Description

RWATPR indicates whether the Puerto Rican housing unit had plumbing facilities with running water available to the occupants. Plumbing facilities, such as running water, provide an indication of living standards and assess the quality of household facilities within the housing inventory.

From 1996-2007, the American Community Survey contained stand-alone questions concerning whether the dwelling had complete plumbing facilities (hot and cold running water, a flush toilet, and a bathtub or shower), which required all three facilities be in the same dwelling unit. Starting in 2008, the questionnaire structure was altered to provide the respondent a checkbox for each component necessary for complete plumbing facilities as well as other kitchen facilities and telephone service.

However, research indicated that the questions on plumbing facilities that were introduced in 2008 in the stateside ACS and the Puerto Rico Community Survey may not have been appropriate for Puerto Rico. Since many Puerto Rican housing units do not possess running hot water facilities, a noticeable increase in housing units "lacking complete plumbing facilities" occurred following changes to the plumbing facilities question in 2008 and caused inconsistencies within the data.

Therefore in the 2013 PRCS, the plumbing facilities question's response options were altered such that the response "hot and cold running water" was changed to "running water" and an additional response option, "a water heater", was included to better assess the living standards and quality of household plumbing facility differences among Puerto Rican housing units.

Codes

This variable is not available for any of the currently selected samples.

Comparability

This variable is available in the PRCS beginning in 2013.

Caution should be used when comparing ACS data on plumbing facilities from the years 2008 and after with both pre-2008 ACS and Census 2000 data. Changes made to the plumbing facilities question between 2007 and 2008 ACS involving the wording as well as the response option resulted in an inconsistency in the ACS data. This inconsistency in the data was most noticeable as an increase in housing units "lacking complete plumbing facilities". See Description

Universe

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Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.