And you can find out how many people said In the published Census tables, you can get a count of how many The author’s Uncle Franco (Credit: Marissa Rozenfeld) I’ll also introduce you to the IPUMS online query tool, which isīy far the easiest way to work with the microdata. This is probably best explained with an example, and in so doing, Population Survey, if you ever need to work with that dataset. Provides the microdata for the March supplement of the Current You can also get larger PUMSįiles that match the ACS multi-year samples, and as a bonus, IPUMS also Person variables, and voilà, you will create estimates that are “weight”-when you run a query, multiply your counts byĮither the household weight for household variables or person weight for Single-year PUMS file contains 1,340,387 housing unit records, 2,992,629 person records from households, and 153,458 person records from group quarters. Going to work with the raw files, IPUMS provides tools for generating aĬlean import with labels attached to the values. The raw, it looks like this, but even if you’re Have individualized values for their person-level variables. Will have these household-level values repeated on their row, but will If there are four people living inĪn owner-occupied house with an estimated value of $250,000, all four Is repeated for all members of the household, and the second partĬontains responses pertaining to that person specifically. Record contains information about that person’s household, which The survey in anonymized form to protect the privacy of respondents.Įach record, as I said above, represents the responses to the Census ![]() With the PUMS file, you are getting the raw results of Survey-those published tables you get are based on a random sample of The American Community Survey is a sample Ok, I promise this is going to be relatively easy, but first bear with some of theĮxplanatory details. Provides some comfort, but gaining confirmation through interviews withĮxperts and people in the situation you’re analyzing, that’s With a sample survey like Census microdata. I advocate marrying data work with traditional reporting in almostĪll cases, but it’s especially important when you’re working You bear the responsibility for avoiding misleading conclusions based on Upfront-this estimate is pretty good, but that one, well, caveatĮmptor. Its own handy calculated confidence interval that tells you Smaller you slice the data, the larger your margin of error.īy contrast, each published table in the ACS comes with Single year of age-but doing so is usually not advisable because the Just because you can technically cross any andĪll variables doesn’t mean such a query makes analytical sense.įor example, the microdata allows you to crosstab any variable by a With these new powers comes additional journalistic responsibilities,Ĭomes without a governor. Have everything you need to recreate that table but with your own specs. Want to see what it looks like for Hispanic females aged 35-54, you now You’re looking at has a universe of adults aged 18-64, but you Individual observation, populated by column after column of responsesįor that person to Census questions. That’s because microdata isĪ person-level sample of the actual Census returns-each row is an Microdata empowers you to customize the ACS, creating your own tables More complicated analysis that required me to download the data and work ![]() Illustrate some of the pitfalls, and then close with an example of a ![]() Simple do-it-yourself example using the IPUMS online interface, I’ll introduce you to IPUMS, theįabulous and free toolset for working with microdata, walk you through a This article will show you how to get the most out of this valuable And thankfully again, the Minnesota PopulationĬenter has created free tools that make it much easier to work with PUMSĭata, either as a downloaded data file or via an online interface. In exactly the format you want-but there isn’t a comparable tableįor past years that you can use in a time series.Ĭensus Bureau has you covered through a data set called PUMS-the Public And sometimes, the table you want does exist Sometimes itĮxists, but isn’t broken down by age or race or gender the way Table you were hoping for doesn’t actually exist. ![]() Greater than the size of the Census code book. Tables, you soon discover that the nuances of demography are even With this much information, you would think you could find the answerīut as you grow more experienced working with the published Census Weighs in at 35,000 data line items spread across 1,500 subject tables The American Community Survey, for example, The first thing you probably notice about Census data is that
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