Easily Analyze Your Area in Both Standard and Nonstandard Geographies

Redlands, California—April 13, 2011—Today, Esri released its innovative American Community Survey (ACS) ACS Population Summary and ACS Housing Summary reports, containing data from the 2005–2009 ACS five-year period estimates. Esri added value to the ACS data by offering the data for nonstandard geographies and simplifying use of the ACS margin of error (MOE). The reports are available immediately to guest users and subscribers of Business Analyst Online (BAO).

Esri is offering the ACS data in geographies that are not supplied by the Census Bureau such as ZIP Codes and user-defined polygons, including drive times, rings, and custom trade areas. To do this, Esri's data development team created an algorithm to calculate the ACS MOE for these areas. "More than half of data users employ rings, drive times, and hand-drawn shapes," says Catherine Spisszak, Esri data product manager. "Esri is the only vendor to provide access to ACS data for these nonstandard geographies." Esri also provides the ACS data for standard census geographies such as states, counties, census tracts, and block groups.

To simplify understanding and use of the ACS data, Esri's data development team created a system of color-coded reliability symbols that quickly identify whether users can rely on the ACS sample estimate based on the size of the sampling error. "Our clients asked us to simplify using ACS data," says Spisszak. "Esri responded by adding easily understood symbols that alert users to the reliability of the estimates. This innovation eliminates the need for our clients to interpret the ACS MOE themselves and provides them with more accurate data for better business decisions."

Business Analyst Desktop users can access the ACS data by choosing the Show Online Reports option from Preferences. Business Analyst Server users can integrate the ACS data and reports instantly via the Business Analyst Online APIs.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.



Contact:

Matthew DeMeritt
Esri
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2930
E-mail: Email Contact