Social Science Data and Software (SSDS) Blog: Data Archives

October 27, 2011

From US Census Bureau - Release of 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year Estimates

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2008-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 3-Year Estimates, the most
relied-upon source for up-to-date socioeconomic information every year. The release covers more than 40 topics,
such as educational attainment, income, health insurance coverage, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity,
ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. The estimates are available in detailed tables for the nation, all
50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all
counties and places with populations of 20,000 or more.

Beginning in 2008, the ACS questionnaire included new questions about marital history, disability, health insurance,
and service-connected disability-rating status and ratings for civilian veterans. The 2008-2010 ACS 3-Year Estimates will
be the first 3-year dataset to include this new content. To learn more about these tables, and other data product
changes, please visit our 2010 Data Product Changes page.

To find statistics for your area, visit the Census Bureau's American FactFinder.
To learn more about this release, visit our 2010 Data Release page.

If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.

Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau

Posted by ronbo at 08:29 PM

October 20, 2011

From US Census Bureau - 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year PUMS

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Public Use Microdata Sample
(PUMS) files. PUMS files from the ACS show the full range of population and housing unit responses
collected on individual ACS questionnaires. These files enable users to design tabulations that aggregate responses
differently than the published data products.

The PUMS files contain records for a subsample of ACS housing units and group quarters persons. As required by federal law,
the confidentiality of ACS respondents is protected through a variety of steps to disguise or suppress original data while
making sure the results are still useful. In addition to modifying the individual records, respondents' confidentiality is
protected because only large geographic areas are identified in the PUMS. To read more about how the PUMS files are created,
browse code lists, and look-up subjects in the PUMS, please visit the PUMS Documentation Page.

The PUMS data is accessible now via the FTP site. Links can be found on our PUMS Data Page.
On October 27, 2011 the data will also be accessible via American FactFinder.

If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.

Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau

Posted by ronbo at 07:05 PM

From US Census Bureau - Two New American Community Survey Briefs

We are pleased to announce the release of two new briefs in the American Community Survey Briefs series.
These short reports focus on specific topics related to the American Community Survey, supplementing detailed
tables with additional analysis on two key topics.The two new briefs released are described below.

Public Assistance Receipt in the Past 12 Months for Households: 2009 and 2010.
This brief, based on the 2009 and 2010 American Community Survey results, notes geographic differences in the
distribution of public assistance as well as change between 2009 and 2010.

Poverty: 2009 and 2010.
This brief, based on the 2009 and 2010 American Community Survey results, compares poverty rates for the nation,
states, and large metropolitan statistical areas. The report also summarizes the distributions of income-to-poverty
ratios for states and the District of Columbia.

The next release in the series is scheduled for November.

If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.

Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau

Posted by ronbo at 07:01 PM

October 11, 2011

From IASSIST list: Announcing a new release for the Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) at the MPC

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the October 11, 2011 update of the popular IHIS.
The Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) at www.ihis.us now includes 12,000 integrated health-related variables for 1963-2010. The lastest IHIS data release has added data from 2010 and includes material from the historical public use files from 1963 to 1968. IHIS is a consistently-coded version of nationally-representative data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey and is available for free over the Internet. Along with socioeconomic and demographic variables, IHIS includes data on a wide range of physical and mental health conditions, health behaviors (including alcohol and tobacco use), health care use and access, and activity limitations for the non-insitutionalized U.S. population (children and adults). Researchers can analyze these data using an online tabulator or can make a customized data extract with just years and variables needed for their research project and analyze the data using a statistical package.

--
Wendy L. Thomas
Data Access Core Director
Minnesota Population Center

Posted by ronbo at 06:02 PM

September 27, 2011

From Eurobarometer List: Eurobarometer online access via ZACAT

we are pleased to announce the end of the temporarily reduced availability of recent Eurobarometer through the GESIS online data catalogue ZACAT. Again ALL available and officially released STANDARD & SPECIAL EUROBAROMETER primary data (and related documentation) can be accessed at:

http://zacat.gesis.org/

For information on current embargo provisions please see:

http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer/data-access/embargo-provisions/

Apologizing once more any inconvenience in the past and with kind regards

Meinhard Moschner

GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Dept. Data Archive for the Social Sciences (DAS)

Posted by ronbo at 06:00 PM

September 23, 2011

From US Census Bureau - Census Bureau Releases 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates

We are pleased to announce the release of the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Estimates, the most relied-on
source for up-to-date socioeconomic information every year. The release covers more than 40 topics, such as
educational attainment, income, health insurance coverage, occupation, language spoken at home, nativity,
ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs.

Due to a technical issue, a limited number of products for smaller geographic areas are not available through American
FactFinder at this time. However, all Detailed Tables are accessible in the ACS Summary File, through the Census Bureau’s FTP site. Working with the ACS Summary File requires computer expertise. Technical documentation is available here.
Data users who are not able to access the Summary File can contact the American Community Survey Office at
(301) 763-1405 or acso.users.support@census.gov.

The Census Bureau will release the full set of ACS products for all areas of 65,000 or more in American FactFinder on
September 27. Estimates will be available in detailed tables for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
every congressional district, every metropolitan area, and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more.

See the Census Bureau's American FactFinder to find statistics for your area.

Important release information can be found on our 2010 Data Release page.

In addition, the Census Bureau released today a set of American Community Survey Briefs.
These short reports supplement detailed tables with additional analysis on four key topics.

These include the following:
• Health Insurance Coverage of Workers Aged 18 to 64, by Work Experience: 2008 and 2010
• Employment/Population Ratios for the 50 Largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas: 2008, 2009, and 2010
• Household Income for States: 2009 and 2010
• The Foreign Born From Latin America and the Caribbean: 2010

If you need information or have questions about the survey, please call our Customer Services Center on 1 (800) 923-8282.

Thank you,
American Community Survey Office
U.S. Census Bureau

Posted by ronbo at 09:28 AM

June 13, 2011

From US Census Bureau - DataFerret expands support for the 2005-2009 ACS 5-Year Summary File

The Census Bureau has released an updated Beta version of DataFerrett. The updated Beta version of DataFerrett offers several new features, including access to additional summary levels from the 2005-2009 5-year ACS Summary File.

For more information, please visit the ACS Data Release page.

Posted by ronbo at 07:04 PM

April 11, 2011

From IES Newsflash - Special Session of the NAEP/NIES Database Training Seminars for Research on American Indian/Alaska Native Students

To encourage research on American Indian and Alaska Native students, NCES will conduct a two and a half day advanced studies seminar on the use of its databases for education research and policy analysis on American Indian and Alaska Native students. This seminar, sponsored by the Office of Indian Education, will focus primarily on the National Indian Education Study (NIES), a supplemental study conducted as a part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2005 and 2007.

In addition, NCES collected education data on American Indian/Alaska Native students as a special study in other survey programs: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) and the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Although the primary focus of this seminar is NAEP, the participants will also be given a brief overview of the other NCES surveys that collect education data on American Indian/Alaska Native students.

At the conclusion of the seminar, participants will submit a summary of a study design that uses NAEP/NIES data, including a clear specification of study issues, the rationale for the study, the study approach (specifications of population, variables, etc.), and preliminary analysis results, if available.

Application deadline is April 30. The seminar will be held in Arlington, VA, from June 28 through June 30, 2011. There is no fee to attend this seminar; NCES will also pay for transportation, hotel accommodations, and a fixed per diem for meals and incidental expenses during the training seminar.

For full information on this seminar, see
http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=812&cid=2.

For information on the National Indian Education Study (NIES), see
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/

NAEP is a product of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

Posted by ronbo at 09:48 PM

From IES Newsflash - 2011 Training Seminar for Schools and Staffing Survey

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will sponsor a two and a half day seminar (July 12-14, 2011) on using the Schools and Staffing Survey, the Teacher Follow-up Survey, and the Principal Follow-up Survey.

Deadline for applications: June 7, 2011.

There is no fee to attend this seminar. NCES will provide training materials as well as computers for hands-on practice. For out-of-town participants, NCES will also pay for transportation, hotel accommodations, and a fixed per diem for meals and incidental expenses incurred during the training seminar.

For more information, please go to
http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=820&cid=2

The National Center for Education Statistics is in the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

Posted by ronbo at 07:53 PM

April 06, 2011

From IES Newsflash - NCES is sponsoring a three-day seminar on the use of the new High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, (HSLS:2009) database

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is sponsoring a three-day advanced studies seminar on the use of the new High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, (HSLS:2009) database on July 19-21, 2011. The data capture the coursework, experiences, activities, plans, motivations, and performance in algebra of a nationally representative sample of ninth graders, as well as the influences of schools, teachers, friends, and family in students’ decision-making about courses, college, and careers, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Advanced graduate students and faculty members from colleges and universities nationwide, and researchers, education practitioners, and policy analysts from federal, state, and local education, human services agencies, and professional associations are invited to apply.

There is no fee to attend this seminar. NCES will provide training materials as well as computers for hands-on practice. For out-of-town participants, NCES also will pay for transportation, hotel accommodations, and a fixed per diem for meals and incidental expenses during the training seminar.

Deadline for applications: June 30, 2011.

For more information or to register, please visit
http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=816&cid=2

To learn more about HSLS:09 and to view HSLS:09 data products and reports, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/.

The National Center for Education Statistics is in the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

Posted by ronbo at 04:33 PM

From IES Newsflash - NCES is sponsoring a three-day seminar on the use of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) database

Using the ECLS-B Database for Research and Policy Discussion (ECLS-B Database Training)

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is sponsoring a three-day advanced studies seminar on the use of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) database, on June 1-3, 2011. The ECLS-B is designed to support research on a wide range of topics pertaining to young children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development and their health status across multiple contexts (e.g., home, child care, kindergarten).

Deadline for applications: April 29, 2011

For more information or to register, please visit
http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=817&cid=2

To learn more about the ECLS-B and to view reports and products using ECLS-B data, please visit http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/birth.asp.

The National Center for Education Statistics is in the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

Posted by ronbo at 04:31 PM

March 23, 2011

From US Census Bureau - ACS Federal Register Notice Requests Comments

The U.S Census Bureau has published a notice in the Federal Register that invites the public to comment through May 9, 2011 on the continuation of the American Community Survey information collection.

If you would like to comment, a copy of the Federal Register notice can be accessed via the Internet at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/operations_and_administration/

We look forward to providing you up-to-date information about the ACS program and future data releases.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 03:45 PM

March 02, 2011

From ICPSR: Webinar on data management plans available for viewing

ICPSR's second webinar on data management plans (WMV 51MB) presented by Amy Pienta, director of data acquisitions, is now available for viewing. Slides (PPT 1.6MB) are also available.

Held Feb. 17, the session updated the ICPSR webinar on the same topic held in January. The topic has received significant attention in recent months, as the National Science Foundation announced last year that it would require data management plans with all grant applications for projects that will produce data.

The ICPSR webinar covered the following issues:

* ICPSR’s data management plan Web site
* Suggested elements of a data management plan
* Examples of data management plan language
* Designating ICPSR as an Archive in a data management plan
* Additional resources for preparing a data management plan.

Pienta also answers questions from previous webinar participants on her blog.

Posted by ronbo at 09:21 PM

From US Bureau of Economic Analysis: Gross Domestic Product, 4th Quarter and Annual 2010 (second estimate)

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.6 percent. Full Text

Posted by ronbo at 09:12 PM

From US Bureau of Economic Analysis: GDP by Metropolitan Area, Advance 2009, and Revised 2001 - 2008

Real U.S. GDP by metropolitan area declined 2.4 percent in 2009 after declining 0.4 percent in 2008, according to new statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The economic decline was widespread as real GDP declined in 292 of 366 (80 percent) metropolitan statistical areas, led by national declines in durable-goods manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services. Full Text

Posted by ronbo at 09:10 PM

January 27, 2011

From DataFerrett list - New Census Bureau DataFerrett release

We are happy to announce a new release of DataFerrett on January 27th, 2011.

It is now available via a webpage applet at: http://dataferrett.census.gov/

This release is largely being done in support of the American Community Survey (ACS) Summary Files for the 5-Year data which will be available on January 31st (with 1 and 3 year data forthcoming), and will include numerous detailed geographies down to the block-group level.

This release includes many new features as well as datasets, and is easier to update for security purposes, bug fixes and new feature additions. The new system has enhanced security in place - it is a signed applet meaning users will have to accept a VeriSign Certificate to use the software.

Note, the old DataFerrett Application accessed via your desktop will no longer be supported. However, any saved DataFerrett databaskets (.fsf files) or tables (.ftf files) created using the application or beta version of the applet will still be accessible for use.

Please direct any inquiries, feedback, or requests for new features to our team by replying to this email announcement, or you can email us directly at dsd_ferrett@census.gov or call us at 1-866-437-0171.

Cavan Capps
DataFerrett/DataWeb Project Lead
U.S. Census Bureau

Posted by ronbo at 06:02 PM

From the American National Election Study (ANES) list: The Online Commons Comments Period Has Begun

Between now and February 1, we ask that you make a small, but important contribution to the quality of the 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study by offering advice that we and the proposals' authors can use to increase the effectiveness of our questionnaires. We are most interested in comments that can increase the range of hypothesis tests in which particular questions can be used.

Please note that at the conclusion of the one-week comment period, proposal authors will then have an additional week to revise their proposals in response to any comments that you offer. (Proposal authors can submit revisions, even if no comments are made.) If you can comment on even one of these proposals, it will help a great deal. The ANES PIs and ANES Board will make extensive use of your comments when they select questions for inclusion on the surveys.

All comments must be made through the Online Commons. If you would like to make a comment and are not yet an OC member, signing up is easy. All it takes is filling out a simple form.

The new 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study has the potential to help scholars examine electoral dynamics in an unprecedented way. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to make a productive contribution to the development of the ANES surveys.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by ronbo at 05:13 PM

January 11, 2011

From US Census Bureau - Release of the 2007-2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 3-year Estimates on American FactFinder

The U.S Census Bureau announces the release of the 2007-2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 3-year estimates on American FactFinder. This release covers the same topics included in the previously released 2009 ACS 1-year estimates. The 2007-2009 ACS estimates have a 3-year time frame and are only available for areas with populations of 20,000 or more.

You can access the newly-released data on American FactFinder at: 2007-2009 ACS 3-year data

If you would like more information and supporting documentation for this data release please visit the ACS web site at: www.census.gov/acs

We look forward to providing you up-to-date information about the ACS program and future data releases. If you do not want to receive updates about the ACS, or if you want to receive updates only for particular topics, please use the “Unsubscribe” or “Manage Preferences” links below.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 02:41 PM

January 10, 2011

ANES announcement: Third Wave Deadlines for the ANES 2010-2012 EGSS

The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study

January 6, 2011

There are only 21 days left to propose questions for inclusion on the third wave of The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study.

Proposals will be accepted until 3:00p.m. EST, January 26, 2011. The deadline for members of the Online Commons community to comment on proposals will be February 1, 2011. The deadline for revisions to proposals will be end at 3:00p.m. EST on February 9, 2011. For additional information about how to submit a proposal, please visit: http://www.electionstudies.org/

Proposals may be submitted through the ANES Online Commons. The following describes the goals of this study and proposal process.

About The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study

The overarching theme of the surveys is citizen attitudes about government and society. These Internet surveys represent the most cost-effective way for the ANES user community to gauge political perceptions during one of the most momentous periods in American history. Aside from the historic nature of the current administration and the almost unprecedented economic crisis facing the country, we believe it is imperative that researchers assess attitudes about politics and society in the period leading up to the 2012 national elections. Potential topics include: attitudes about the performance of the Obama administration on the major issues of the day, evaluations of Congress and the Supreme Court, identification with and attitudes about the major political parties, and levels of interest in and engagement with national politics. This is primarily because these perceptions are unmistakably correlated with both presidential vote choice and levels of political participation. We intend to measure each of these topics at multiple points throughout the two-year period preceding the 2012 elections. In addition to these subjects, we envision that each of these surveys would explore a particular aspect of these political perceptions.

This Study includes five rolling cross-section waves that will allow us the opportunity to pilot new items for possible inclusion on the 2012 time series. Proposals for the first two waves of the study were accepted earlier this year. The first wave of the study was conducted in October 2010; the second wave will be conducted in the Spring of 2011.

We are currently accepting proposals for the final three waves of the study. Wave 3 will be conducted in late 2011. Wave 4 will be conducted earlier in 2012 and the final wave will be in the field in the middle of 2012. For the timelines and deadlines for the three waves, please see http://electionstudies.org/studypages/2010_2012EGSS/2010_2012EGSScalendar.htm.

By offering multiple opportunities for the user community to place their items on one or more surveys, we will provide the capacity to survey on a diverse set of topics that are relevant to a wide set of research communities. Lastly, the flexibility of these surveys as to both content and timing will allow the ANES to respond promptly to emerging political issues in this volatile period in our country's history.

About the Online Commons

The design of the questionnaires for The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study will evolve from proposals and comments submitted to the Online Commons (OC). The OC is an online system designed to promote communication among scholars and to yield innovative proposals about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships. The goal of the OC is to improve the quality and scientific value of ANES data collections, to encourage the submission of new ideas, and to make such experiences more beneficial to and enjoyable for investigators. In the last study cycle, more than 700 scholars sent over 200 proposals through the Online Commons.

Proposals for the inclusion of questions must include clear theoretical and empirical rationales. All proposals must also clearly state how the questions will increase the value of the respective studies. In particular, proposed questions must have the potential to help scholars understand the causes and/or consequences of turnout or candidate choice.

For more information about the criteria that will be used to evaluate proposals, please see http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/2010_2012EGSS/2010_2012EGSScriteria.htm.

For additional information on how to submit a proposal, please see http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons/proposalsubmit.htm.

Posted by ronbo at 09:35 PM

January 05, 2011

From US Census Bureau - Proposed Public User Microdata Area (PUMA) Criteria and Guidelines

The Census Bureau has announced the publication of the "Proposed Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) Criteria and Guidelines for the 2010 Census and American Community Survey," available on the Census Bureau’s website at http://www.census.gov/geo/puma/puma2010.html. The Census Bureau's 2010 PUMAs will be used to present 2010 Census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data, American Community Survey (ACS) PUMS data, and ACS estimates.

The Census Bureau is seeking public comment on these proposed criteria and guidelines. Information about the history of PUMAs, as well as summaries of the proposed changes, are available on the Census Bureau's website at http://www.census.gov/geo/puma/puma2010.html.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 03:38 PM

December 15, 2010

From US Census Bureau - Census Bureau Interactive Map Widget

The Census Bureau is using digital outreach to take advantage of America's focus on the upcoming release of apportionment data. Please be sure to visit the Bureau's interactive map widget that enables users to view the history of apportionment and our country’s changing population through the past century. The widget can be embedded on your website and will be updated when the 2010 data is released.

Posted by ronbo at 07:02 PM

November 23, 2010

From ANES (American National Election Study) - The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study

As of November 23, 2010, the American National Election Studies will be accepting proposals for questions to include on the last 3 waves of our new series of studies — The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society. Proposals may be submitted through the ANES Online Commons. The following describes the goals of this study and proposal process.

