Inflation adjustment of multi-year ACS data

USA
1

Hi there, I found that some variables in the ACS multi-year data (such as INCTOT) are inflated to dollars for the last data year, and I want to know the exact numbers used to adjust them.

For example, 2017 ACS 5-year data has the INCTOT variable adjusted to have value of 2017 dollars for all multiyear observations, i.e. 2013-2017. Then I think the following may be executed to make the INCTOT variable:

2013 INCTOT * A = INCTOT (adjusted to have 2017 dollar value)
2014 INCTOT * B = INCTOT (adjusted to have 2017 dollar value)
2015 INCTOT * C = INCTOT (adjusted to have 2017 dollar value)
2016 INCTOT * D = INCTOT (adjusted to have 2017 dollar value)

The values of A, B, C, D are what I wish to find out.

2

Income variables for 5-year ACS data are adjusted for inflation in the original PUMS data that the Census Bureau releases; IPUMS does not make this adjustment. The index used for annual adjustment, the Consumer Price Index research series using current methods (CPI-U-RS), comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about this index and download a spreadsheet of average monthly and annual CPI-U-RS values on the BLS R-CPI-U-RS Homepage. Additionally, this CPI Research Series paper provides detailed information on how CPI-U-RS was constructed. Read more about inflation adjustment of multi-year samples starting on page 65 of the ACS Handbook.