Organization and Description of Business (Details)	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2020 Property Bed
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	10,500
Number of properties under development	3
Management And Leasing Services
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	35
Number of beds \| Bed	26,100
Investments in real estate, net
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Number of properties	201
Number of beds \| Bed	138,000
Minimum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	1 year
Maximum
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Initial term of contract	5 years
American Campus Communities Holdings, LLC \| AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITIES OPERATING PARTNERSHIP LP
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
General partner ownership interest (percent) less than	1.00%
American Campus Communities, Inc. \| AMERICAN CAMPUS COMMUNITIES OPERATING PARTNERSHIP LP
Real Estate Properties [Line Items]
Limited partner ownership interest (percent)	99.60%

Management and Leasing Services, Initial Term of Contract

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- Definition

This element represents information pertaining to number of available beds.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

This element represents the number of student housing properties.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Number of Real Estate Properties Under Construction

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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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://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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- Definition

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

+ References

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- Definition

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

+ References

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+ 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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