About The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study
The overarching theme of the surveys is citizen attitudes about government and society. These Internet surveys represent the most cost-effective way for the ANES user community to gauge political perceptions during one of the most momentous periods in American history. Aside from the historic nature of the current administration and the almost unprecedented economic crisis facing the country, we believe it is imperative that researchers assess attitudes about politics and society in the period leading up to the 2012 national elections. Potential topics include: attitudes about the performance of the Obama administration on the major issues of the day, evaluations of Congress and the Supreme Court, identification with and attitudes about the major political parties, and levels of interest in and engagement with national politics. This is primarily because these perceptions are unmistakably correlated with both presidential vote choice and levels of political participation. We intend to measure each of these topics at multiple points throughout the two-year period preceding the 2012 elections. In addition to these subjects, we envision that each of these surveys would explore a particular aspect of these political perceptions.

About the Online Commons
The design of the questionnaires for The 2010-2012 Evaluations of Government and Society Study will evolve from proposals and comments submitted to the Online Commons (OC). The OC is an online system designed to promote communication among scholars and to yield innovative proposals about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships. The goal of the OC is to improve the quality and scientific value of ANES data collections, to encourage the submission of new ideas, and to make such experiences more beneficial to and enjoyable for investigators. In the last study cycle, more than 700 scholars sent over 200 proposals through the Online Commons.

For more information about the criteria that will be used to evaluate proposals, please see http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/2010_2012EGSS/2010_2012EGSScriteria.htm.

For additional information on how to submit a proposal, please see http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons/proposalsubmit.htm.

Posted by ronbo at 03:58 PM

From ANES (American National Election Study) - ANES announces Panel Recontact dataset

We are pleased to announce the preliminary release of data from the ANES 2010 Panel Recontact study. This survey, conducted on the Internet in June 2010, was a followup interview with members of the panel that participated in the 21-month ANES 2008-2009 Panel Study. The questionnaire adds a time point for many questions previously asked on the panel study, as well as covering important new topics, such as economic peril and economic performance, housing security, economic policy, and personality.

Download the data and questionnaire here:

http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/2010panel_recontact/2010panel_recontact.htm

American National Election Studies
www.electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 03:55 PM

November 19, 2010

From US Census Bureau - Re-release of the 2005-2007 and 2006-2008 ACS 3-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Files

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the re-release of the 2005-2007 and 2006-2008 ACS 3-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Files.

You may access the new files at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/pums_data/

For information concerning the re-release, please see Errata Notes #64 and #65.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/errata/

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 01:06 PM

November 14, 2010

From Social Explorer (11/5/2010) - Election Data Roundup

by Sydney Beveridge

As candidates, voters and pundits continue to celebrate, mourn and scrutinize this week’s election, Social Explorer can add context to the discussion.

For example, data reveal a spectrum of economic indicators in districts that Republican candidates picked up this year. Social Explorer lets users investigate American Community Survey (ACS) data by congressional district to learn more about the places where these changes occurred.

[Read more]

Posted by ronbo at 02:15 PM

November 03, 2010

From US Census Bureau - 2009 ACS 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Files Now Available

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the release of the 2009 ACS 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files today. The PUMS files are individual-level datasets that ACS data users can download and analyze on their own computers.

You can access the 2009 ACS 1-year PUMS files at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/public_use_microdata_sample/

We look forward to providing you up-to-date information about the ACS program and future data releases.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 02:47 PM

October 13, 2010

From IPUMS Project: IPUMS-CPS 2010 Update

Dear IPUMS-CPS user,

The IPUMS-CPS project (http://cps.ipums.org/cps) is pleased to announce the addition of the 2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) public-use file to the data series. The database now includes the March supplements from 1962 onwards and adds several sources of data that must otherwise be merged manually at considerable effort: the replicate weights for more precise variance estimation; the experimental alternative poverty measures created by the Census Bureau; and the summary enhanced health insurance variables created at the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center, which are available only in IPUMS-CPS.

Additionally, the IPUMS-CPS interface has been improved. It is now easier to browse and select data in one step, and the overall process of making an extract has been streamlined.

As always, we welcome your feedback and questions.

Regards,

The IPUMS Team

Posted by ronbo at 01:38 PM

October 12, 2010

From US Census Bureau - 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) Brief Series

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the release of twelve more reports from the American Community Survey (ACS) Brief series for 2009. These short reports cover a wide range of topics including public transportation usage, population with Haitian ancestry in the United States, rental housing market conditions, and science and engineering degrees. An initial set of seven reports was released on Sept. 28, 2010.

You can access all reports at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data_documentation/ACS_briefs/

Posted by ronbo at 01:51 PM

October 11, 2010

From Social Explorer (10/11/2011)- New Detailed Religion Data Now Available on Social Explorer

by Sydney Beveridge

Social Explorer users now have access to new and detailed religion demographics from infoGROUP’s American Church List (ACL) data for 2009. The ACL provides the most complete and accurate database of churches and religious associated businesses with approximately 350,000 houses of worship.

The data includes over 20 groups and 230 denominations, and are viewable by religious tradition or family. The reports offer a detailed breakdown of each religion, such as this table for Jewish congregations and adherents in New York County (Manhattan).

[ full article ]

Posted by ronbo at 05:56 PM

October 05, 2010

From NewsBreak - OECD iLibrary Officially Launched as Rebuilt Website

by Barbara Quint
Posted On September 30, 2010

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has had a website for identifying and distributing its own and other agency publications since the beginning of the century. Until recently, the site was named SourceOECD, but over the last 4 or 5 years, according to Toby Green, head of publishing, the OECD has been working with Publishing Technology (formed in 2007 with the merger of Ingenta, VISTA, and Publishers Communication Group (PCG)) to redesign its site and many internal functions as well. The result is OECD iLibrary. In the course of investigating this development, probably my most interesting discovery had nothing to do with the newness of the site, but with the discovery of the many countries the data covered outside the 33 developed country members of OECD itself.

[full article]

Posted by ronbo at 08:41 PM

September 28, 2010

From US Census Bureau - Release of 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the release of the 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates on American FactFinder. There you will find tables with social, demographic, housing, and economic data for areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

You can access the newly-released data on American FactFinder at: 2009 ACS 1-year data

If you would like more information and supporting documentation for this data release please visit the ACS web site at: www.census.gov/acs

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 08:31 PM

September 23, 2010

From US Census Bureau - American Community Survey e-Tutorial

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the release of the American Community Survey (ACS) e-Tutorial. This interactive program will assist users by educating them on a wide range of topics, such as how communities benefit from participation and how to access data using American FactFinder (AFF). You can access the e-Tutorial directly here or go to the main ACS site www.census.gov/acs and view the menu under "Guidance for Data Users."

Correction to the ACS e-mail update regarding the Federal Register Notice: Although the web address appeared correctly, the link to the web page did not work properly for some users. To view the Federal Register notice, go to: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/operations_and_administration/. If you experience additional difficulties, please let us know.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 06:16 PM

September 16, 2010

From ANES (American National Election Study) - Complete Data and Documentation for the ANES 2008-2009 Panel Study are now available

Dear ANES user community:

We write to let you know that the complete data and documentation for the ANES 2008-2009 Panel Study are now available. This study includes data from 22 surveys conducted with the same panel of respondents between January 2008 and October 2009. Ten surveys were primarily about politics and the other 12 were about a variety of other topics.

The Panel Study includes questions about the primary campaign and general election, attitudes on race, the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), the brief Implicit Association Test (IAT), social networks, policy preferences, evaluations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, interest in politics, and a host of other political and non-political
questions. To leverage the panel design, many questions were repeated, with the same respondents answering at two or more points in time.

To download the documentation and data for free, go to http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/2008_2009panel/anes2008_2009panel.htm

Jon A. Krosnick & Arthur Lupia
Previous Principal Investigators, ANES 2006-2009

Matthew DeBell
Study Director

Posted by ronbo at 08:31 PM

From US Census Bureau - American Community Survey Website Redesign

The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce a redesign of the American Community Survey (ACS) website. See the latest in new information for survey respondents, easy access to ACS data, and clear explanations to commonly asked questions.

Take a look at the redesigned website online at www.census.gov/acs. We welcome any questions or feedback on the new site.

Regards,

American Community Survey staff

Posted by ronbo at 07:34 PM

October 02, 2009

From Census Product Update (October 2, 2009): Hot Tip - October 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) School Enrollment Public Use File

The October 2008 CPS October School Enrollment Supplement Public Use File is now available to the public. This file contains 150,957 records that are 1,040 bytes in length. Data should be available on our web site any day now. For questions or additional information, contact our Current Population Survey staff at 301-763-3806.

Posted by ronbo at 12:01 PM

September 22, 2009

From Census Product Update (9/18/2009): Hot Tip - Economic Indicators

If you wish to keep track of economic indicators, from the Census Bureau home page click "Economic Indicators." Next, to sort by indicator, click the drop down arrow in the upper left-hand corner, or click the "Economic Indicator Calendar" tab for a list of release dates by indicator. In addition, from the Economic Indicator home page, you can view current press releases for each indicator. The information also comes in various formats such as PDF, spreadsheet, text, or HTML format. There is even an option to keep up with Economic Indicator through RSS feeds.

Why not check out all this web page has to offer!

Posted by ronbo at 05:19 AM

September 18, 2009

From Eurobarometer list: ALL Standard & Special Eurobarometer ONLINE

Dear list members,

we are pleased to announce that now ALL EUROBAROMETER - except the FLASH surveys - can be accessed ONLINE through the GESIS study catalogue ZACAT:

http://zacat.gesis.org

ZACAT provides access to the complete Standard & Special Eurobarometer Series (face-to-face instrument) divided into two different catalogues, complemented by a cumulative trend file:

Pre-Release Catalogue (NEW)
Recent Standard and Special Eurobarometer waves are made available in the pre-release catalogue without complete and systematic preparation of data and variable metadata as required for full ZACAT functionality. These surveys are fully documented and searchable on study level and pre-release analysis datasets can be downloaded after registration in different statistical software formats (SPSS, STATA, ...). Data (i.e. variables) for questions under embargo are dropped.

Archive Editions Catalogue
For the most part Standard and Special Eurobarometer surveys are available in the archive editions catalogue providing full and searchable variable documentation and ZACAT functionality, including data browsing and basic analysis. Completely processed archive dataset editions can be downloaded after
registration in different statistical software formats (SPSS, STATA, ...). All dataset in this catalogue have been completely released by the European Commission.

Eurobarometer Trend File
The Mannheim Eurobarometer Trend File 1970-2002 includes selected trends from three decades. The cumulative dataset can be downloaded after registration in different statistical software formats (SPSS, STATA, ...). On variable level ZACAT only displays data definition information. For full variable documentation see the PDF codebook plus appendix. The data browsing option is not available.

For more information please also see:
http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

The official special reports are available through the Commission's website:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb_special_en.htm

If you would like to order the data via your home data archive:
http://www.gesis.org/dienstleistungen/daten/umfragedaten/eurobarometer-data-service/contacts/other-data-archives/

With kind regards
Meinhard Moschner

-- GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften Data Archive for the Social Sciences

Posted by ronbo at 02:30 PM

September 16, 2009

From ANES list: A new technical report on computing weights

A new report is now available documenting recommendations from an expert advisory committee (Douglas Rivers, Chair; Martin Frankel, Colm O'Muircheartaigh, Charles Franklin, and Andrew Gelman) on how the American National Election Studies (and other surveys) should compute weights for use in statistical analyses to assure that results accurately represent the population of interest. This memo therefore gives scholars instructions on how to compute weights if they wish to do so and describes the procedure that ANES will be using during the coming year to compute new weights for all of its past studies. The new weights will be posted as soon as possible in the Data Center on the ANES website.

The report can be found in the Reference Library section of the ANES website
ftp://ftp.electionstudies.org/ftp/nes/bibliography/documents/nes012427.pdf

Posted by ronbo at 02:11 PM

September 14, 2009

From IPUMS list: Research positions and new IPUMS data

Dear IPUMS Users,

I am writing to pass on information about several job openings at the Minnesota Population Center, and to inform you of upcoming data release plans.

POSITION OPENINGS
The Minnesota Population Center is recruiting a post-doctoral researcher to work on IPUMS-CPS; the start date is flexible. We also have immediate openings for Research Associates/Research Scientists to work on IPUMS-USA and two other projects.

To obtain more information and download position announcements, please visit our website at http://www.pop.umn.edu/about-mpc/employment-opportunities/research-positions/

UPCOMING DATA RELEASES
The Census Bureau plans to release microdata from the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) on September 22nd, 2009. We will produce an IPUMS version of this dataset within a week of its public release. The IPUMS version of the data will be available via the IPUMS-USA site at http://usa.ipums.org.

Finally, earlier today we released the IPUMS version of the 2009 March Current Population Survey, available on the IPUMS-CPS site at http://cps.ipums.org.

Please redistribute this message to any researchers who might be interested.

Sincerely,

Steve Ruggles
IPUMS Principal Investigator
Regents Professor
University of Minnesota

Posted by ronbo at 04:05 PM

September 10, 2009

From ANES List: ANES Announcement: Opportunity to Add Contextual and Other Auxiliary Variables

A New Opportunity to Add Contextual and Other Auxiliary Variables to the 2008 ANES Time Series and Panel Study Datasets

In recent study years, the ANES has released an auxiliary data file as part of the final release of its surveys. In 2002 and 2004, these files included candidate biographical data, information on past elections, campaign expenditures, House and Senate member records and ratings, and district and state descriptions. The ANES provides these data to scholars so they can integrate relevant contextual variables in their analyses.

This year, we are changing the way that the auxiliary data file is assembled. Hundreds of contextual variables could be included in the final release, and scholars differ in the types and numbers of such variables they would find useful. In the past, the ANES Pis and staff have made decisions about which variables to include. As a result, we may have included variables in the auxiliary file that were of little use to scholars while excluding variables of high analytic value. Moreover, the ANES has collected such data without the involvement of scholars who may possess high-quality data that they would be willing to share and that would be very helpful to many colleagues.

This year, we are decentralizing the process by which the auxiliary data file is developed. Instead of making decisions on our own about which contextual variables to include, weare asking the ANES user community to participate in this decision making process. And instead of collecting such variables on our own, we are making an open call for collaboration with anyone who has relevant data to share.

Hence, we are calling on members of the research community to make contributions to the 2008-2009 version of the ANES auxiliary data file through contributions to a dedicated forum on the ANES Online Commons www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm
The goal of the ANES Online Commons is to improve the quality and scientific value of each of our data collections, to encourage the submission of new ideas, and to make such experiences more beneficial to and enjoyable for individual investigators.

The new “auxiliary data” forum on the ANES Online Commons is open to anyone who would like to make suggestions regarding sources of contextual data that researchers may find useful. The proposals that are most likely to be successful will have the following characteristics:

• Thorough description of the information proposed for inclusion. The primary mandate of ANES is to explain vote choices and turnout, and this mandate can be advanced in many different ways with many different types of data.

• An explicit argument about why the proposed information merits inclusion.

• An explicit argument about the kinds and range of statistical analyses that the information would allow and the benefit of such analyses to science (and society). Clear presentations of modeling frameworks, power statistics, or analogous analytic concepts will make arguments more persuasive.

• An explicit argument about the conceptual and theoretical foundations of the variable(s).

• Evidence about the past demonstrated empirical value of such information. Such evidence will make a proposal much more persuasive.

• Evidence that the proposed way of ascertaining the information yields valid results.

• If the proposal advocates including information that ANES has included in previous auxiliary datasets, the proposal will be more persuasive if it includes explicit evidence about the breadth and depth of the information’s previous usage and impact in the scholarly literature. It is best not to assume that readers already know about prior uses of the variables.

Greater specificity about such attributes of a proposal can help Online Commons readers and ANES leadership effectively evaluate the likely benefits of including proposed information.

Proposals are limited to ten pages with font no smaller than 12 point, one-inch margins, and double spacing. Of course, scholars may submit multiple proposals.

Scholars who wish to alert people to detailed materials to support their arguments may do so in the text of their proposal. All such references must include a URL for a publicly-accessible website.

Any Internet user can view the Online Commons, but you can post a proposal on the “auxiliary data” forum only if you register for an Online Commons membership. Membership is free to any scholars and there are no strings attached. The sole purpose of the Online Commons is to provide a means for scholars to contribute to the development of ANES questionnaires. You can learn more about how to register here:
www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons_reghelp.htm

In addition to proposing variables for the auxiliary dataset, we also encourage you to post comments about the other proposals that are made. Constructive comments of this kind can be very helpful to the ANES as it assembles the dataset.

All proposals for the 2008 edition of the Auxiliary dataset must be received by 3:00 Eastern/Noon pacific on Tuesday, December 1, 2009.

If you have any questions about the new “Auxiliary dataset” forum, or about the Online Commons, in general, please let us know via email to anes@electionstudies.org.

We hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,
Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies

Posted by ronbo at 07:24 PM

August 25, 2009

ANES Announcement: An invitation to learn about the ANES at the APSA annual meeting

You are cordially invited to attend two ANES related events at the APSA
annual meeting in Toronto!

First, our annual Public Meeting will be held at 10am on Saturday,
September 5th.

We will provide updates on:

– The 2008 Time Series Study survey data

– The 2008-2009 Panel Study survey data

– New developments on coding of open-ended questions

– Information on many other ongoing ANES projects

After each of these presentations, there will be time for comments and
questions. We are very interested in your views. The public meeting is
scheduled for Room 704 at the Convention Center. As locations are subject
to change, please check your program to verify the location.

In addition to the Public Meeting, we will be conducting a roundtable
titled "What's Now and What's Next: The Present and Future of the American
National Election Studies." Joining us on the panel will be Matthew
DeBell, Vincent Hutchings, Gary Segura, Simon Jackman and Keith Payne. De
Bell, Krosnick, and Lupia will lead a presentation about substantive and
technical advances pertinent to the ANES's 2008 Time Series and the
2008-2009 Panel Study. Hutchings, Jackman, and Segura, will report on the
grant that they have submitted to fund the ANES through the next
presidential election. Keith Payne, from the University of North Carolina,
will discuss the use and implications of the Affect Misattribution
Procedure, a new psychological measure that was included in both the Panel
and Time Series studies. The roundtable is scheduled for 4:15pm on
Saturday, September 5th in Room 802B at the Convention Center. As
locations are subject to change, please check your program to verify the
location.

We hope you to see there!

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators

Posted by ronbo at 01:25 PM

August 17, 2009

ANES Announcement: Release of Redacted Open-Ended Responses

ANES is pleased to make available redacted versions of the responses to
the open-ended questions from the 2008 Time Series Study. The file is
called anes2008TSredacted.zip. It includes the redacted responses and the
procedures used in the redaction process. The responses are provided in
an Excel workbook that includes one spreadsheet with all responses as well
as individual spreadsheets for each question.

We are making this information available in response to the research
community's request for data from the open-ended questions. Fully coded
responses will be provided at a later date and will be based on our
findings concerning the past releases of coded responses to our political
knowledge questions (a copy of the report can be found here:
http://electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/20080324PoliticalKnowledgeMemo.pdf),
and information we gathered at our Conference on Optimal Coding of
Open-Ended Survey Data (information about the conference as well as the
presentations from the conference can be found here:
http://www.electionstudies.org/conferences/methods/MethodsConference.htm).

