Hi, my question seems fairly basic but I couldn’t find anything in the user forum to answer it. I am analyzing 2017 ACS Data (subsetted to only adults 18+) using R and am looking for clarification on the NA values.
It seems like INCTOT contains no NA values for 2017–is that correct? While I’m seeing no NA values for INCTOT, there seem to be 145,131 NA values for HHINCOME. What does that mean? Why are there NA values in HHINCOME?
Thanks!
Ellen
For the INCTOT variable, NA values indicate that the respondent does not meet the universe criteria—which in the 2017 ACS is any person 15 years or older. So, NAs should all be less than 15 years old. Note: There should be NA values (coded as 9999999) in the 2017 ACS. For the HHINCOME variable, NA values indicate that the entire household does not meet the universe criteria—which is all households not group quarters and no vacant units. So, all NAs should be either group quarters (see GQ) or vacant units.
Thank you! The reason I had no NAs for INCTOT was that I had already subsetted the data to those 18+.