Organization and Description of Business - Narrative (Details)	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2017 university_system Bed Property
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	160
Number of beds \| Bed	99,000
Minimum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	1 year
Maximum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	5 years
Wholly-owned properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of beds \| Bed	982
Wholly-owned properties \| Off Campus Properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	124
Wholly-owned properties \| On-campus participating properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	5
Wholly-owned properties \| Under Development
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of beds \| Bed	14,300
Management And Leasing Services
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	37
Number of beds \| Bed	29,700
Real Estate Investment
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	197
Number of beds \| Bed	128,700
AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITIES OPERATING PARTNERSHIP, L.P.
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Limited Partner ownership interest (percent)	99.20%
AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITIES OPERATING PARTNERSHIP, L.P. \| Maximum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
General Partner ownership interest (percent) (less than)	1.00%
Owned On Campus Properties \| American Campus Equity
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of housing properties	31
Number of university systems \| university_system	14
Owned On Campus Properties \| Under Development
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties under construction	19

Management and Leasing Services, Initial Term of Contract

No definition available.

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- Definition

This element represents information pertaining to number of available beds.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	acc_
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Balance Type:	na
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- Definition

This element represents the number of student housing properties.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	acc_NumberOfHousingProperties
Namespace Prefix:	acc_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

This element represents number of systems.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	acc_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
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- Definition

Number of Real Estate Properties Under Construction

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	acc_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
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- Definition

Percentage investment held by the managing member or general partner of the limited liability company (LLC) or limited partnership (LP).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 272
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6373374&loc=d3e70478-108055

+ Details

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Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage investment held by members or limited partners of limited liability company (LLC) or limited partnership (LP).

+ References

+ Details

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Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The number of real estate properties owned as of the balance sheet date.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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