Posted by ronbo at 06:52 PM

August 04, 2009

From ResourceShelf: New: IMF Launches New Online Database of Financial Soundness Indicators

From SKNVibes.com

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched a new…which will allow public access to an expanding database of indicators of financial sector soundness for member countries.

The disseminated financial soundness indicators (FSIs), ranging from regulatory capital adequacy ratios to real estate prices, can assist in analyzing the soundness of financial institutions as a sector as well as in assessing the conditions of the counterpart corporate and household sectors of relevant markets. FSIs complement other assessments of soundness such as early warning indicators and macroeconomic vulnerability exercises.

The site, http://fsi.imf.org/, is linked to a database holding FSI data from more than 25 countries, a number which is expected to increase as the database is expanded and more countries contribute data on a voluntary basis. The list of FSIs and the methodology of their compilation were developed over a number of years by IMF staff in close consultation with a group of experts from other international institutions and IMF member countries.

ResourceShelf (8/2/2009)

Posted by ronbo at 07:46 PM

July 23, 2009

From Census Product Update (July 23, 2009): Hot Tip - Download More Geographies Using Download Center

If you need access to a larger number of geographies than are available through the other parts of American FactFinder, Download Center may be your answer. Here, for a very large numbers of geographies, you can access just a few or even all tables from a particular data file in a zipped, pipe-delimited file. You can then work with the tables in a spreadsheet or other data program. Note that you are not given access to more types of variables, rather, you now just have access to a larger amount of geographies for the available variables.

To access this powerful tool, from the Census home page, click American FactFinder, then click Download Center!

Posted by ronbo at 01:31 PM

July 20, 2009

From Resource Shelf: Go Mobile With Melissa DATA

We’ve posted about the numerous lookup databases (free) from Melissa DATA. A quick note to alert you that the service now has a lightweight mobile site allowing users to quickly access three lookup databases:

+ U.S. Addresses
Verify & correct any U.S. address.

+ Phone Numbers
Get location information on an area code or phone number.

+ ZIP/City/Phone
Get geographic & demographic info related to a ZIP, city or phone.

If you’ve never visited the primary Melissa DATA database collection, it’s a “must have” set of links. Most tools are free. Some require registration, but once completed they are free to use.

Resource Shelf Post

Posted by ronbo at 05:09 PM

From Resource Shelf: U.S. Census Updates U.S. Counties Database

Direct to Database

This latest update features more than 6,000 data items at the national, state and county level from a variety of sources. New and revised data items include 2008 age, sex, race and Hispanic origin; 2006births, deaths and infant deaths; 2007 Census of Agriculture; 2008 civilian labor force; 2007 personal income and earnings; 2007 total employment by industry; and 2008 building permits.

Source: U.S. Census
Resource Shelf Post

Posted by ronbo at 05:05 PM

July 14, 2009

From Census Product Update (7/10/2009): Recently Released

Population

Age and Sex: 2007 and 2008. A series of detailed tables with data on a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics by five-year age groups and sex. Topics covered include marital status, educational attainment, nativity and citizenship status, labor force and employment status, occupation, earnings, poverty, and housing tenure. The data come from the Current Population Survey.

International Data Base. These statistics update the world population estimates and projections with 2009 figures, including projections by age for 227 countries and areas. The International Data Base offers a variety of demographic indicators on population size and growth, age and sex composition, mortality, fertility, and net migration.

Population Change in Central and Outlying Counties of Metropolitan Statistical Areas: 2000 to 2007. Detailed tables and report available in PDF (7.79 MB) providing an analysis of population change and demographic components of change in both core and outlying portions of metro areas. This change is examined by region and division, and metro area population size category, as well as for 12 of the most populous metro areas.

Subcounty Population Estimates: July 1, 2008. July 1, 2008 population estimates of the nation's incorporated places - cities, towns, villages and boroughs.

Working Paper No. 84, Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (PDF - 806 KB). This paper provides a statistical portrait of the Hispanic-origin population in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands using data from Census 2000. Data on demographic, social and economic characteristics of the Hispanic population for all three areas presented along with graphs and tables.

Economic Indicators

Construction Spending (Put-in-Place): May 2009. Press release showing estimates of the value of total new construction put-in-place by type of construction (residential and non-residential), annual value, and by type of owner (private and public).

Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders: May 2009. Press release showing information on key business indicators. Shows revised durable goods totals, in addition to nondurable goods manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders.

Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories: May 2009. Press release showing estimates for sales, inventories on a non-LIFO ("last in-first out") basis, and stock-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by three-digit major kind-of-business groups.

Economic Census and Surveys

2007 Economic Census. This is a series of national-level data files on the various sectors in 2007. The files provide data on the number of establishments, sales, payroll, number of employees, value of product line sales and other data items by industry. Data will be released through October. Recently released:

- Real Estate and Rental and Leasing Industry Series

2009 1st Quarter Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue. Quarterly tax revenue data on property, sales, license, income and other taxes. Data are shown for individual state governments as well as national-level estimates of total state and local taxes, including 12-month calculations. This quarterly survey has been conducted continuously since 1962.

2007 Nonemployer Statistics. The United States added nearly 1 million nonemployer businesses between 2006 and 2007, bringing the total to 21.7 million. These statistics provide an annual look at small, unincorporated businesses operated mostly by self-employed individuals. Data originating from tax return information show the number of establishments and sales by industry at the county, metro area, state and national levels.

Posted by ronbo at 01:55 PM

June 30, 2009

Save the Date for MEPS and HCUP Data Users Workshop

AHRQ will conduct a two-day hands-on HCUP and MEPS Data Users Workshop in Rockville, MD on September 28-29, 2009. Registration materials will be available on MEPS website mid-July.

AHRQ is sponsoring a workshop to facilitate use of two of its important data resources: the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The workshop, which will take place at AHRQ headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, will provide health services researchers with information on the components and capabilities of the two databases. Participants will be taught how to extract data for research projects from their choice of either MEPS or HCUP. For MEPS, a working knowledge of SAS is required. For HCUP, familiarity with SAS is recommended but not required. There is no fee for the workshop.

Day 1 of the workshop will consist of lectures designed to provide a general overview of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). There will be an option of attending both MEPS and HCUP or just MEPS.

Day 2 will be the participant’s choice of in-depth computer-based training on either MEPS or HCUP. For MEPS, participants will apply the knowledge gained from the first day's lectures to formulate a research plan that utilizes the various MEPS-HC files and linkage capabilities. Each participant will construct an analytic file and begin to conduct analyses. For HCUP, participants will learn how to use HCUP databases, e.g., Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), and software tools, e.g., HCUPnet. In both workshops, participants will have the opportunity to pose specific research questions. Computers will be available for all day 2 attendees.

Note: The day 2 sessions will be separate concurrent hands-on workshops run for MEPS and HCUP. Those attending MEPS hands-on session on 2nd day could bring a CD with their active MEPS project and get expert help on their research questions. Programmers and AHRQ staff will be available to provide assistance.

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) collects data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and available to the U.S. population. For more information about MEPS, please visit: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is a family of powerful health care databases, software tools, and products. HCUP data enable research on a broad range of topics related to health care, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, and outcomes of treatment at the national, State, and local market levels. In addition, HCUP makes available at no charge a number of software tools to facilitate use of HCUP and other administrative data. For more information about HCUP, please visit http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov

For any other questions email workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 07:52 PM

June 25, 2009

From Census Product Update (June 26, 2009) - Hot Tip: Comparing ACS Data to Other Sources

Although the American Community Survey (ACS) produces population, demographic and housing estimates, it is the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program that produces and disseminates the official estimates of the population for the nation, states, counties, cities and towns and estimates of housing units for states and counties. The ACS should be used to examine housing, demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the population. Detailed guidance on how to compare ACS data to other Census data sets is available on our web site.

Posted by ronbo at 09:42 AM

June 17, 2009

From Census Product Update (May 29, 2009): Hot Tip - New Notify Me Feature for Industry and Economic Census Geographic Area Series Reports

Release of the 2007 Economic Census "Industry Series" reports began in April and will continue through the end of the year. These reports, available through American FactFinder, provide national statistics on each of about 1,000 industries. For the first time, the Census Bureau is offering a service, called NotifyMe, that alerts data users when particular reports are available.

Users just select one or more industries from a list of checkboxes and enter their email address. That's it! Later on, when the industry is released, we will send an e-mail with a link to the data. It couldn't be easier.

Starting this summer, we will expand the NotifyMe service to include the 2007 Economic Census Geographic Area Series reports. These reports, covering each state and 18 sectors, will be released starting in November. Once again, we will alert users when we release the reports they need.

Posted by ronbo at 04:33 AM

From Census Product Update - Recently Released (June 12, 2009):

Population

Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2007. New national-level data show who is accessing the Internet and why, cross-tabulated by age, sex, race, Hispanic-origin, educational attainment, and employment status. Other data show the results of computer and Internet usage by region, school enrollment, poverty status, gender, disability status, age group, and income. State data shows Internet usage at home versus any location. Also included is whether people are using broadband or dial-up for Internet access. Data come from the Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

Economic Indicators

Construction Spending (Put-in-Place): April 2009. Press release showing estimates of the value of total new construction put-in-place by type of construction (residential and non-residential), annual value,, and by type of owner (private and public).

Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories and Orders: April 2009. Press release showing information on key business indicators. Shows revised durable goods totals, in addition to nondurable goods manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders.

Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories: April 2009. Press release showing estimates for sales, inventories on a non-LIFO ("last in-first out") basis, and stock-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by three-digit major kind-of-business groups.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: April 2009. Press release showing monthly exports, general imports (including data by country), and limited data on imports for consumption.

Quarterly Services Survey: 1st Quarter, 2009. Press release showing quarterly estimates of total operating revenue and the percentage of revenue by class of customer for the services industries.

Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services: May 2009. Press release presenting advance monthly estimates of retail store sales by kind-of-business groups. Report includes seasonally adjusted estimates and percentage changes for major kind-of-business groups.

Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales: April 2009. Press release showing sales, inventories, and inventories-to-sales ratios for the combined domestic activities of retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.

Economic Census and Surveys

2007 Economic Census of Island Areas, Geographic Area Series: Guam. The data include the number of establishments, sales, payroll, number of employees and other data items for Guam - a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean — and its 19 election districts.

Older Worker Profiles. Reports (released for each of over 30 states) providing a detailed picture of workers 55 and older at the county and metropolitan area levels for 2004. Based on data from the Local Employment Dynamics program, the reports highlight the age of the states' work force, job gains and losses, industries in which older workers are concentrated, job stability, and earnings.

Posted by ronbo at 12:06 AM

May 19, 2009

Census Product Update - May 15, 2009: Fact of the Day - Nation's Population Growing Older, More Diverse

The U.S. Census Bureau's newly released national population estimates show that our nation is becoming older and more racially and ethnically diverse. The estimates found that nearly half (47 percent) of the nation's children younger than five were a minority in 2008, with 25 percent being Hispanic. For all children under 18, 44 percent were a minority and 22 percent were Hispanic.

The U.S. population is also growing older: the median age reached 36.8 in 2008, up 1.5 years since 2000. There were 38.9 million people 65 and older in 2008, comprising 12.8 percent of the total population. Of this group, 5.7 million were 85 years old and older. In 2000, 12.4 percent of the total population was 65 and older. You can find these facts and more, in our 2008 Population Estimates!

Posted by ronbo at 04:51 PM

From Census Product Update - May 15, 2009: Hot Tip - Wealth of 2010 Census Information Available!

Looking for a copy of the 2010 Census Questionnaire? How about a nice overview of the 2010 Census, or even a coloring and activity book! You can find these and more on the Census 2010 website. Just click on the Materials link in the upper left-hand corner of the page. And don't forget to browse the other Information links, as well as the Related Links!

Posted by ronbo at 04:50 PM

From IPUMS Users List: New data from IPUMS-International

Dear IPUMS User:

The IPUMS-International project has recently added 19 samples to the data series, bringing the total number of samples to 130. The recently added samples include data for nine new countries: Armenia, Bolivia, Guinea, India, Italy, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Slovenia. In addition, we have extended the existing series of samples for France, Romania and South Africa. The new data release also includes GIS boundary files for mapping countries and major administrative divisions within countries.

The full content of the data series is summarized here: https://international.ipums.org/international/samples.shtml.

If you have recently written a paper, article or book using IPUMS-International, please email us the citation or enter it yourself in the IPUMS bibliography: http://bibliography.ipums.org/. Future funding for the IPUMS project depends on a strong citation record.

Regards,
The IPUMS Team

Posted by ronbo at 01:23 PM

May 12, 2009

ANES Announcement: Release of the ANES 2008 Time Series Study

The May 2009 release of the ANES 2008 Time Series Study dataset and documentation is now available for download from the ANES website. To download the dataset, or to visit the study page and learn more about the survey, please visit our Data Center at: http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter_all.htm

The 2008 Time Series Study appears in the blue box to the left of the page, just under the 2008-2009 Panel Study.

This release of the 2008 Time Series study differs from the Advance Release of March 2009 in several ways. Additional checks have been conducted on the responses to survey questions. Errata that were reported to us have been reviewed and corrected. Administrative and non-survey variables have been included.

In the coming months, we will continue to provide additional information and enhancements to the data and documentation. Such enhancements include, but are not limited to the continued review of the data, inclusion of additional administrative and derived variables, additional information on the weighting of the data, additional information on the use of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), and enhanced coding of the open-ended responses.

If you identify any errors or inconsistencies, if you have questions, or if we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by email to: anes@electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 02:11 PM

April 22, 2009

From Stanford Speaking of Computers (4/13/2009): New Business Databases for Stanford Community

by Mihoko Hosoi

"The Jackson Library at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) recently acquired campus-wide access to the following databases: Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage, Thomson One Banker, Thomson Research, Thomson Investext, and Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS). These resources were previously available only to library users via GSB network. The expanded access will facilitate business-related research activities for all at Stanford."

[Read full article with database descriptions here.]

Posted by ronbo at 03:18 PM

April 20, 2009

From American Community Survey Alert, Number 66: Request for Input and Feedback on Advanced Query (AQ) System for ACS Data

The Census Bureau seeks your input and feedback on whether it would be
useful to have an Advanced Query (AQ) system for the tabulation of data
from the ACS and the Census 2010 short form.

As part of Census 2000 data dissemination, the Census Bureau developed an
AQ system that allowed for no-cost, user-specified tabulations from the
full microdata file for a limited number of users (because of its
experimental nature, the AQ system had restricted access.) It included
safeguards against disclosure of identifying information about individuals
and housing units.

The AQ system was discontinued in November 2008 due to concerns with
emerging IT security risk trends, information on newly discovered
vulnerabilities in the legacy AQ system, and the obsolescence of the
hardware. Since then, the Census Bureau has been discussing the
possibility of developing a new AQ system for the tabulation of ACS and
2010 Census data.

If you think you would be able to make productive use of such a system,
please respond to michelle.e.jiles@census.gov by May 1, 2009, with examples
of the kinds of analyses you would perform with those data.

Posted by ronbo at 01:50 PM

April 16, 2009

From Census Product Update (4/16/2009): Hot Tip - Fact Sheets in American FactFinder

Need quick, up-to-date data for your state, county, or town? FactFinder's Fact Sheet lookup has what you want!! From American FactFinder's main page, just click on Fact Sheet. A profile of the most recent data available will appear for the United States. If you want to specify your state, county, or town, just look for the grey box in the upper right-hand corner of the page, enter the name, select your state, and click Go. The profile also contains links ("show more") that provide greater detailed information which can be easily printed or downloaded! There's even an option to view a narrative text profile with graphs for easy analysis. Fact Sheets are also available for races, ethnic groups, and ancestries. Just click on Factsheet for a Race, Ethnic Group, or Ancestry and follow the directions.

Posted by ronbo at 04:24 PM

April 06, 2009

From ESS Distribution List: ESS Data User Bulletin 9 (April 2009)

1. Selection of Questionnaire Design Teams for ESS Round 5

Two teams have been selected by the ESS Scientific Advisory Board to design two 50-item rotating module for ESS Round 5. The successful teams are:

* ‘Work, Family and Well-being: The Implications of Economic Recession’: led by Duncan Gallie at Nuffield College, Oxford, UK, Martina Dieckhoff at WZB, Germany, Helen Russell at ESRI, Ireland, Nadia Steiber at Vienna University of Economics, Austria and Michael Tahlin at Stockholm University, Sweden. This module will repeat many of the items from the ‘Work, Family and Well-being’ module included in ESS Round 2.

* ‘Trust in Criminal Justice: A Comparative European Analysis’: led by Jonathan Jackson at the London School of Economics, UK, Mike Hough from Kings College London, UK, Stephen Farrall at the University of Sheffield, UK, Kauko Aromaa at HEUNI, Finland and Jan de Keijser at the Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Netherlands.

Further information and the proposals for each module can be found on the ESS website. Fieldwork for ESS Round 5 will start in September 2010.

2. ESS Round 4

A record 31 countries are participating in ESS Round 4 and most fieldwork is now complete. Croatia and Lithuania are participating for the first time in Round 4 and Israel, the Czech Republic and Greece have taken part again after missing one or more rounds. A first data release is expected in Autumn of this year including data from the rotating modules on ‘Experiences and attitudes towards Ageism’ and ‘Welfare attitudes in a changing Europe’. The first release will include all countries who have deposited their data in due time.

3. ESS Training Course – call for applicants

A call for applicants for the 7th ESSTrain course on the subject of socio-demographic background variables for cross-national comparative social research in Europe has now been issued. The course will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 12th and 13th October 2009. The objective of this course is to provide participants with a thorough background on survey methods for comparative measurement of socio-demographic background variables. The emphasis will be on ensuring equivalence in survey questionnaires. Practical and theoretical considerations for the design and implementation of fieldwork instruments aimed to provide comparisons between European countries will also be discussed.

There are places for up to 60 participants on this course and a limited amount of funding is available to cover travel and accommodation costs for a select number of participants. All participants will be provided with lunch for all course days and a dinner after the first day of the course. For more information about the course and details on how to apply please click here. Applications must be submitted by 4th May 2009.

4. ESS Findings Brochure

A 24-page ESS ‘Findings Booklet’ has recently been published, bringing together selected findings from the first three rounds of the ESS. Topics include; ageing and financial security, trust, education and politics, families and work, public responses to migration, sex and sexuality, and the digital divide. Please click here for more information about the booklet and how to obtain a copy.

5. ESRA Conference

The 3rd Conference of the European Survey Research Association will be held between 29th June and 3rd July 2009 in Warsaw, Poland. More information about the conference can be found on the ESRA website.

6. ESS Publications: A reminder

The ESS Bibliography currently holds close to 400 titles and the latest entries are listed on the front page of the bibliography. The bibliography has recently been updated and the new version includes "edited volume" as a separate category under ‘publication type’.

