Summary of the 2003 American Community Survey Data on Seasonality: An Analysis of Responses to Question 25

Kirsten West, U.S. Census Bureau
Jason Devine

This paper summarizes the frequency distribution of responses to Question 25 on the 2003 ACS questionnaire in order to learn more about the prevalence of seasonal residence and to examine the potential impact of counting people where they are living or staying for at least two months as opposed to counting people where they usually live or stay based on a six months criterion. While this measure underestimates the actual number of seasonal housing units (responses are obtained from occupied units), it serves as an indicator of the number of seasonal households captured in the ACS. For the 88 counties included in the analysis, this number is small, less than two percent on average.