World's largest individual-level population database
IPUMS, originally the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series,[1] 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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4] IPUMS provides consistent variable names, coding schemes, and documentation across all the samples, facilitating the analysis of long-term change.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
Additional databases in the IPUMS family include the:
The Journal of American History described the effort as "One of the great archival projects of the past two decades."[13] 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]!” [14]
The official motto of IPUMS is "use it for good, never for evil."[15] All public IPUMS data and documentation are available online free of charge.
References
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