Please take this opportunity to check if all your ESS related publications are included in the Bibliography. If any are not included, please use the "Add Publication" function to register your publications. If you have any queries concerning the bibliography please contact the ESS Bibliography Team (contact details can be found at the end of this bulletin). It is vital for future funding of the ESS that the bibliography maps the full range of publications generated using ESS data.

7. New topic for ESS EduNet

There is now a new topic on ESS EduNet. This focuses on well-being and is called ‘Personal & Social Well-being: Creating indicators for a flourishing Europe’. The topic was written by Saamah Abdallah, who is a researcher at the New Economics Foundation (nef) and investigates different aspects of the concept of well-being using data from the third round of the ESS. The topic can be accessed here.

8. About the ESS

The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically-driven social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. The survey covers over 30 European nations and employs rigorous methodology. Funding for the central design and coordination of the ESS comes from the European Commission via its Framework Programmes, supplemented by support from the European Science Foundation which initiated the project. Funding for national data collection and coordination comes from funding agencies in participating countries. The European Commission also funds the ESS as an infrastructure.

The project is directed by a Central Co-ordinating Team (CCT) and associated members including: City University London UK, University of Leuven Belgium, NSD Norway, GESIS Germany, ESADE of the Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain, SCP Netherlands and University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

9. Contact information & websites

To contact the CCT: e-mail: ess@city.ac.uk
To contact the ESS Data Archive team: e-mail: essdata@nsd.uib.no
To contact the ESS Bibliography Team: email: essbibl@nsd.uib.no

Main website: www.europeansocialsurvey.org
Data website: http://ess.nsd.uib.no

Posted by ronbo at 06:33 PM

April 03, 2009

From Census Product Update (April 3, 2009): Hot Tip - Facts For Features

Our “Facts for Features & Special Editions” webpage consists of collections of statistics from the Census Bureau's demographic and economic subject areas intended to commemorate anniversaries or observances, or to provide background information for topics in the news. You can find this webpage by clicking “Facts for Features” on the Census homepage. Check out the interesting statistics we’ve compiled on numerous topics!

Posted by ronbo at 02:21 PM

March 25, 2009

From Census Bureau News (3/17/2009): First Data from the 2007 Economic Census Released

The U.S. Census Bureau today released preliminary data from the 2007 Economic Census. This advance report is the first in a series of industry and geographic area data, including information for more than 1,000 communities not available from previous censuses.

The economic census is conducted every five years and is the most comprehensive and detailed profile of the U.S. economy, covering millions of businesses representing more than 1,000 industries. The census provides the foundation and benchmark for gross domestic product, monthly retail sales and other indicators of economic performance. These data also provide unique portraits of American industries and local communities.

“The quality and timely release of these data are a direct result of the cooperation of millions of U.S. businesses,” said C. Harvey Monk Jr., associate director for economic programs at the U.S. Census Bureau. “The Census Bureau thanks every member of the business community for their efforts in helping to create this critical measure of the American economy.”

The report is made up of two data sets, Advance Summary Statistics for the United States: 2007 and Advance Comparative Statistics for the United States: 2007. These show the number of establishments, revenue (sales), payroll and number of employees at the national level for 101 industry groups based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

[ Read rest of news... ]

Posted by ronbo at 03:49 PM

From Census Product Update (3/19/2009): Hot Tip - New "Did You Know?" Feature in LED

The Local Employment Dynamics (LED) website has a new dynamic "Did You Know?" feature that shows the change in total employment by state and select industries for workers in private sector jobs (ie, excluding public service, federal goverment, military, etc) over a one-year period.

This feature allows comparison of employment data between quarters, males or females, and shows percent change. It can be refreshed to provide randomly selected states and industry sectors.

Posted by ronbo at 03:46 PM

March 11, 2009

From Government Computer News (3/6/2009): Kundra to launch federal data feeds

Data.gov would publish data feeds in hopes of spawning new applications and even industries.

* By Joab Jackson
* Mar 06, 2009

As one of his first acts as federal chief information officer, Vivek Kundra plans to establish a governmentwide repository of data feeds, which he called data.gov.

“We need to make sure that all that data that’s not private can be made public,” Kundra said during a White House press conference announcing the new CIO position. “What we should be thinking about is how do we begin with the assumption that the default be that we put information out into the public domain.”

By opening vast realms of data that federal agencies are now keeping in-house, Kundra hopes to spark new ways of using that information to better serve citizens and even create new industries.

[ For rest of article ]

Posted by ronbo at 06:15 AM

March 10, 2009

From Census Update (3/6/2009): Economic Census and Surveys

2007 Annual Capital Expenditures Survey. These data provide statistics on business spending for new and used structures and equipment, including all domestic, private, nonfarm businesses. These figures are critical to evaluate productivity growth, the ability of U.S. business to compete with foreign business, changes in industrial capacity, and measures of overall economic performance.

2007 Information and Communication Technology Survey. A supplement to the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey, this survey covers infrastructure investment for computers and peripherals; telephones and telephone apparatus, facsimile equipment, and routers, etc.; electromedical and electrotherapeutic apparatus; and computer software.

Posted by ronbo at 08:45 AM

From Census Product Update (3/6/2009): Hot Tip - Speak With a Census Specialist

Don't miss the opportunity to speak with a Census Bureau employee who specializes in your area of interest. For a list of Census specialists, click "About the Bureau" on the left side of the Census Bureau's home page, then click "Telephone Contacts by Subject Area." Next, click on any subject area to find select names and contact phone numbers.

If you already know a Census employee's name but not his/her phone number, at the "About the Bureau" page, click "Staff Search." From there, type in the employee's last name, or, for a list of names of an entire Census office, type in the acronym of the office.

As always, remember that the Census Bureau's Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office, Customer Services Center, can be reached during business hours on (800) 923-8282 and is available to answer any questions you may have.

Posted by ronbo at 08:38 AM

March 09, 2009

ANES Announcement: Release of the ANES 2008 Time Series Study

An "Advance Release" of the ANES 2008 Time Series Study dataset and
documentation is now available for download from the ANES website. To
download the dataset, or to visit the study page and learn more about the
survey, please visit our Data Center at:
http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter_all.htm The
2008 Time Series Study appears in the blue box to the left of the page,
just under the 2008-2009 Panel Study.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The dataset and all accompanying documentation currently
available for the ANES 2008 Time Series Study are an "Advance Release."
The advance release data allow interested users to analyze political data
collected so far, with the caveats that the advance release data are
preliminary and are subject to revision, the documentation is not
complete, and additional data (e.g. administrative data) will be included
in a later release. Some standard ANES data quality control procedures
have not been completed with these data, so users should expect to find
errors and inconsistencies in the data file.

If you identify any errors or inconsistencies, if you have questions, or
if we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by email
to: anes@electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 07:33 PM

From APDU Public Update (3/6/2009): ACS Compass releases new presentation and a handbook on the use of ACS Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)

As part of the ACS Compass Products series, the Census Bureau announces the availability of a presentation and a handbook on the use of ACS Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS):

· Introduction to the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) File from the American Community Survey provides an explanation of the PUMS file, the available geographies, and how to access these data. (Presentation) http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/presentations.html

· “What Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Data Users Need to Know” explains how the PUMS files differ from pre-tabulated ACS data products, how to access PUMS data, and some ways to produce your own tables. Data users already familiar with PUMS files available from Census 2000 can use this handbook to learn how those files differ from the ACS PUMS. (Handbook) http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/handbook_def.html#pums

Posted by ronbo at 02:51 PM

From IPUMS list: American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X)

The Maryland Population Research Center and the Minnesota Population Center are pleased to announce the release of the American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder (ATUS-X). ATUS-X is designed to make it easy for researchers to work with data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Interested researchers can explore the ATUS Data Extract Builder at www.atusdata.org.

The central goal of the ATUS-X project is to make it easy for researchers to prepare ATUS data files that are ready for analysis. The current version of the ATUS Data Extract Builder allows researchers to:

--Extract data from 2003-2007, including the 2006 Eating and Health Module.

--Create measures of time in user-defined activity aggregations, broken out as desired by time of the day, by location and by whether the respondent was engaged in caring for children during the activity.

--Select personal and household characteristic variables for inclusion on the data extract.

ATUS-X also provides researchers with accessible and comprehensive documentation.

If there are others in your department or network who might be interested in knowing about the new American Time Use Survey Data Extract Builder, please pass this email message along to them.

The ATUS-X Team
atusdata@umn.edu

Posted by ronbo at 02:49 PM

March 03, 2009

CSES Announcement: New cooperation between GESIS and Michigan on the CSES Secretariat

The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is pleased to announce that the CSES Secretariat will now be operated in cooperation between the Center for Political Studies (CPS) at the University of Michigan and the German Social Science Infrastructure Services (GESIS) - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences has recently posted a new full-time research associate position to be located in Mannheim, and two additional half-time positions to be located in Cologne at the GESIS data archive. Among other activities to the benefit of the CSES, these positions will prepare data and documentation, provide research and analysis support, and promote scholarly output from the project. The CSES Director of Studies will continue to be located at the University of Michigan, and the contact information for the study remains the same. All of the personnel will work in close cooperation with each other and the CSES Planning Committee and CSES Collaborators. The first task of the new cooperation will be to prepare the first advance release dataset for CSES Module 3.

Ian McAllister, Chair of the CSES Module 3 Planning Committee, says that the new arrangement with GESIS will secure the future of the project. "The CSES is already one of the largest and most innovative projects ever conducted in political science. By sharing the location between the U.S. and Germany, the new arrangement with GESIS broadens the project’s base. It will allow us to continue to develop the CSES as a resource for the whole political science community."

---

The Center for Political Studies (CPS) is recognized around the world as a leading center for the quantitative study of politics. Scholars at the center investigate the interactions among institutions, political processes, and individuals -- themes united by a concern for understanding democratic politics. The Center is associated with many well-known research projects -- including the American National Election Studies (ANES), Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), and World Values Survey (WVS) -- and is committed to the production of public goods for the benefit of science.

GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is an institution devoted to research and service, which, by providing information, consultation, and data, supports and facilitates social science research at every stage of the research process. As an institution that both conducts research and provides services, GESIS renders substantial nationally and internationally relevant research-based infrastructure services. GESIS stands for independence, reliability, quality, and competence in the fields of empirical social research, archiving, data, methodology, and information technology.

Funding for the activities of the CSES Secretariat in Ann Arbor is provided by the American National Science Foundation and the University of Michigan. GESIS is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by the governments of several German Lander.

Posted by ronbo at 07:15 PM

February 26, 2009

American Community Survey Alert, Number 64: The ACS Compass Products -Educational Materials for ACS PUMS Data Users

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2007 ACS 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample
(PUMS) files September 2008 and the 2005-2007 ACS 3-year PUMS files January
2009. Now, to aid in the use of these files, the Census Bureau has released
two new ACS Compass Products for PUMS data users.

PUMS files are different from the summary Census data products familiar to
many data users. The PUMS files are a sample of the actual responses to the
ACS where all responses have been edited to protect the confidentiality of
all individuals and of all individual households. These files provide data
users with the flexibility to prepare customized tabulations for detailed
research and analysis. Some data users find they require guidance for using
the PUMS files for the first time and to address this need the Census
Bureau has produced the following materials to educate data users on how to
access and use the ACS PUMS files:

What Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Data Users Need to Know - This
handbook explains how the PUMS files differ from pre-tabulated ACS data
products, how to access PUMS data, and some ways to produce your own
tables. Data users already familiar with PUMS files available from Census
2000 can use this handbook to learn how those files differ from the ACS
PUMS.

Introduction to the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) File from the
American Community Survey - This presentation provides an explanation of
the PUMS file, the available geographies, and how to access these data.

The ACS Compass Products may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/compass_series.html

If you have questions or comments concerning the ACS Compass Products we
would like to hear from you. Please contact us by email at
acso.users.support@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 08:26 AM

February 25, 2009

From ResourceShelf: New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Now Available Online

[ ResourceShelf ]

From the Article:

New Zealand’s Ministry of Internal Affairs announced today the launch of a new Web site that offers online access to New Zealand’s historical birth, death and marriage records. To protect the privacy of living people, the following historic data is available:

* Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
* Stillbirths that occurred at least 50 years ago
* Marriages that occurred at least 80 years ago
* Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago, or the deceased’s date of birth was at least 80 years ago

Searches are free, and certificates can either be purchased as a digital image to be downloaded immediately, or as a paper certificate sent through the mail.

Direct to Database

Source: About.com

Posted by ronbo at 02:57 PM

February 24, 2009

From Census Product Update (2/20/2009): Hot Tip - CPS-ASEC Interviews Currently Underway

On February 15, nearly 2,000 Census Bureau field representatives began interviewing about 100,000 households across the nation for the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS). Results from the CPS-ASEC collected in February through April of each year enable the following high-profile indicators to be updated annually by the Census Bureau: median household income, official poverty rate and percentage of people without health insurance coverage. The Census Bureau's monthly Current Population Survey, which dates from 1942, is the longest-running household survey in the country. More information about this survey can be found on our website.

Posted by ronbo at 07:03 AM

February 23, 2009

From APDU list (2/23/2009): NCHS, BEA, and EIA survey announcements

Three statistical agencies made the following announcements today:

· The National Center for Health Statistics indicates that due to budget shortfalls it is cutting the sample size of the 2009 National Health Interview Survey by more than half and will not field the annual National Hospital Discharge Survey in 2009. See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-3797.pdf.

· The Bureau of Economic Analysis published its final rule regarding cuts in the scope of the Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S. survey (BE-15), including the elimination of state-level data on manufacturing employees, gross property, plant, and equipment, and commercial property. BEA says it “recognizes the utility and importance of these data items, but due to resource constraints, it is unable to reinstate these items at this time.” See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-3705.pdf.

· The Energy Information Administration says it plans to carry out the quadrennial Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) in 2009. RECS is a periodic survey of U.S. residential households to collect energy consumption and expenditures data and track changes over time. EIA welcomes comments on the planned survey. See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-3773.pdf.

Posted by ronbo at 05:55 PM

February 21, 2009

U.S. Census Bureau Press Release (12/2/2008): Census Bureau Announces a New Product for Tracking Business Activity

The U.S. Census Bureau announces the release of the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS), a data series that allows users to track annual changes in employment for growing and shrinking businesses at the establishment level.

There are more than 6 million establishments with paid employees in the United States. These businesses are dynamic: opening and closing, adding and losing employees.

The BDS monitors this activity, tracking annual job creation and destruction at the establishment level using elements not found in similar databases, such as firm age and size. Tracking by firm age, for example, allows users to distinguish between new establishments of new firms and new establishments of mature firms. These statistics are crucial to understanding current and historical entrepreneurial activity in the U.S.

“The Business Dynamics Statistics provide data users unprecedented information on the life cycle of U.S. businesses,” said Ron Jarmin, chief economist at the U.S. Census Bureau. “These rich new data will fundamentally change the way people think about job creation and economic growth.”

A number of key economic data items are tabulated by the Business Dynamics Statistics, including number of establishments, establishment openings and closings, employment, job creation and destruction, and job expansions and contractions.

Analysts and policymakers need to understand business activity and the process of job creation to enable informed decision making. One novel feature of the BDS is that the activity of young entrepreneurial businesses can be comprehensively tracked by industry, state and over time.

“The dynamics of businesses in our economy are so important to our economic growth, yet this is an area we are just beginning to understand. These data give the public, policy makers and researchers access to business dynamics information in a level of detail we have never had before,” said Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The Business Dynamics Statistics results from a collaboration between the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The information is compiled from a database of establishments and firms tracked over time known as the Longitudinal Business Database.

The Business Dynamics Statistics provide annual statistics from 1976 to 2005 by firm age and size. Annual files are also provided at the state level for Standard Industrial Classification sectors and for the economy as a whole.

[ Read the full press release. ]

Posted by ronbo at 10:07 AM

February 17, 2009

From ResourceShelf: State data resources

"Stateline.org has put together a comprehensive list of state data available online. Organized by issue, you will find useful links to essential information from government, academia, and think tanks."

Posted by ronbo at 05:56 PM

February 13, 2009

From Census Bureau Tip Sheet No. 3 (1/30/09):Recently released data from the U.S. Census

Recently Released

American Community Survey

American Community Survey 2005-2007 PUMS Data — Jan. 16 — These Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files are an extract of the full data set, released in a manner that avoids disclosure of information about households or individuals. PUMS files allow advanced data users to create customized tabulations beyond the standard tables. Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/PUMS/>.

Demographic

Educational Attainment in the United States: 2007 — Jan. 28 — This report provides a portrait of academic achievement by demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, race and Hispanic origin at the regional and state level. It also specifies data for the native-born and foreign-born. Workers’ median earnings by educational attainment are shown, broken out by sex, race and Hispanic origin.
Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/013234.html>.

Profile of Older Workers: 2004 — The Census Bureau has been releasing a series of state reports on workers 55 and older. Alabama’s report was released Jan. 29 and California’s on Jan. 26. Previously released reports are available at <http://lehd.did.census.gov/led/library/profiles_2007.html>.

Economic

2007 Service Annual Survey: Information Sector Services — Jan. 29 — These data show revenues for establishments typically engaged in activities associated with transforming information into a commodity. From cultural products, such as motion pictures, to the distribution of information through different media, such as wireless signals for cell phones, this sector covers everything from production and processing to distribution of information. Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/service_industries/013158.html>.

2007 Service Annual Survey: Securities, Commodity Contracts and Other Financial Investments — Jan. 22 — These data provide statistics on business spending for new and used structures and equipment, including all domestic, private, nonfarm businesses. These figures are critical to evaluate productivity growth, the ability of U.S. business to compete with foreign business, changes in industrial capacity and measures of overall economic performance. Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/economic_surveys/013150.html>.

[ Read more at the Full Tip Sheet ]

Posted by ronbo at 03:14 PM

From SCF list: 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances Data Release

Dear SCF User,
This afternoon we are posting the public version of the data and documentation from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/oss/oss2/2007/scf2007home.html. Two items are missing from this initial posting: the extended tables we usually offer that expand on those in the Federal Reserve Bulleting articles about the survey (see http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/default.htm) and the tabling wizard. These files have been delayed by technical problems; we expect them to be posted on February 17th. The new format of the SCF chartbook offers much of the information normally found in the tables.

Some of the data and documentation are being changed for survey years before 2007 (see http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/oss/oss2/changes.html). In addition to correcting a number of small errors and clarifying some points, we are also providing somewhat expanded data from the 2004 survey. Users of the data and documentation are encouraged to refresh any local copies they have of such information from the SCF.

Best wishes from the SCF team!

Posted by ronbo at 02:47 PM

Minorities at Risk (MAR) Releases 2004-2006 Quantitative Update

The Minorities at Risk Project is pleased to announce the release of
updated quantitative data for its core dataset. This update covers 282
ethnopolitical groups for the years 2004 to 2006. The new data are
available on MAR’s website at www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/data.asp. Updated
qualitative data will be available through the same site in March.

