Data status upon release refers to whether the data initially disseminated to the public are final data, or whether they are preliminary data and therefore subject to revision. Under the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS), the data identified as meeting the standard may be preliminary and thus subject to revision and designated as such. On the other hand, estimates that are not based on the data collected for a given reference period would not be considered preliminary and would not be in line with the SDDS specifications.