. The reference week is defined as the week preceding the date the questionnaire was completed.

Employment Rate:

The employment rate is calculated by dividing the number of persons employed by the number of persons in that population.

Note that the unemployment rate cannot be calculated using the employment rate

• The employment rate is the percentage of all persons who have a job.
• The unemployment rate is the percentage of persons in the labor force who do not have a job but are actively looking for work. The labor force includes people who have a job, are on layoff, or who actively searched for work in the last four weeks.

Please see an explanation on unemployment rate for more information on unemployment rate calculation and its implications.

Hispanic or Latino Origin:

People of Hispanic or Latino origin are those who classify themselves in a specific Hispanic or Latino category in response to the question, "Is this person Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?" Specifically, those of Hispanic or Latino origin are those who are Cuban; Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano; Puerto Rican; or other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino. Origin may be the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.

Margin of Error (MOE):

Data, such as data from the American Community Survey, is based on a sample, and therefore statistics derived from this data are subject to sampling variability. The margin of error (MOE) is a measure of the degree of sampling variability. In a random sample, the degree of sampling variation is determined by the underlying variability of the phenomena being estimated (e.g., income) and the size of the sample (i.e., the number of survey participants used to calculate the statistic). The smaller the margin of error, the lower the sampling variability and the more "precise" the estimate. A margin of error is the difference between an estimate and its upper or lower confidence bounds. Confidence bounds are calculated by adding the MOE to the estimate (upper bound) and subtracting the MOE from the estimate (lower bound). All margins of error in this report are based on a 90 percent confidence level. This means that there is a 90% certainty that the actual value lies somewhere between the upper and lower confidence bounds.

Poverty Rate:

The poverty measure is computed based upon the standards defined in Directive 14 from the Office of Management and Budget. These standards use poverty thresholds created in 1982 and index these thresholds to 2023 dollars using poverty factors based upon the Consumer Price Index. They use the family as the income sharing unit and family income is the sum of total income from each family member living in the household. The poverty threshold depends upon the size of the family; the age of the householder; and the number of related children under the age of 18.

Prevalence Rate:

The percentage or number of persons reporting disabilities. The percentage (prevalence rate) is calculated by dividing the number of people reporting a disability by the total number of people in that population (base population).

Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS):

The PRCS is a household survey developed by the Census Bureau to replace the long form of the decennial census program. The PRCS is very similar to the ACS with a few minor differences (see HOW IS THE PRCS DIFFERENT FROM THE ACS? for differences between the two). The PRCS is a large demographic survey collected throughout the year using mailed questionnaires, telephone interviews, and visits from Census Bureau field representatives to about 36,000 household addresses in PR annually. Starting in 2005, the PRCS produces social, housing, and economic characteristic data for demographic groups in areas with populations of 65,000 or more. The PRCS also accumulates sample over 5-year intervals to produce estimates for smaller geographic areas, including census tracts and block groups. The estimates provided in this report are based on these 5 year samples unless otherwise noted as many municipios have populations less than 65,000. For more information on the PRCS see: Understanding and Using Puerto Rico Community Survey Data: What All Data Users Need to Know

Race:

Race categories are based on the question, "[w]hat is this person's race? Mark (X) one or more races to indicate what this person considers himself/herself to be." Responses include the following: White; Black or African-American; American Indian or Alaska Native (print name of enrolled or principal tribe); Asian Indian; Chinese; Filipino; Japanese; Korean; Vietnamese; Other Asian (Print Race); Native Hawaiian; Guamanian or Chamarro; Samoan; Other Pacific Islander (Print Race Below); Some other race (print race below). "Other race" also contains people who report more than one race.