In 2006, MAR project staff conducted a review of the approximately 400
variables that had been part of the various phases of the MAR project
with special attention to the 125 variables that were the focus of Phase
IV. Project staff identified several categories of variables: those most
frequently used in scholarly analysis; those somewhat used in scholarly
analysis; and those only rarely used or not used at all in scholarly
analysis. Additionally, project staff also noted what variables were
central to multiple theories of ethnic conflict. Based on the analysis
and in consultation with the MAR Advisory Board, a total of 71 variables
were selected as being “core” variables. Of the “core” variables, some
-- including the most frequently used variables in past analyses -- are
unchanged from previous phases of the MAR dataset. Other variables were
reformulated to facilitate either collection or statistical analysis of
the data. Finally, several variables were added to the dataset.

Project staff members are currently reviewing past coding systematically
in order to release a single, integrated dataset coded on an annual
basis from 1980 through 2006. This effort focuses initially on variables
in the first 2 categories, with some attention given to reformulated
variables. Back-coding of new variables and reformulated variables that
can not be constructed from previously coded data will not be undertaken
until funding sources can be procured for such an endeavor.

Minorities at Risk Project
Center for International Development and Conflict Management
University of Maryland
(301) 405-7019
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar
minpro@cidcm.umd.edu

Posted by ronbo at 01:36 PM

January 30, 2009

ANES Announcement: Release of the ANES waves of the 2008-2009 Panel Study

An "Advance Release" of the 2008-2009 Panel Study dataset and documentation is now available for download from the ANES website. This release includes the data from the ANES waves completed in 2008.

To download the dataset, or to visit the study page and learn more about the survey, please visit our Data Center at:
http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter_all.htm.
The 2008-2009 Panel Study appears in the blue box to the left of the page, just under the ANES Cumulative Data File.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The dataset and all accompanying documentation currently available for the 2008-2009 Panel Study are an "Advance Release." The advance release data allow interested users to analyze political data collected so far, with the caveats that the advance release data are preliminary and are subject to revision and the documentation is not complete. Standard ANES data quality control procedures have not been completed with these data, so users should expect to find errors and inconsistencies in the data file.

If you identify any errors or inconsistencies, if you have questions, or if we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by email to: anes@electionstudies.org

The ANES is a collaboration of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) at Stanford University, with funding by the National Science Foundation.

Posted by ronbo at 05:03 PM

January 23, 2009

From Resource Shelf: Fast Facts: Pocket Guide to Transportation 2009

From the Web Site:

"The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), has published the Pocket Guide to Transportation 2009– a 50-page quick reference guide to informative transportation data."

Direct to Pocket Guide at BTS

Resource Shelf

Posted by ronbo at 05:38 PM

From Census Product Update (1/23/09): Hot Tip - Health Insurance

Health insurance statistics are always a hot topic! See our health insurance web page which has definitions, reports, links to related sites, frequently asked questions, working papers, and more! Take some time to browse this important site today, or bookmark it for future use!

Posted by ronbo at 01:32 PM

From Census Product Update (1/23/09): Fact of the Day - Health Care and Social Assistance

Overall, health care and social assistance revenue increased 6.8 percent in 2007 to $1.66 trillion, up from $1.56 trillion in 2006. Revenue for continuing care retirement communities grew 10.1 percent to $20 billion. Revenue for hospitals grew 6.5 percent in 2007 to $687 billion. Revenue for physicians’ offices increased 5.6 percent to $346 billion and revenue for dentists’ offices increased 6.5 percent to $94 billion.

These tabulations, and more, come from the 2007 Service Annual Survey: Health Care and Social Assistance, which focuses on health care and social assistance providers for individuals, and gives estimates and sources of revenue for businesses with paid employees.

Posted by ronbo at 01:30 PM

January 14, 2009

Census Product Update (12/23/2008): Hot Tip - On The Map - New Version!

The U.S. Census Bureau has just released a new version of its Local Employment Dynamics mapping tool, OnTheMap, with five years of employment and industry data for local areas in 46 partner states accessible free online.

OnTheMap Version 3 application allows users to:

* Perform Area Profile and Shed Analyses for work and home areas in both local and regional geographies;
* Define custom areas for detailed analyses
* Illustrate flows of workers across state borders
* Produce and export reports and maps
* View time-series animation over the five available years of data; and
* Perform highly specialized analyses using OnTheMap microdata available by download from the Cornell Virtual Research Data Center.

Version 3.2 adds New York as the 46th State to the mapping tool for the first time, with additional geographic rollups for Shed Analyses. OnTheMap is supported by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor and the state partners in the Local Employment Dynamics partnership with the Census Bureau. You can access OnTheMap by selecting "Local Employment Dynamics" at http://www.census.gov and then OnTheMap under Quick Links, or directly at http://lehd.did.census.gov. Comments should be sent to CES.Local.Employment.Dynamics@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 05:37 PM

January 13, 2009

From the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank: St. Louis Fed Announces Creation of Financial Crisis Timeline Web Site

Dec. 22 — The St. Louis Fed has created a new web site with information about the financial crisis. The site—The Financial Crisis: A Timeline of Events and Policy Actions—outlines events in financial markets from February 2007 to the present. The timeline includes brief descriptions of market events and actions by the Fed and other government agencies, along with links to press releases, SEC filings, congressional testimony and related St. Louis Fed articles.

Posted by ronbo at 06:35 PM

January 09, 2009

Census Product Update - January 9, 2009: Hot Tip - Take Advantage of the Estimates Web Page!

Take advantage of the rich source of information found through our Estimates web page! From the Census Bureau home page, click “Estimates.” Note the drop-down options as you roll your mouse over each of the menu items on the orange bar at the top of the page. Each menu item provides a range of options including analyses of the estimates, graphics, geographic topics, archives, and more! Become familiar with this important and informative web page!

Posted by ronbo at 01:40 PM

December 11, 2008

Census Product Update (11/28/2008) - Hot Tip: American Community Survey 2005-2007 Data Release

On Dec. 9, the Census Bureau will release the first set of three-year American Community Survey data for all geographies with populations greater than 20,000. The release will provide the first look at detailed socioeconomic and housing characteristics for geographies between 20,000 and 64,999 since Census 2000.

Posted by ronbo at 05:30 PM

Census Product Update (11/28/2008) - Fact of the Day: North American Transportation Statistics Database

This on-line database presents information on transportation and transportation-related activities among Canada, the United States and Mexico, both within individual countries and between the countries. This database, presented in French, English, and Spanish, is accessible in table and time series formats, and covers twelve thematic areas including; transportation and the economy, transportation safety, transportation's impact on energy and the environment, passenger and freight activity, and transportation and trade.

The database currently contains 31 tables with additions planned for the future, and allows users to obtain both value data in any of the three national currencies and volume data in metric or U.S. measurement units via the time series function. Data in table or time series format can be printed or downloaded for further processing and analysis. For most tables, data are available for 1990, 1995 to 2004. The data will be updated on a regular basis, thus a few tables already contain more recent data.

Posted by ronbo at 05:27 PM

U.S. Census Bureau News (11/26/2008) - 2007 State Government Finances

Complete information on the financial activity of all 50 state governments. Data cover revenues by type (taxes and federal aid), expenditures by character (current operations, capital outlay, payments to other governments), expenditures by function (welfare, health, education, natural resources), indebtedness, and cash and security holdings. Complete statistics on local government finances will be released in the summer of 2009 from the 2007 Census of Governments. Internet address: http://www.census.gov/govs/www/state07.html.

Posted by ronbo at 05:25 PM

December 09, 2008

American Community Survey Alert, Number 62

(Released December 9, 2008)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and
other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

(Note to subscribers: If you have trouble with any of the links in this
Alert, please copy and paste the link into the address line of your
browser. The page will then come up.)

December 9, 2008 -- Release of 2005-2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing,
and Demographic 3-Year Estimates

The U.S. Census Bureau today released 3-year ACS estimates for the first
time. These 3-year estimates are based on data collected from 2005 to 2007
and are published for all geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or
more. Of particular interest are data for midsize population areas (20,000
to 64,999). Characteristics for these areas have not been released since
the last decennial census in 2000.

These estimates describe the average characteristics for the 3-year time
period (January 2005 through December 2007. Guidance on how to use the new
ACS multiyear estimates can be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/myeoverview.html.

The press release highlighting the release of the 2005-2007 ACS estimates
can be found at:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/012955.html.

The ACS Compass Products - Presentations

The Census Bureau has released a set of presentations as part of The ACS
Compass Products. These presentations provide important information on
various aspects of the American Community Survey and were developed for two
main purposes: (1) for individual use to learn more about the ACS and (2)
to provide a wide audience with the tools needed to conduct training on the
ACS. Each presentation consists of approximately 35 PowerPoint slides and
the accompanying speakers’ notes. They will soon also be available as
multimedia files. The presentation topics are:

An Overview of the American Community Survey presents the basics of the
American Community Survey program and Website. It includes information on
content, survey methodology, and data products.

Things that May Affect Estimates from the American Community Survey
presents a discussion of sampling error and other things that affect
American Community Survey estimates, such as non-sampling error and
population controls.

Understanding Multiyear Estimates in the American Community Survey details
the definition, use, and interpretation of multiyear estimates.

Data Products from the American Community Survey presents an overview of
the American Community Survey data products, including examples of each
product.

Geographic Areas and Concepts for the American Community Survey gives an
overview of the types of geographic areas for which data are available from
the ACS.

The ACS Compass Products may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/compass_series.html

If you have questions, comments, or identify any areas of concern with The
ACS Compass Products, we would like to hear from you. Please contact us by
email at acso.users.support@census.gov.

Archival of Data Prior to 2005

The ACS Archive Files for 2000-2004 that were temporarily removed from the
Census FTP site are now available. The ACS 2000–2004 archival files now
follow a consistent format, similar to the ACS 2007 files available on the
Census FTP site. In addition, the Detailed Tables for these years are
available again on American FactFinder. For more information, please
reference the README_2000_2004_FTP_Archives.pdf located on:
http://www2.census.gov/acs/downloads/Core_Tables/.

A Look Ahead: 2005-2007 ACS Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Files Will Be Released in Early 2009

The 2005-2007 PUMS file will be released in early 2009. This multiyear PUMS
file will contain the same sample of actual responses provided in the 2005,
2006, and 2007 One-Year PUMS files, with new weights.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey,
please call (800) 923-8282 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 07:40 PM

December 01, 2008

From Census Product Update (11/28/2008): Hot Tip - American Community Survey 2005-2007 Data Release

Posted by ronbo at 03:34 PM

From Census Product Update (11/28/2008): Fact of the Day - North American Transportation Statistics Database

Posted by ronbo at 01:59 PM

November 14, 2008

Census Update - Fact of the Day: Holiday Rush

November 14, 2008 (see original)

$30.5 billion - - Retail sales by the nation's department stores (including leased departments) in December 2007. This represented a 42 percent jump from the previous month (when retail sales, many holiday-related, registered $21.5 billion). No other month-to-month increase in department store sales last year was as large.

Other U.S. retailers with sizable jumps in sales between November and December 2007 were book stores (78 percent); clothing stores (37 percent); jewelry stores (137 percent); radio, TV and other electronics stores (46 percent); and sporting goods stores (53 percent). Find this information and more at the Service Sector Statistics webpage.

[PDF] denotes a file in Adobe’s Portable Document Format. To view the file, you will need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader This link to a non-federal Web site does not imply endorsement of any particular product, company, or content. available free from Adobe.

Posted by ronbo at 07:17 PM

Census Update - Hot Tip: New Series of American Community Survey Handbooks!

November 14, 2008 (see original)

The Census Bureau has worked closely with a group of experts to develop a series of handbooks, each of which is designed to instruct and provide guidance regarding the American Community Survey to particular audiences. The series is called, A Compass for Understanding and Using American Community Survey Data. Series titles are listed below and began release in October 2008, to be continued on a flow-basis.

* What General Data Users Need to Know [PDF 1.7MB]
* What the Business Community Needs to Know [PDF 1.4MB]
* What High School Teachers Need to Know
* What the Media Needs to Know
* What Congress Needs to Know
* What State and Local Governments Need to Know
* What Federal Agencies Need to Know
* What Researchers Need to Know
* What Users of Data for Rural Areas Need to Know
* What Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) Data Users Need to Know
* What Users of Data for American Indian and Alaska Native Populations Need to Know
* What Users of Data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey Need to Know (in Spanish)

Posted by ronbo at 07:09 PM

October 31, 2008

Selections from Census Product Update (10/31/2008): Fact of the Day & Hot Tip

Fact of the Day
State and Local Employees

Local governments accounted for 12.1 million full-time equivalent employees, and state governments had 4.3 million. Most full-time equivalent state and local employees worked in education (8.8 million), hospitals (989,000), police protection (933,000) and corrections (731,000). These data, and much more, are available on our web site. The census of governments is taken at five-year intervals in years ending in 2 and 7. We also conduct an annual public employment survey that provides estimates for years in which the census is not conducted and parallels that of the census of governments.

Hot Tip
New Data Tool Available

A new online search tool known as Build-a-Table is now available to help users find data. Users can search for employment and payroll data by state, level of government (i.e. state, local, or state and local combined) and function of government (i.e. education, health, highways) for censuses in 1997, 2002 and 2007. All governments across the country were surveyed.

Hot Links

* Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/index.html

Posted by ronbo at 04:05 PM

October 27, 2008

From American Community Survey Alert 60 - Revised

(Released October 27, 2008)

* The ACS Compass Products
Over the next six months, the Census Bureau will be releasing a series of
handbooks, a set of presentations, and an e-learning tutorial to provide
guidance to users on how to understand and best use ACS data. This set of
educational materials is called the ACS Compass Products. Today marks the
first release of ACS Compass Products and includes the following two
audience-specific handbooks in PDF format:

What General Data Users Need to Know - This handbook helps general
audiences understand the basics of the ACS, its opportunities and
challenges, and how to access and use the ACS data on the Census Bureau’s
Web site. It includes concrete examples of how ACS data can be used to
answer real-world questions about our society.

What the Business Community Needs to Know – This handbook acknowledges that
to make effective use of the ACS, businesses need to understand how ACS
data are collected and reported, and their advantages and limitations
relative to the long form data previously collected during the decennial
census. This handbook describes the data products available from the ACS
and how to access them. Examples are provided with step-by-step
instructions on accessing the data.

The ACS Compass Products handbooks may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/compass_series.html

** A Look Ahead

December 9, 2008 -- Release of 2005-2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and
Demographic 3-Year Estimates

On December 9, 2008 the U.S. Census Bureau will introduce 3-year ACS
estimates. These 3-year estimates will be based on data collected from 2005
to 2007 and will include all geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or
more. Of particular interest will be data released for midsize population
areas (20,000 to 64,999.) Characteristics for these areas have not been
released since the last decennial census in 2000.

***ACS Resources

The ACS Web site recently was redesigned to make navigation easier and to
help users find the information they need more quickly. Information about
the 2007 Data Release can be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/index.html.

The Census Bureau's Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2007 ACS
data to 2006 ACS data, as well as comparing 2007 ACS data to Census 2000
data. This guidance may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm.

Information about ACS data products and published geographies may be found
at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/.

2007 ACS data may be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_submenuId=&_lang=en&_ts=

ACS data products from 1996 through 1999, except Congressional Web Page and
Fact Sheets, are archived on the ACS FTP site:
http://www2.census.gov/acs/downloads/Core_Tables.

Errata Notes page may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Errata.htm.

****Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey,
please call (800) 923-8282 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 02:44 PM

October 21, 2008

Selections from Census Update (October 16, 2008)

Housing

American Housing Survey: 2007. (PDF - 6.82 MB) The American Housing Survey (AHS) is conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The survey collects data on the nation's housing, including apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant housing units, household characteristics, income, housing, neighborhood quality, and much more. National data are collected in odd numbered years, and data for each of 47 selected metropolitan areas are collected currently about every six years. The AHS returns to the same housing units year after year to gather data; therefore, this survey is ideal for analyzing the flow of households through housing.

Small Area Health Insurance Estimates: 2005. Interactive tables, maps, and downloadable files containing estimates of health insurance coverage for all counties and states. Data are provided by age, sex, and income at the county level, and, in addition to these characteristics, by race and Hispanic origin at the state level. The estimates are based on models combining data from a variety of sources, including the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, Census 2000, administrative records, and population estimates.

Economic Census and Surveys

2008 Capital Spending Report: US Capital Spending Patterns, 1999-2006. A look at capital expenditure patterns from 1999 to 2006 reveals data about firms with and without employees, expenditures for structures and equipment, and expenditures for major industry sectors. The data comes from the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey.

Older Worker Profiles. Reports (will be released for each of over 30 states) providing a detailed picture of workers 55 and older at the county and metropolitan area levels for 2004. Based on data from the Local Employment Dynamics program, the reports highlight the age of the states' work force, job gains, and losses, industries in which older workers are concentrated, job stability, and earnings.

Government

Consolidated Federal Funds Report for Fiscal Year 2007 (PDF - 5.27 MB) and Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2007 (PDF - 3.65 MB). These two reports provide an overview of federal spending at the national, state and county levels. The data are obtained from federal agencies and describe spending for procurement contracts, salaries and wages, direct payments, loans and insurance, as well as federal grants to state and local governments.

See full Census Update for more.

Posted by ronbo at 03:09 AM

October 17, 2008

Updates from the European Social Survey (ESS) Data Archive

- Cumulative data file for the first three rounds of the ESS
- New editions of data from the first three rounds of the ESS
- Users' deposit requirements

Cumulative data file for the first three rounds of the ESS
The file was published on http://ess.nsd.uib.no on 16 October 2008. The file contains core module data from countries that have fielded at least two of the first three ESS rounds.

New editions of the first three rounds of the ESS
ESS1-2002 edition 6.1, ESS2-2004 edition 3.1 and ESS3-2006 edition 3.2 of the integrated files with data from the core and rotating modules were published on http://ess.nsd.uib.no on 16 October 2008.
For further details please see the version notes available from
http://ess-xml.nsd.uib.no/ny/25_Version_notes2.cfm?year=2002
http://ess-xml.nsd.uib.no/ny/25_Version_notes2.cfm?year=2004
http://ess-xml.nsd.uib.no/ny/25_Version_notes2.cfm?year=2006

Users' deposit requirements
To provide funding agencies with essential information about the use of ESS data and to facilitate the exchange of information about the ESS, users of ESS data are required to register bibliographic citations of all forms of publications referring to ESS data in the ESS on-line bibliography database at http://ess.nsd.uib.no

With best wishes,
The ESS data team at Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD)

Posted by ronbo at 04:35 PM

October 16, 2008

From Census Product Update - October 16, 2008

Fact of the Day
Capital Expenditures By US Businesses

Capital spending by all US businesses rose 14.3 percent to a record high $1.31 trillion, in 2006. This represents a $165 billion increase from the $1.14 trillion in capital spending reported in 2005 and surpasses the previous high of $1.16 trillion in 2000.

These data come from the Census Bureau's 2008 Capital Spending Report: US Capital Spending Patterns, 1999 - 2006. Find out much more at the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey website!

Hot Tip
International Statistics!

