IPUMS
{{short description|World's largest individual-level population database}}
IPUMS, originally the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series,{{Cite web | url=https://www.ipums.org/mission-purpose/|title = IPUMS: Mission & Purpose}} is the world's largest individual-level population database. IPUMS consists of microdata samples from United States (IPUMS-USA) and international (IPUMS-International) census records, as well as data from U.S. and international surveys. The records are converted into a consistent format and made available to researchers through a web-based data dissemination and analysis system.{{Cite web | url=http://ipums.org/ |title = IPUMS}}
IPUMS is housed at the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation (ISRDI), an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Minnesota, under the direction of Professor Steven Ruggles.{{cite journal | author=Steven Ruggles |title=The Minnesota Population Center Data Integration Projects: Challenges of harmonizing census microdata across time and place|url=http://users.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/JSM2005-000189.pdf| journal=2005 Proceedings of the American Statistical Association. Government Statistics Section, Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association |pages= 1405–1415 }}
Description
IPUMS includes all persons enumerated in the United States Censuses from 1850 to 1950 (though, the 1890 census is missing because it was destroyed in a fire) and from the American Community Survey since 2000 and the Current Population Survey since 1962. IPUMS includes household-level data for United States Censuses from 1790 to 1840, due to the first six censuses only including the name of the head of household, with tallied household totals following.{{Cite web |title=IPUMS USA {{!}} U.S. 1790-1840 Complete Count Data |url=https://usa.ipums.org/usa/1790_1840_intro2.shtml |access-date=2022-05-29 |website=usa.ipums.org}} IPUMS provides consistent variable names, coding schemes, and documentation across all the samples, facilitating the analysis of long-term change.{{cite journal | author=Steven Ruggles |title=Big Microdata for Population Research |url=http://users.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Articles/Big_Microdata.pdf| journal=Demography |volume=51 |year=2014 |issue=1 |pages=287–297|doi=10.1007/s13524-013-0240-2 |pmid=24014182 |pmc=3949202 }}
IPUMS-International includes countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America for 1960 forward. The database currently includes more than a billion individuals enumerated in 365 censuses from 94 countries around the world.{{Cite web|url=https://international.ipums.org/international-action/sample_details|title=IPUMS-I: Sample Information|website=international.ipums.org|access-date=2019-02-26}} IPUMS-International converts census microdata for multiple countries into a consistent format, allowing for comparisons across countries and time periods. Special efforts are made to simplify use of the data while losing no meaningful information. Comprehensive documentation is provided in a coherent form to facilitate comparative analyses of social and economic change.{{cite journal | author=Steven Ruggles, Robert McCaa, Matthew Sobek, and Lara Cleveland |title= The IPUMS Collaboration: Integrating and Disseminating the World's Population Microdata |url=http://users.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Articles/JODE.pdf| journal=Journal of Demographic Economics |volume=81 |issue= 2 |year=2015 |pages=203–216|doi= 10.1017/dem.2014.6 |doi-access=free |pmid= 26236495 }}
Additional databases in the IPUMS family include the:
- North Atlantic Population Project (NAPP){{Cite web | url=https://www.nappdata.org/napp/ | title=North Atlantic Population Project}}
- IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS){{Cite web|url=https://www.nhgis.org/|title=IPUMS NHGIS|website=IPUMS NHGIS|language=en|access-date=2019-02-26}}
- IPUMS Health Surveys {{Cite web | url=https://www.ipums.org/healthsurveys.shtml |title = IPUMS Health Surveys}}
- IPUMS Global Health {{Cite web | url=https://www.ipums.org/globalhealth.shtml |title = IPUMS Global Health}}
- IPUMS Time Use {{Cite web | url=https://www.ipums.org/timeuse.shtml |title = IPUMS Time Use}}
The Journal of American History described the effort as "One of the great archival projects of the past two decades."{{cite journal | author=Joel Perlmann | title=IPUMS | journal=Journal of American History| volume=90 |year=2003 |pages=339–340| doi=10.2307/3659961 | jstor=3659961 }} Liens Socio, the French portal for the social sciences, gave IPUMS the only “best site” designation that has gone to any non-French website, writing “IPUMS est un projet absolument extraordinaire...époustouflante [mind-blowing]!” {{Cite web | url=https://www.liens-socio.org/ |title = Liens Socio}}
The official motto of IPUMS is "use it for good, never for evil."{{Cite web | url=https://usa.ipums.org/usa/ |title = Ipums USA}} All public IPUMS data and documentation are available online free of charge.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.ipums.org/}}
- [https://isrdi.umn.edu/ Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation]