Organization and Description of Business (Details)	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020 Bed Property
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	166
Number of beds \| Bed	111,900
On-campus participating properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	6
Owned properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	10
Owned properties \| Off Campus Properties
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	126
Owned properties \| American Campus Equity
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of housing properties	34
Owned properties \| Under Development
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of beds \| Bed	11,300
Number of properties under development	3
Management And Leasing Services
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	35
Number of beds \| Bed	26,000
Investments in real estate, net
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	201
Number of beds \| Bed	137,900
Maximum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	5 years
Minimum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	1 year
AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITIES OPERATING PARTNERSHIP LP
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
General partner ownership interest (percent) less than	1.00%
Limited partner ownership interest (percent)	99.60%

Management and Leasing Services, Initial Term of Contract

No definition available.

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Namespace Prefix:	acc_
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Balance Type:	na
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- Definition

This element represents information pertaining to number of available beds.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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

- 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

Number of Real Estate Properties Under Construction

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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

- 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://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-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
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- Definition

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

+ References

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
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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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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- Details

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