The International Programs Center (IPC) is part of the US Census Bureau Population Division. It conducts demographic and socioeconomic studies and strengthens statistical development around the world through technical assistance, training, and software products. For over 50 years IPC has assisted in the collection, processing, analysis, dissemination, and use of statistics with counterpart governments throughout the world. Check out their website, including these handy links to international statistical agencies!

Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/index.html

Posted by ronbo at 03:02 PM

October 07, 2008

Recent MEPS (Medical Expenditure Panel Survey) Data Products (October 7, 2008)

MEPS HC-102F: 2006 Outpatient Visits File

Release Date: September 2008

This public use file is one in a series of event-level public use files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS (and SPSS) program statements and in SAS transport format, the Outpatient Visits File provides detailed information on outpatient visits. Data are gathered from a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of outpatient utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2005. Each record represents one, household-reported, outpatient visit reported during the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2 and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006). The Outpatient Visits Public Use Data File contains characteristics associated with the outpatient visit and imputed expenditure data such as the date of the visit, whether or not a doctor was seen, type of care received, type of services provided, expenditures and sources of payment, and imputed sources of payment. The data is on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102F

MEPS HC-102G: 2006 Office-Based Medical Provider Visits File

Release Date: September 2008

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS (and SPSS) program statements and in SAS transport format, the Medical Provider Visits File provides detailed information on office-based medical provider visits. Data are gathered from a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of office-based medical provider utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2006. Each record represents one household-reported office-based medical provider visit reported during the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006). The Office-Based Provider Public Use Data File contains characteristics associated with the office-based visit, such as, date of the visit, time spent with the provider, types of treatment and services received, types of medicine prescribed, condition codes, expenditures, source of payment associated with the visit and imputed expenditure variables. The data is on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102G

MEPS HC-102E: 2006 Emergency Room Visits

Release Date: September 2008

This public use file is one in a series of event-level public use files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS (and SPSS) program statements and in SAS transport format, the Emergency Room Visits File provides detailed information on emergency room visits. Data are gathered from a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of emergency room utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2006. Each record represents one, household-reported, emergency room visit reported during the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). The Emergency Room Visits Public Use Data File contains characteristics associated with the emergency room visit, such as, the date of the visit, types of care and services received, types of medicine prescribed during the visit, condition codes, expenditures, and source of payment associated with the visit, and imputed expenditure variables. The data is on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102E

MEPS HC-102H: 2006 Home Health

Release Date: August 2008

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Household-reported information on expenditures for home health visits including the type of provider, type of services received, length of the visit, reason for the visit, expenditures, and sources of payment. Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on home health care for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with home health care during the 2006 calendar year. This file consists of 2006 data obtained in the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006). The data is on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102H

MEPS HC-102C: 2006 Other Medical Expenses

Release Date: August 2008

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on the purchase of and expenditures for medical equipment, supplies, glasses and other medical items for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with medical items during the 2006 calendar year. This file consists of 2006 data obtained in the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006). The data is on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102C

MEPS HC-102B: 2006 Dental Visits

Release Date: August 2008

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, the Dental Visits File provides detailed information on dental events for a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States during the 2006 calendar year. This file consists of 2006 data obtained in the 2006 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 10, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2006 portion of round 3 for Panel 11 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2006), and contains variables pertaining to household reported dental visits. The file includes the date of the dental event, type of provider seen, if the visit was due to an accident, reason for the dental event, and whether or not medicines were prescribed. The data is on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-102B

Posted by ronbo at 08:26 PM

From Census Product Update (October 3, 2008): Fact of the Day - Federal Government Expenditures in 2007

Retirement and disability payments to individuals accounted for $783 billion (more than 30 percent) of total federal spending in 2007. Of that amount, 80 percent, or $623 billion, went to Social Security recipients. Social Security was composed of retirement insurance payments ($369 billion), survivors insurance ($113 billion), disability insurance ($105 billion) and supplemental security income payments ($36 billion). You can find these and other highlights from the Consolidated Federal Funds Report: 2007 (PDF - 5.27 MB) on our web site.

Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/index.html

Posted by ronbo at 08:02 PM

From Census Product Update (October 3, 2008): Hot Tip - Need Historic ACS Data?

Recently, all ACS data products for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 were removed from the American FactFinder (AFF) and placed on a special FTP site. However, users reported problems with the files on this site, and the Census Bureau decided to pull this site down until the problems can be fixed. We expect to resolve the problems soon and will restore the FTP site.

In the meantime, for years 2002, 2003, and 2004, Detailed Tables, Profiles, and Ranking Tables are available for downloading on:

http://www2.census.gov/acs2002/
http://www2.census.gov/acs2003/
http://www2.census.gov/acs2004/

For years between 1999 and 2003, Profiles, Multiyear Profiles, and Change Profiles are available at links below. In addition, ranking tables for years 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 are also available on the ACS Website.

2003 Data Profiles
2003 Multiyear Profiles
2002 Data Profiles
2001-2002 Change Profiles
2000-2002 Change Profiles
2001 Data Profiles
2000-2001 Change Profiles
2000 Data Profiles

Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/index.html

Posted by ronbo at 07:45 PM

ANES Announcement: Questionnaire Outlines are on the Online Commons

The ANES is pleased to announce the schedule for the release of our
Pre-Election and Post-Election Questionnaires. The full questionnaires
will be released after the study data collection is completed. The
Pre-Election questionnaire will be available through our website beginning
on November 14, 2008; the Post-Election questionnaire will be available
through our website beginning on January 15, 2009. Outlines of the topics
covered in the Pre-Election and Post-Election questionnaires can now be
viewed by all members of our Online Commons community.

To read more about Online Commons membership, please go to:
http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons/overview.htm
Becoming an Online Commons member gains you access to information not
shared with the general public. To become a member of the Online Commons,
please go to:
http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

Posted by ronbo at 07:16 PM

September 29, 2008

From MAR (Minorities at Risk) list: New dataset on ethnically based organizations released

The Minorities at Risk project is pleased to announce the release of the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior (MAROB) dataset for the Middle East and North Africa. This new dataset covers 112 organizations representing 22 ethnic groups in 12 countries, providing information on 163 variables on an annual basis from 1980-2004. Variables included cover organizational characteristics, state-organization relations, external support, and organizational behavior (nonviolent, violent and criminal).

The MAROB data (in ASCII, SPSS and STATA formats) and codebook are available at www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/data.asp. Please direct any questions about the dataset or codebook to Mary Michael, the MAR Project Coordinator at minpro@cidcm.umd.edu.

MAROB is a project of the Minorities at Risk Project (www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar) and is sponsored by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management (www.cidcm.umd.edu) and the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (www.start.umd.edu), both based at the University of Maryland.

Please feel free to circulate this announcement as appropriate.

Minorities at Risk Project
Center for International Development and Conflict Management
University of Maryland
(301) 405-7019
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar
minpro@cidcm.umd.edu

Posted by ronbo at 01:12 PM

September 26, 2008

News Release: GDP by Metropolitan Area for 2006 and Revised 2004-2005

From the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA):

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008
BEA 08—44

METROPOLITAN ECONOMIC GROWTH WIDESPREAD IN 2006
2006 and Revised 2004-2005 GDP-by-Metropolitan-Area Statistics

Newly available statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that real GDP by metropolitan area grew in 308 of 363 metropolitan (statistical) areas in 2006. Growth in the metropolitan portion of the United States was 3.2 percent in 2006, slightly greater than the 3.1 percent growth in 2005.1 Strong growth in financial industries—specifically real estate and securities, commodity contracts, and investments—accounted for 39 percent of U.S. metropolitan area GDP growth in 2006. Contraction in the construction industry tempered growth in most metropolitan areas.

For more info

Posted by ronbo at 06:18 PM

September 23, 2008

American Community Survey Alert, Number 59

(Released September 23, 2008)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and Demographic 1- Year Estimates
** A Look Ahead – New Releases: The ACS Compass Products and 2005-2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and Demographic 3-Year Estimates
***Contact Us

* Release of 2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and Demographic 1-Year Estimates

The Census Bureau today released 2007 ACS social, economic, housing and demographic 1-year estimates for areas with populations of 65,000 or more. The 1-year 2007 ACS Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) files were also released today. Below are a sample of topics included in today’s release:

*Educational attainment
*Industry
*Occupation
*Class of worker
*Journey to work
*Employment status
*Work status
*Veteran status
*Housing
*Households and families
*Marital status
*Migration

The Census Bureau's Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2007 ACS data to 2006 ACS data, as well as comparing 2007 ACS data to Census 2000 data. This guidance can be found at: <
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm>.

Information about the 2007 Data Release can be found at: <
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/index.html>.

Information about ACS data products and published geographies can be found
at: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/>.

Information about ACS user notes can be found at: <
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/usernotes.html>.

ACS data for 2005 through 2007 can be found on the Census Bureau's American
FactFinder: <
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_submenuId=&_lang=en&_ts=
> >.

** A Look Ahead

October 2008 - The ACS Compass Products

The Census Bureau has worked closely with a group of experts to develop The ACS Compass Products, a series of handbooks, tutorials, and presentations designed to help users understand ACS data.

The first of the ACS Compass Products, the handbooks, will be released on a flow basis beginning in October 2008.

December 9, 2008 -- Release of 2005-2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and Demographic 3-Year Estimates

In December, the U.S. Census Bureau will introduce 3-year estimates, providing a first look at the characteristics of midsize population areas (20,000 to 64,999) since the last decennial census in 2000. The 3-year estimates will be based on data collected from 2005 to 2007 and will include all geographic areas with populations of 20,000 or more.

***Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (800) 923-8282 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 01:27 PM

September 19, 2008

From Census Product Update (9/19/2008): Hot Tip - 2007 American Community Survey Characteristics Data

On September 23, 2008, the Census Bureau will release 2007 data on social, economic, housing and demographic characteristics. These data cover topics ranging from language to education, from family size to work commute, and are available for more than 7,000 areas, including all congressional districts as well as counties, cities, metro areas, and American Indian and Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more. Special population profiles and Public Use Microdata Sample data will also be released. Data will also be available from the Puerto Rico Community Survey.

Posted by ronbo at 10:20 AM

September 05, 2008

From Census Product Update (September 4, 2008): Hot Tip - American Community Survey - A Look Ahead

On Sept. 23, 2008 the Census Bureau will release 2007 ACS social, economic and, housing characteristics, demographic and housing single-year estimates for areas with populations of 65,000 or more, and 2007 Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) single-year data for Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMA) with populations of 100,000 or more. The data will consist of:

* Educational attainment
* Industry
* Occupation
* Class of worker
* Journey to work
* Employment status
* Work status
* Veteran status
* Housing
* Households and families
* Marital status
* Migration

The first set of three-year estimates for data collected between 2005 and 2007 will be released in December. These include the first ACS estimates for areas with populations between 20,000 and 64,999.

Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/index.html

Posted by ronbo at 03:50 PM

August 26, 2008

American Community Survey Alert, Number 58

(Released August 26, 2008)

U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2007 American Community Survey Data on Income, Poverty, and Earnings

The Census Bureau today released income, poverty, and earnings data from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS), in conjunction with the Census Bureau's annual release of income, poverty, and health insurance data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey.

These data and general information about today's release may be found at: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/news_conferences/012515.html.

Data are again available for the nation, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district and all counties, places, school districts, and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

The Census Bureau's Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2007 ACS data to 2006 ACS data, as well as comparing 2007 ACS data to Census 2000 data. This guidance may be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm.

The ACS Web site recently was redesigned to make navigation easier and to help users find the information they need more quickly. Information aboutthe 2007 Data Release can be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/index.html.

Income, poverty, and earnings data from the 2007 ACS FTP site may be found at: http://www2.census.gov/acs2007_1yr/prod/.

Information about ACS data products and published geographies may be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/.

All ACS data from years 2005 through 2007 may be found on the Census
Bureau's American FactFinder: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_submenuId=&_lang=en&_ts=

All of the ACS data products from 1996 through 2004, except Congressional Web Page and Fact Sheets, are archived on the ACS FTP site: http://www2.census.gov/acs/downloads/Core_Tables.

Today’s release also includes updates to our Errata Notes page, which may be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Errata.htm.

A Look Ahead – September 23, 2008 Release of 2007 ACS Social, Economic, Housing, and Demographic Data

*Educational attainment
*Industry
*Occupation
*Class of worker
*Journey to work
*Employment status
*Work status
*Veteran status
*Housing
*Households and families
*Marital status
*Migration

***Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey,
please call (800) 923-8282 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 01:19 PM

August 22, 2008

From Census Product Update - August 22, 2008: Download More Geographies Using Download Center

Posted by ronbo at 03:02 PM

August 20, 2008

American Community Survey Alert, Number 57

(released August 20, 2008)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

* A New Look for the ACS Website

The Census Bureau today released the first of several planned changes to the ACS Website. The redesign, implemented in part as a response to numerous requests from data users and stakeholders, includes a streamlined main page where information is logically grouped allowing users to find what they are seeking more quickly and efficiently.

A 2007 ACS Data Release page will feature the full 2007 ACS data release schedule and offer clearly-marked sections directing users to data products and guidance on making comparisons, information on using the 2007 data, and what’s new for 2007. Users should find it easier to navigate the ACS Website and to locate and access the information they need.

The updated Website may be viewed at: www.census.gov/acs.

** A Look Ahead – The First 2007 ACS Data

The Census Bureau will release income, poverty, and earnings data from the 2007 ACS, in conjunction with the Census Bureau's annual release of income, poverty, and health insurance data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey on August 26, 2008. The second release of 2007 ACS data will occur on September 23.

***Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey,
please call (800) 923-8282 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 02:28 PM

August 08, 2008

From Census Update - August 8, 2008: Hot Tip - Download Entire Data Sets in QuickFacts!

For many years, State and County QuickFacts has provided a convenient sampler of the range of data available at the county level from the Census Bureau. In addition to the simple one-area-at-a-time display, QuickFacts enables users to download the entire dataset in an ASCII .csv format! The QuickFacts download file provides many of the numbers in both percentage and raw form for easy analysis but full flexibility for comparisons and ranking. The download file contains data for the U.S., states, counties, and cities with 25,000 or more inhabitants. Don't overlook this valuable resource!

Posted by ronbo at 04:09 PM

June 30, 2008

New IPUMS-International data!

Dear IPUMS User:

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the latest expansion of the IPUMS-International data series. In June 2008 we added 32 new samples. The data release includes 9 new countries -- Austria, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Malaysia, Netherlands, Panama, and United Kingdom -- as well as additional samples for China, Colombia, Mexico, United States, and Venezuela. The data series now contains 263 million person records from 111 censuses in 35 countries.

In addition to adding more samples, we have constructed location-of-mother and location-of- father data for all samples in the data series. The parental locators identify the record number within the household of each person's mother or father.

Finally, we significantly improved the variable display and data extraction systems -- adding new features and giving users more viewing options.

You can read more about the expanded data series at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html. As always, we welcome your feedback.

We are still accepting nominations for the best overall and best graduate student papers that use the IPUMS-International data. Deadline for submissions is July 15. Details are available at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html#ipumsi_awards.

Regards,
The IPUMS Team
ipums@pop.umn.edu

Posted by ronbo at 03:38 PM

June 27, 2008

Save the Date for MEPS Data User Workshop

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)

AHRQ will conduct a two-day hands-on HCUP and MEPS Data Users Workshop in Rockville, MD on September 24-25, 2008. Registration materials would be available on MEPS website mid-July.

Day 1 of the workshop will consist of lectures designed to provide a general overview of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).

For any other questions email workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 04:12 PM

June 26, 2008

From Census Product Update (June 26, 2008): Hot Tip - Three Ways To Search the Census Web Site

[http://www.census.gov/]

In the upper right-hand corner of the Census web page, click "FAQs," for the Question and Answer Center. Here you can search hundreds of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or submit your question online.

Second, in the upper right hand corner of the Census home page you can type your search terms into the white text box and click "Go." This produces a search of the entire Census Bureau web site, along with the first several FAQs related to your search terms.

Third, click "Subjects A-Z" for hyperlinks to hundreds of Census subject areas and concepts.

With these methods of locating data on the web site, you will be on your way toward locating Census data!

Posted by ronbo at 09:26 AM

June 16, 2008

From Census Product Update (June 13, 2008): Hot Tip - Business "Births," Deaths," "Expansions" Tracked

A Census Bureau web site tracks business births, deaths, and expansions from one year to the next. The Statistics of U.S. Business uses the Business Information Tracking Series (BITS) to link establishments from year to year. Using this file, we are able to tabulate data for establishment births and deaths and employment expansions and contractions. In 2004, for example, there were 10,008 logging establishments; by 2004 the number had dropped by 413 establishments to 9595. In 2004, births numbered 1,155; deaths, 1,185. Employment saw a 1.9 percent drop from 2003 to 2004. Similar information is available for industries (4-digit NAICS level) for states and metro areas.

Posted by ronbo at 08:44 PM

May 17, 2008

From Census Update (5/16/2008): Hot tip - FIPS County Lookup

"Help! I have a bunch of FIPS codes and I want to find the counties they designate."

Try the Census Bureau's FIPS County Lookup. You can use it in three ways:

* Select a state name and see the FIPS codes for all the counties.
* Type in a county and see the two-digit state and three-digit county code.
* Type in the five-digit FIPS code and see the state and county names. For example, type in "32003" and you'll see this is the FIPS code for Clark County, Nevada.

The lookup also lets you download a simple text file showing the FIPS code for each county in the nation arranged by state. FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) codes are the official government identifiers for geographic areas such as counties, cities, metro areas, etc. More information.

Posted by ronbo at 12:25 AM

April 18, 2008

From Medical Expenditure Panel Study (MEPS) list: Recent MEPS Data Updates and Publications (4/18/2008)

MEPS Data Updates:

2006 Household Component Questionnaires
Release Date: March 20, 2008
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/survey_results_ques_sections.jsp?Section=All&Year1=2006&Submit1=Search

HC-098 MEPS P9 Longitudinal Data File
Release Date: February 29, 2008
This file is a two-year longitudinal file derived from the respondents to the MEPS Panel 9 sample. The persons on this data set represent those who were in the MEPS population (civilian noninstitutionalized) for all or part of the 2004-2005 period. The file contains a longitudinal weight variable (LONGWT), all variables from the 2004 and 2005 consolidated full-year files (HC-089 and HC-097, respectively), and the strata and PSU values from the full year consolidated files and the pooled variance data file (HC-036). The weight variable (LONGWT), when applied to the persons who participated in both 2004 and 2005, will enable the user to make national estimates of person-level changes in selected variables (e.g., health insurance, health status, utilization and expenditures). In addition, LONGWT can be used to develop cross-sectional type estimates for the two-year period and for each year individually based on only the Panel 9 sample. The data is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-098

Data update for HC-098: MEPS Panel 9 Longitudinal Data File
Beginning in 2008, the Longitudinal Weight File has been expanded to contain more complete and analytically useful variables from the consolidated full-year files. The new file for panel 9 is HC-098, the Longitudinal Data File, and it contains overlapping panel variables that have been renamed to facilitate longitudinal analysis.

MEPS Tabular Data:

2005 Access to Care Tables
Release Date: March 5, 2008
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables_results.jsp?component=1&subcomponent=0&year=2005&tableSeries=6&searchText=&searchMethod=1&Action=Search

Recent MEPS Publications:

Methodology Report #22: Sample Design of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component, 1998-2007
Release Date: March 6, 2008
This Methodology Report describes the sample design for the 1998-2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) and provides updates to the earlier descriptions of the 1996 and 1997 MEPS-HC sample designs. The full report is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/mr22/mr22.pdf

Statistical Brief #201: Variation in Ambulatory Health Care Visits and Visits for General Checkup by Demographic Characteristics and Insurance Status, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population Ages 18-64, 2005
Release Date: March 11, 2008
This Statistical Brief examines the differences between men and women in ambulatory health care visits (office based and hospital outpatient) and visits made for a general checkup. The comparisons between men and women are for all non-elderly adults ages 18–64 in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2005 as well as for those ages 18–44 and ages 45–64. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st201/stat201.pdf

Statistical Brief #202: Premiums in the Individual Health Insurance Market for Policyholders under Age 65: 2002 and 2005
Release Date: April 4, 2008
Using data from the 2002 and 2005 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC), this Statistical Brief examines the changes in premium levels and the population with individual health insurance between 2002 and 2005. The health insurance policies discussed provide coverage for hospital and physician services. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st202/stat202.pdf

Other AHRQ Publications:

Resource Guide to AHRQ Child and Youth Health and Health Services Data, summarizing the Agency’s datasets and tools and providing guidance for accessing and using them.

The datasets are:

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)

Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS)
Kid’s Inpatient Database (KID)
State Inpatient Databases (SID)

Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS™)

The Resource Guide also includes answers to frequently asked questions about the datasets, child-relevant data elements, and other useful information.

Free copies of the printed Resource Guide and CD-ROM are available from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse. To order the printed version (AHRQ Publication No. 07(08)-0088 or CD-ROM 07(08)-0088-CD, send an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov or call 1-800-358-9295 toll-free from within the United States.

Posted by ronbo at 04:13 PM

April 04, 2008

From Census Update: Hot Tip (4/8/08) - Orange Bar is the Key to the Estimates Web Page

The Population Estimates Program publishes total resident population estimates and demographic components of change (births, deaths, and migration) each year. At the site, don't overlook the important orange navigation bar at the top of the screen. Roll your cursor over each of the menu items to see a number of topic areas relevant to the estimates area. Become familiar with this important web page!

Posted by ronbo at 05:49 PM

March 20, 2008

From Association of Public Data Users (APDU) list: Bureau of Economic Analysis to Release Measure of Travel and Tourism Output

Monday, March 17, 2008
Contact: Thomas Dail: (202)606-2649
Paul Kern: (202)606-9596

On Wednesday, March 19, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will release quarterly estimates of tourism spending for the 4th quarter 2007, along with annual estimates of tourism spending for 2007.

The estimates, part of BEA’s Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts (TTSAs), provide a broad picture of travel and tourism spending in the U.S. and include goods and services consumed in the U.S. by domestic travelers, as well as goods and services consumed by foreign travelers visiting the U.S.

The TTSAs, available at 8:30 a.m. on BEA’s website (www.bea.gov) and by email subscription, will also include detailed estimates of the direct tourism employment in the U.S., components of direct tourism spending (such as traveler accommodations, passenger air travel, meals and souvenirs), and total tourism output.

The TTSAs can be used for the following purposes:
o To determine the shares of the goods and services sold to visitors;
o To assess the effects of travel and tourism on the U.S. economy;
o To compare national trends to locally observed trends;
o To examine the relationship among the travel and tourism industries;
o To compare travel and tourism industries to other manufacturing and services industries.

Like quarterly estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), quarterly estimates of travel and tourism spending are seasonally adjusted at annual rates.

The TTSAs are supported by funding from the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. BEA has published these estimates since July 1998. The most recent release can be found at http://bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/tourism/tournewsrelease.htm.

Posted by ronbo at 06:03 PM

March 06, 2008

Selections from Census Product Update - March 06, 2008:

Fact of the Day
Treasure Trove of Data on County and Cities!

For cities with populations of 25,000 or more, Redmond, WA was the rainiest with an annual average of 82.86 inches. Calexico, CA and El Centro, CA both had the distinction of having the lowest annual precipitation at 2.96 inches. On the subject of housing, in the year 2000, Alcona County, MI had the greatest proportion of housing units that were owner-occupied at 89.9 percent, while Bronx County, NY had the lowest such proportion at 19.6 percent. There is much more data available in our County and City Data Book, so keep this resource handy in your webpage favorites list, or order it in print!

Hot Tip
Use Census Bureau Data Effectively!

Data are always interesting for its own sake, but application of the data is the key to success. Find out how local governments, community groups, businesses, and others have utilized data from the Census Bureau to locate facilities, apply for grants, or to conduct research. Spend a few minutes reading examples of how data have been used by decision-makers to answer key questions in ways that benefit business, the individual, or the community!

Posted by ronbo at 07:13 PM

February 25, 2008

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Mailing List for MEPS Periodic Digest Update (February 2008)

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS data products and publications:

Data Updates :

Data update for HC-036BRR MEPS 1996-2005 Replicates for Calculating Variances File

This file is provided for use with pooled data from the MEPS FY 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 public use files (HC-012, HC-020, HC-028, HC-038, HC-050, HC-060, HC-070, HC-079, HC-089, and HC-097 respectively). Released as an ASCII file (with SAS user statements) and in SAS Transport format, this person-level file contains 1996-2005 combined variance stratum and PSU variables, along with the standard MEPS person ID variables for linking with the 1996-2005 MEPS person-level public use files. There is one record for each of the 169,717 persons who are on the MEPS FY 1996-2005 public use files. The data update is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_results.jsp?cboDataYear=All&cboDataType=All%2CAll&cboPufNumber=HC-036BRR&buttonPufNumber=Search

Recent MEPS Tabular Data:

New 2005 State-Level Medical Expenditure Data is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables_results.jsp?component=1&subcomponent=0&year=2005&tableSeries=8&searchText=&searchMethod=1&Action=Search

Analytical Tools:

2005 MEPSnet/Household Component Data is available on the MEPS website at:

http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPSnetHC.jsp

Recent MEPS Publications:

Statistical Brief #192: Estimates of Health Care Expenditures for the 10 Largest States, 2005

Release Date: December 3, 2007

This Statistical Brief presents variations from the national average in health care expenses for the 10 most populous States in 2005. The brief examines selected measures for the U.S. community population, including 1) the proportion of the population with selected types of expenses, 2) the average amount of expenses, and 3) the distribution of payments for health care across various sources. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st192/stat192.pdf

Statistical Brief #193: National Health Care Expenses in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2005

Release Date: December 7, 2007

Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC) and Medical Provider Component (MEPS-MPC), this Statistical Brief presents estimates of health care expenses by type of service and distributions by payment sources for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2005. Health care expenses represent payments to hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers for services reported by respondents in the MEPS-HC. These expenses are defined as direct payments by individuals, private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and other payment sources. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st193/stat193.pdf

Statistical Brief #194: Average Annual Health Care Use and Expenses for Shingles among the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2003-2005

Release Date: December 21, 2007

This Statistical Brief presents estimates based on the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) on the use of and expenditures for ambulatory care and prescribed medications to treat shingles, pain resulting from shingles, and vision complications among the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st194/stat194.pdf

Statistical Brief #195: Dental Expenditures in the 10 Largest States, 2005

Release Date: December 28, 2007

This Statistical Brief presents estimates based on data from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) on the use, costs, and sources of payment for dental expenditures for persons in the community population in 2005 for the 10 largest states and compares the results to the national average for 2005. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st195/stat195.pdf

Statistical Brief #196: Prescription Drug Expenditures in the 10 Largest States for Persons under Age 65, 2005

Release Date: December 28, 2007

Using data from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC), this Statistical Brief presents estimates for prescription drug expenditures for persons under age 65 in the 10 largest states for the year 2005 and compares these estimates to the national average. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st196/stat196.pdf

Statistical Brief #197: Medical Expenditures of the Non-Elderly by Age and Insurance Status, 2004

Release Date: January 17, 2008

This Statistical Brief describes medical expenditures of the non-elderly (under age 65) by age group and insurance status in 2004. People with private health insurance for all or part of the year were responsible for 79 percent of all medical expenditures even though they represented 71.2 percent of the non-elderly population. In contrast, people who were uninsured for the entire year (i.e., full-year uninsured) accounted for 4.8 percent of all medical expenditures while representing 14.1 percent of the non-elderly population. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st197/stat197.pdf

Statistical Brief #198: The Top Five Therapeutic Classes of Outpatient Prescription Drugs Ranked by Total Expense for Adults Age 18 and Older in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2005

Release Date: January 31, 2008

Using data from the Household Component of the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC), this Statistical Brief provides a summary of the top five therapeutic classes of outpatient prescription drugs for adults age 18 and older when ranked by total expense, as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in calendar year 2005, as well as estimates for the population age 18 and older on the percentage of annual prescribed drug expenses the top five therapeutic classes represented, the percentage of those with a prescribed drug expense having an expense in these classes of drugs, and the mean expense in these classes of drugs. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st198/stat198.pdf

Statistical Brief #199: The Top Five Therapeutic Classes of Outpatient Prescription Drugs Ranked by Total Expense for the Medicare Population Age 65 and Older in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2005

Release Date: February 6, 2008

Using data from the Household Component of the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC), this Statistical Brief provides a summary of the top five therapeutic classes of outpatient prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older when ranked by total expense, as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in calendar year 2005, as well as estimates for the Medicare population age 65 and older on the percentage of annual prescribed drug expenses the top five therapeutic classes represented, the percentage of those with a prescribed drug expense having an expense in these classes of drugs, and the mean expense in these classes of drugs. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st199/stat199.pdf

Statistical Brief #200: Comparing Population Characteristics of Persons Purchasing Prescribed Drugs from Mail Order Pharmacies with Persons Purchasing Prescribed Drugs from Other Outlets, 2005

Release Date: February 20, 2008

The estimates in this brief are derived from the Household Component of the 2000 and the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). The brief provides information as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized (community) population for calendar years 2000 and 2005 on the proportion of persons who purchased at least one prescribed medicine at the following types of pharmacies: mail order; drug store; HMO, clinic, or hospital; and another store (e.g., grocery store, etc.). This brief also compares person characteristics of those persons with a prescribed medicine expense purchasing at least one drug from a mail order pharmacy with the person characteristics of those purchasing at least one drug from other outlets in 2005. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st200/stat200.pdf

Research Findings #28: Demographics and Health Care Access and Utilization of Limited-English-Proficient and English-Proficient Hispanics

Release Date: February 20, 2008

This report is based on data from the 2004 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). Updates to prior work are presented through a profile of LEP Hispanic adults and their health care using a large national sample and a respondent-report measure of English proficiency. The Research Findings is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/rf28/rf28.pdf

Posted by ronbo at 08:20 PM

February 19, 2008

From U.S. Census Bureau - USA Counties has been updated

TUESDAY, FEB., 12, 2008

USA Counties — has just been quarterly updated and is now available on the web at http://censtats.census.gov/usa/usa.shtml. USA Counties now features more than 5,900 data items for the United States, the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia), and all of the nation’s 3,141 counties and county equivalents, and covers areas such as age, agriculture, ancestry, banking, building permits, business patterns, crime, earnings, education, elections, employment, government, health, households, housing, income, labor force, manufactures, population, poverty, retail trade, social programs, veterans, vital statistics, water use, and wholesale trade. It is the most comprehensive source for data on counties in the United States."

Posted by ronbo at 06:13 PM

February 07, 2008

From US Census Bureau: National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR)

Presents microdata records (with any information that might identify a specific person or household removed) on individuals involved in fishing, hunting, and other wildlife-associated recreation, such as wildlife observation, photography, and feeding. Data include state in which these activities occurred; number of trips taken; duration of trips; and expenditures for food, lodging, transportation, and equipment. The survey was conducted by the Census Bureau for the Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, which prepares printed reports in this field.

National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR) web site

Posted by ronbo at 01:23 PM

January 16, 2008

From ACS (American Community Survey) Alert, Number 55 - ACS 2006 Production Summary File Now Available

The ACS 2006 Production Summary File recently was released on the ACS web site and FTP. The file covers detailed tables from the 2006 ACS data releases. Documentation is provided as part of the release for this data product. This Summary File release incorporates many of the comments and suggestions we received in response to our release of the prototype ACS
Summary File in January 2007.

Information about the ACS Summary File may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/sf/acs_summary_file.htm

The ACS is a key component of the Census Bureau’s 2010 Decennial Census Program, which also consists of early planning and modernization of geographic operations and a short-form only for the 2010 Census.

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey,please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 08:08 PM

January 03, 2008

From Census Product Update (12/28/2007): Hot Tip - Help with Export Codes

There are millions of trade transactions occurring each year. These transactions are classified under approximately 8,000 different products leaving the United States. Every item that is exported is assigned a unique 10-digit identification code. Every 10-digit item is part of a series of progressively broader product categories. The Census Bureau's web site offers several options for working with export codes. You can browse the chapters of the Schedule B book, search for a code by keyword, download the entire Schedule B book in ASCII format, or view obsolete codes which are no longer valid. Be sure to check out this handy resource!

Posted by ronbo at 07:28 PM

December 17, 2007

Statistics from ResourceShelf Blog: US Federal Tax Rates & Global Cancer Facts

Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2005 (PDF)

The following tables update the series of historical effective tax rates estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) by providing values for an additional calendar year–2005.1 The tables show effective tax rates for the four largest sources of federal revenues–individual income taxes, social insurance (payroll) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes–as well as the total effective rate for the four taxes combined. The tables also present average pretax and after-tax household income; counts of households; and shares of taxes, income, and households for each fifth (quintile) of the income distribution and for the top percentiles of households.

+ Supplemental tables (xls; 284 KB)

Source: Source: Congressional Budget Office

Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007

Cancer will claim 7.6 million lives worldwide this year, and more than 12 million people will receive cancer diagnoses, according to Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007, the newest edition to the American Cancer Society’s family of Facts and Figures reports.

The report, based on data compiled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), reveals disparities in how cancer affects the developed and developing world. Infection plays a greater role in shaping cancer incidence in developing countries, where the number of infection-related cancers is 3 times higher than in developed nations.

Direct to: Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007 (52 pages; PDF)

December 12, 2007

From ANES list: Only 35 days left to propose questions for the American National Election Studies (ANES)!

There are only 35 days left to propose questions for inclusion on two American National Election Studies (ANES) projects!

... You may submit a proposal for questions to be included in the 2008 ANES Time Series face-to-face presidential election study (the latest in a series of surveys dating back to 1948) - the deadline is January 15. You can propose changes to the ANES "core" questions that are usually included in the survey, and you can propose to ask new questions that have not been asked before. These proposals will be evaluated in a competition, and some of the proposed questions will be included in the survey.

... You may propose to assure that specific new questions are asked on the 2008 ANES Time Series study by paying for them through our new "Bonus Minutes" program. This program allows you to purchase the interview time necessary to ask specific questions during the ANES interviews. Such proposals are due on January 15.

... You may propose specific questions about terrorism, natural disasters, risk perception, and preparedness, to be included on our 2008-2009 ANES Panel Study (being conducted on the Internet) and/or the 2008 ANES Time Series study. Such proposals are due January 15.

Question proposals for these initiatives will only be accepted via the ANES Online Commons - please go to its website to get information about these opportunities and learn how to submit proposals:
http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,
Jon Krosnick and Skip Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies (ANES)

ANES is funded by the American National Science Foundation (NSF).

Posted by ronbo at 01:05 AM

December 04, 2007

From AHRQ digest: Recently Released Medical Expenditure Panel Study (MEPS) Data Products

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS data products:

Recent MEPS Data:

MEPS HC-097: 2005 Full Year Consolidated Data File
Release Date: November 2007
Released as an ASCII file (with related SAS and SPSS programming statements) and a SAS transport dataset, this public use file provides information collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian non-institutionalized population of the United States for calendar year 2005. This file consists of MEPS survey data obtained in Rounds 3, 4, and 5 of Panel 9 and Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of Panel 10 (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005) and consolidates all of the final 2005 person-level variables onto one file. This file contains the following variables previously released on HC-092: survey administration, language of interview variable, demographics, parent identifiers, health status, disability days variables, access to care, employment, quality of care, patient satisfaction, health insurance and use variables. The HC-097 file also includes these variables: income variables and expenditure variables. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-097

MEPS HC-096: 2005 Medical Conditions File
Release Date: November 2007
This public use data file provides information on household-reported medical conditions collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States for the 2005 MEPS Household Component. Released as an ASCII file (with SAS and SPSS programming statements, and also in SAS transport format), this public use file provides information on the household-reported medical conditions reported in the 2005 portion of Round 3 and Rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as Rounds 1 and 2 and the 2005 portion of Round 3 for Panel 10 (i.e., rounds for MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). ICD-9 and Clinical Classification Codes are provided. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-096

MEPS HC-036: MEPS 1996-2005 Pooled Estimation Linkage File
Release Date: November 2007
This file is provided for use with pooled data from the MEPS FY 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 public use files (HC-012, HC-020, HC-028, HC-038, HC-050, HC-060, HC-070, HC-079, HC-089, and HC-097 respectively). Released as an ASCII file (with SAS user statements) and in SAS Transport format, this person-level file contains 1996-2005 combined variance stratum and PSU variables, along with the standard MEPS person ID variables for linking with the 1996-2005 MEPS person-level public use files. There is one record for each of the 169,717 persons who are on the MEPS FY 1996-2005 public use files. This public use data file can be accessed at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-036

MEPS HC-036BRR: MEPS 1996-2005 Replicates for Calculating Variances File
Release Date: November 2007
This file is provided for use with pooled data from the MEPS FY 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 public use files (HC-012, HC-020, HC-028, HC-038, HC-050, HC-060, HC-070, HC-079, HC-089, and HC-097 respectively). Released as an ASCII file (with SAS user statements) and in SAS Transport format, this person-level file contains 1996-2005 combined variance stratum and PSU variables, along with the standard MEPS person ID variables for linking with the 1996-2005 MEPS person-level public use files. There is one record for each of the 169,717 persons who are on the MEPS FY 1996-2005 public use files. This public use data file can be accessed at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-036BRR

MEPS HC-094I: Appendix to MEPS 2005 Event Files
Release Date: November 2007
This public use release is one in a series of public use event files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household (HC) and Medical Provider Components (MPC). This release contains 2 data files each of which is provided as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and as a SAS transport file. File 1 is used for linking the MEPS 2005 condition file (HC-096) with the MEPS 2005 event files (HC-094A through HC-094H); File 2 is used for linking the MEPS 2005 prescribed medicines event file (HC-095A) with other 2005 event files. This release also includes two tables provided as PDF files: Table 1, the "MEPS 2005 Condition-Event Frequency" table contains unweighted and weighted counts of records on the MEPS 2005 event files for each of the condition, procedure and clinical classification codes on the MEPS 2005 condition file; Table 2, the "MEPS 2005 Utilization and Expenditures Summary" table contains statistics for all of the utilization and expenditure variables contained on the MEPS 2005 person-level and event-level files. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094I

MEPS HC-094D: 2005 Hospital Inpatient Stays File
Release Date: October 2007
This file is one in a series of public use event files from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC) and Medical Provider Component (MPC). Released as an ASCII data file and SAS transport file (with SAS and SPSS user statements) this public use file provides detailed information on household-reported prescribed medicines for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of prescribed medicine utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2005. Each record represents one household-reported prescribed medicine that was purchased during calendar year 2005. These data were collected during the 2005 portion of Round 3 and Rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as Rounds 1, 2 and the 2005 portion of Round 3 for Panel 10 of the MEPS HC. Each record on this event file represents a unique prescribed medicine event; that is, a prescribed medicine reported as being purchased or otherwise obtained by the household respondent, and includes the following: an identifier for each unique prescribed medicine; detailed characteristics associated with the event (e.g., national drug code (NDC), medicine name, etc.); selected Multum Lexicon variables; conditions, if any, associated with the medicine; the date on which the person first used the medicine; total expenditure and sources of payments; types of pharmacies that filled the household's prescriptions; and a full-year person level weight. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094D

MEPS HC-094A: 2005 Prescribed Medicines File
Release Date: October 2007
This file is one in a series of public use event files from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC) and Medical Provider Component (MPC). Released as an ASCII data file and SAS transport file (with SAS and SPSS user statements) this public use file provides detailed information on household-reported prescribed medicines for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of prescribed medicine utilization and expenditures for calendar year 2005. Each record represents one household-reported prescribed medicine that was purchased during calendar year 2005. These data were collected during the 2005 portion of Round 3 and Rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as Rounds 1, 2 and the 2005 portion of Round 3 for Panel 10 of the MEPS HC. Each record on this event file represents a unique prescribed medicine event; that is, a prescribed medicine reported as being purchased or otherwise obtained by the household respondent, and includes the following: an identifier for each unique prescribed medicine; detailed characteristics associated with the event (e.g., national drug code (NDC), medicine name, etc.); selected Multum Lexicon variables; conditions, if any, associated with the medicine; the date on which the person first used the medicine; total expenditure and sources of payments; types of pharmacies that filled the household's prescriptions; and a full-year person level weight. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094A

MEPS HC-095: 2005 Person Round Plan Public Use File
Release Date: October 2007
This MEPS public use release is one in a series of data releases drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). This release contains the Person Round Plan (PRPL) file for 2005. This file contains records for persons insured through private establishments providing hospital/physician, medigap, dental, vision or prescription medication coverage and includes variables pertaining to managed care and experiences with plans. These are designed to facilitate research on the sometimes complex and dynamic relationships between consumers and their private insurance. Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements, and in SAS Transport format, the PRPL file is not a person-level file and linking it to a MEPS full year person-level file requires users making analytic decisions based on understanding the complexity of the PRPL file. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-095

Recent MEPS Tabular Data:

2005 New MEPS Household Prescribed Drug Estimates: Top 10 Therapeutic Classes, by Total Expenditures and Total Purchases
The tables are available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables_results.jsp?component=1&subcomponent=0&year=2005&tableSeries=5&searchText=&searchMethod=1&Action=Search

2005 New MEPS Household Prescribed Drug Estimates: Top 25 Prescribed Drugs by Total Expenditures and Top 10 Prescribed Drugs by Total Purchases
The tables are available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables_results.jsp?component=1&subcomponent=0&year=2005&tableSeries=5&searchText=&searchMethod=1&Action=Search

New Health Insurance Deductible, Copayment, and Coinsurance Tables Added for 2002-2005 MEPS Insurance Component Survey

The tables are available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables.jsp#insurance

Posted by ronbo at 09:44 AM

November 30, 2007

From Census Update (11/30/2007): Hot Tip - 2007 Economic Census

More than 4 million businesses across the country will receive questionnaires in December for the 2007 Economic Census. Every five years, the economic census provides the most comprehensive, detailed and authoritative facts about the American economy. The forms are to be completed and returned, either electronically or by mail, by February 12, 2008. See the Economic Census website for more information.

Posted by ronbo at 10:28 AM

November 28, 2007

From ANES list: An ANES Special Competition: Gauging the Public's Attitudes on Terrorism and Homeland Security

The American National Election Studies is now accepting proposals for questions about terrorism, natural disasters, risk perception, and preparedness, to be asked in our upcoming surveys. These questions can be included in the 2008 ANES Time Series Study (a national face-to-face survey that has been conducted before and after presidential lections since 1948) and/or the 2008-2009 ANES Panel Study (a new study to be conducted via the Internet). These questions will be paid for by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funds will pay for 17 additional minutes of questions on the post-election wave of the 2008 ANES Time Series Study, 15 additional minutes of questions on the June 2008 wave of the 2008-2009 ANES Panel Study and 15 additional minutes of questions on the May 2009 wave of the 2008-2009 ANES Panel Study.

Topics that can be addressed include:

1) What do Americans think about terrorism and of terrorists? Do some Americans sympathize with some such efforts and, if so, why?

2) What do Americans think that the U.S. should do to deal with terrorist threats and natural disasters? Which policy approaches appeal most and least to Americans?

3) How do Americans evaluate the level of effort devoted to counterterrorism and natural disasters to date? How do Americans evaluate the performance of governments in managing these issues?

4) How often does the general public think about anti-American activities? What do they think of them? To what extent does the location of the source (foreign/domestic) affect their perceptions?

5) What security- and disaster-related threats do Americans worry most about? How do these threats rank amongst other all other threats?

6) How do issues of terrorism or related to natural disasters influence how Americans vote and otherwise interact with their government?

7) To what extent do Americans perceive themselves as being at risk of becoming victims of terrorism or natural disasters? How do such perceptions affect their trust in government institutions and in each other?

8) How well do Americans understand current and past government counterterrorism efforts?

Persons who wish to add questions on these topics to ANES surveys should submit proposals to the ANES Online Commons. Our goal is to get proposals from many scholars. The first proposal listed on this segment of the Online Commons is by Clark McCauley, who played a central role in our discussions with DHS. Professor McCauley's proposal describes questions that are of special interest to DHS. We hope you will take this opportunity to review his proposal, post your own proposals, and offer comments on proposals that others have written.

The ANES Online Commons will accept proposals on this topic until 3:00pm Eastern Time (noon Pacific Time) on January 15, 2008. The Online Commons will remain open for two additional weeks thereafter to allow commentary and revision of the proposals. This opportunity is open to anyone who wants to make a constructive contribution to the development of ANES surveys.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone (e.g., your students) who you think might be interested. For additional information about how to submit a proposal and the proposal evaluation process, please visit: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

To read a more detailed version of this announcement, please visit:
http://electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_OC_HomelandSecurity_20071121.pdf

We hope to hear from you.

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators, American National Election Studies

This special competition of the ANES is the product of a collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation.

Posted by ronbo at 10:05 PM

November 15, 2007

Selection from Census Update (11/15/2007): Hot Tip - American FactFinder Provides Data From Many Sources

Don't overlook the various data programs which can provide you with information through our American FactFinder data engine. From the Census Bureau home page, click American FactFinder. On the left hand side, click "Data Sets." You'll see six different options from which to tabulate data, ranging from our decennial census, to our Annual Economic Surveys. Get data from each of the programs!

Posted by ronbo at 01:32 PM

November 06, 2007

From ANES list: Only 70 Days Left to Propose Content for the 2008 ANES Time Series Study

There are only 70 days left to propose content for the 2008 American National Election Studies (ANES) Time Series Study! In this study, pre-election and post-election interviews will be collected face-to-face with a new, nationally-representative sample, continuing the ANES presidential year time series that has been conducted since 1948.

Content for the 2008 ANES Time Series Study will be from three sources:
1. previous ANES Time Series questionnaires; 2. proposals received via the ANES Online Commons (http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm); and 3. proposals received via the ANES Bonus Minutes program.

For more information, visit the "Study Description" link in the header of the Online Commons. While you are visiting the Online Commons, you may be interested to read and comment on the first three proposals that we have received:
- "Native Born or Naturalized Americans"
- "Monetary Recruitment and the Rise of Internet Fundraising"
- "Interviewer-coded items"

Also, for the first time, ANES is allowing interested persons to purchase space on the survey through our "Bonus Minutes" program. Persons who purchase this space can, subject to proposal review procedures, guarantee that topics and questions of their choosing are covered on the 2008 survey. The funds raised from the Bonus Minutes program will not only purchase space for the requested questions, but also permit the ANES to provide more public goods such as the ability to accept even more proposals from the Online Commons than we currently anticipate. For more information, visit the "Bonus Minutes program" link in the header of the Online Commons.

IMPORTANT: Both Online Commons and Bonus Minutes proposals are due no later than JANUARY 15, 2008. Again, that is only 70 days away!

If you have questions, we'd be glad to help - please contact us by email to: anes@electionstudies.org

We look forward to your proposals!

Posted by ronbo at 07:42 PM

November 02, 2007

Selections from Census Product Update (November 2, 2007)

Fact of the Day
A Day in the Life of a Child

A Child's Day: 2004 examines the well-being of children younger than 18 and provides an updated look into how they spend their days. This series of 30 tables published by the U.S. Census Bureau is based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and addresses children's living arrangements, family characteristics, time spent in child care, academic experience, extracurricular activities, and more. These days, some teenagers are finding that their parents are playing a more active role in their lives. In 2004, nearly 47 percent of all teenagers had restrictions on how much television they watched, what programs they watched, and what time they watched television, up from only 40 percent with television restrictions 10 years earlier.

Hot Tip
Industry Focus

What are the hot industries in your area? Who works in these industries? Industry Focus (at the Local Employments Dynamics website, click "Industry Focus" in the QuickLinks section) is a powerful analytic tool that quickly reports the top industries for your area, age group, or gender, based on eight quarterly workforce indicators. It is one of the three tools that the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program offers for use by economic developers, employers, workers, transportation planners, and workforce investment boards.

Posted by ronbo at 12:49 PM

October 18, 2007

From Census Update: Packing Up! and Census 2010 Website!

Fact of the Day
Packing Up!

In 2006, 39.8 million United States residents moved within the previous one-year period. Nearly half of the reasons given for moving (18.4 million) were housing related, such as wanting a bigger or smaller house. In 2006, nearly one-third (30 percent) of all people living in renter-occupied housing units lived elsewhere a year earlier. Most movers stayed within the same county (62 percent), while 20 percent moved from a different county within the same state. Find these facts and more in Geographical Mobility: 2006.

Hot Tip
Census 2010 Website!

Have you seen the Census 2010 website yet? From the Census Bureau home webpage, click "2010 Census." As the next decennial Census approaches, this 2010 website will become more and more important for keeping up with Census 2010 information. Keep up with recent news, see the timeline of activities, or print out promotional materials. Also available is our Question and Answer Center which allows you to browse Frequently Asked Questions or to submit your questions online. Keep this webpage handy as it is growing all the time!

Posted by ronbo at 03:16 PM

From Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Users List (October 2007): SIPP Synthetic Beta Training

The Census Bureau has released a new product called the SIPP Synthetic Beta (SSB). This file was created by integrating data from the Survey of Program Participation (SIPP), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and then synthesizing these data. This work was performed as part of a joint project between the three data contributing agencies. The goal was to create a product that could be used by researchers outside of the regular Census restricted-access facilities. These synthetic data should reproduce the characteristics of the underlying confidential micro-data and, at the same time, assure the confidentiality of the actual data on the sampled individuals. The Census Disclosure Review Board, SSA, and IRS have cleared this file for use by individuals without Census Special Sworn Status. Researchers interested in using the file should submit an application to the Census Bureau. This application can be found on the SIPP home page. Applications will be judged solely on feasibility (i.e. the necessary variables are on the SSB) and researchers will be given accounts on the server housing these data. While no data downloads are permitted at this time, individuals do not have to operate behind the Census firewall to access this server.

The SSB is a person-level file with SIPP, Summary Earnings Records (SER), Detailed Earnings Records (DER), and Master Beneficiary Records (MBR) information. This person-level file was created by extracting variables from the 1990-1996 SIPP panels, standardizing these variables, and then stacking individuals across panels. SER data from 1951-2003 and variables from the MBR were then merged onto the SIPP variables. Finally, DER data were summarized for each year from 1978-2003 in order to create person-level records and these were also merged. The resulting file contains approximately 40 SIPP variables, some of which time-vary and hence are repeated plus 5 SSA benefit variables, and 5 different types of earnings variables from the SER and DER which also time-vary for a total of 529 variables. The SSB is a stand-alone file and cannot be linked to other SIPP products or administrative data.

To facilitate the use of this new product, the Census Bureau is holding a training session on Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 from 1-4pm at Census Headquarters in Suitland, Maryland in room T9. There is no cost to attend this training but please reserve a spot by replying to Mary Chin (mary.p.chin@census.gov) if you plan to attend. The Census Bureau is available by Metro (Green line; Suitland stop), and there is parking available (for directions, see http://www.census.gov/main/www/cbmaps.html ).

Posted by ronbo at 03:07 PM

October 11, 2007

From APDU Newsletter (October 2007): GDP by Metropolitan Area and BEA's Regional Accounts

On September 26, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released prototype estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) by metropolitan area for 2001-2005. This is a new series from BEA, and the first time BEA has computed gross domestic product at the sub-state level.

GDP by metropolitan area is the local counterpart of the nation’s GDP, the Bureau’s featured and most comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity. Conceptually, an industry estimate of GDP by metropolitan area, or its “value added,” is the sum of incomes earned by labor and capital and the costs incurred in the production of goods and services. The GDP-bymetropolitan-area estimates can be used by both public and private sectors for various administrative purposes and for studying economic trends in metropolitan areas. For example:

• State and local governments may use the estimates in econometric models to project tax revenues and the need for public services and to promote economic development opportunities in their local area.

• Federal government agencies may use the estimates in econometric models, such as those used to project energy and water uses for cities.

• Academic researchers may use the estimates for applied economic research.

• Businesses, trade associations, and labor organizations may use the estimates for market research.

These data consist of estimates for 363 metropolitan areas and detail for 61 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries in current and chained dollars. With the inclusion of industry detail, users can evaluate industries between metro areas to see how they compare. Since the data are consistent with other datasets from BEA, users can directly compare the metro area estimates with those at the state, regional, industry, and national levels.

These data are prototype statistics in that they are being released for evaluation and comment by data users. There has been substantial interest in such statistics, and BEA might produce an annual series in the future, possibly employing a revised methodology. If you have comments or suggestions, please send these to GDPbyMetro@bea.gov.

In addition to the GDP-by-metropolitan-area estimates, BEA provides several other regional data products useful to state and local officials at little or no cost. Go to BEA’s Web site at www.bea.gov and click on the Regional Accounts section.

BEA also has an email subscription service. Go to www.bea.gov and click on “Sign-Up for E-mail Subscriptions.”

It’s worth noting that creation of this new data series was prompted by user requests, led by APDU member Andrew Reamer. Users, working together, can make a difference!

Note: the information in this article was provided by staff at BEA, which is an organizational member of APDU.

Posted by ronbo at 07:40 PM

September 27, 2007

Selections from the ESS User list: News from European Social Survey (ESS)

1. First release of ESS round 3 integrated data file

The ESS Data Web Site, http://ess.nsd.uib.no has now been upgraded with the release of:

ESS Round 3:
- Edition 1.0 of the ESS3 data and documentation

VERSION NOTE
------------

ESS3 edition 1.0 (published 26.09.07):
Includes data from Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Hungary, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Data from Hungary, Romania and Russian Federation are only available from
a separate data file until design weights have been produced for these countries.

- ESS on-line Bibliography

ESS Round 2:
Edition 2 of the ESS2 Contact form data

2. ESS User Bulletin 10

September 2007

1. ESS News

ESS Review –important call for information
After its first six years, the ESS is about to be formally reviewed by its Funders Forum. The review is being coordinated by the European Science Foundation. The team has been keen to compile statistics and other information for the review and would greatly appreciate help from users by telling us how you have been using ESS data. This may be in the form of published work such as journal or newspaper articles, conference or working papers, chapters, books or in lectures, seminars or meetings. If you have not done so already PLEASE complete an ESS publication submission form (click here) so that we can add the information to the list that we are compiling for the review, which starts in October. All publications will also be added to the ESS website and included in future data user bulletins. The ESS will ultimately be judged by the extent and quality of outputs arising from its data. So please take the time to complete this information.

ESS Training Course – call for applicants
This is a call for applications for the 2nd ESS Training Course on “Non response in Cross-National Surveys”, which will be held at Mannheim, Germany, on the 3rd-4th of December, 2007 and will be led by Dr. Ineke Stoop from SCP, Netherlands. The course will discuss the efforts taken to enhance response rates and ways to measure and correct for non response bias in cross-national surveys.

There will be places for up to 60 participants on this course and there is a limited amount of funding available to cover transport and accommodation costs for a select number of participants with outstanding applications. For more information on the course content and application procedure please click here.

Round 2 Contact forms
The ESS Data Archive Web Site has been updated with data from the contact forms for ESS Round 2. The integrated file is available for download from the "Data download" option. A separate report, "Evaluation of Contact files per country" is available from the "Survey documentation option". Please contact Jaak Billiet (jaak.billiet@soc.kuleuven.be) if you have any queries about the Contact form data.

Cross-national cognitive interviewing project
The ESS is collaborating on a WHO / UNESCO / EUROSTAT project called the ‘Budapest Initiative’, which will enable a small number of questions from each of the Round 4 rotating modules to be tested. The following European countries will be participating in the project: the UK (subject to confirmation of funding) Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The results will be used to inform the subsequent development of the Round 4 modules.

The methodology of the project will be based on draft ‘best practice’ guidelines being developed by the Comparative Survey Design and Implementation (CSDI) pre-testing group. It is hoped that these guidelines can be revised according to findings from the project. For further information please contact Rory Fitzgerald (R.fitzgerald@city.ac.uk).

Quality Enhancement: Design and Interviewer effects
The 1st Quality Enhancement Meeting (QEM) on sampling focusing on design effects and interviewer effects was held on 31st January - 1st February in Mannheim, Germany. Design effects are calculated for some countries in the ESS as part of the process of determining sample size. Therefore, the prediction and estimation of design effects is one of the challenges in planning and conducting the ESS. The QEM brought together a group of international experts to discuss different models for the estimation of design effects. As a result of the very active and fruitful discussion at the meeting, a set of recommendations for the ESS were compiled. To download these recommendations, the meeting’s presentations or a state of the art paper on design and interviewer effects click here. But please note that these recommendations have not been adopted and will be discussed in future.

2. Research Visits

EC Funding Available for Collaborative Research Visits
ECASS (the European Centre for Analysis in the Social Sciences) offers an opportunity for funded research visits to analyse the ESS and other datasets at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex. Visits are available for periods up to three months. For more details, visit the ISER website: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ecass/

3. User update

The latest user statistics show that the number of registered ESS users currently stands at 14,621. Further details can be found on the Archive and Data pages of the ESS website.

Posted by ronbo at 03:06 PM

ACS Alert (No. 54): U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) Selected Population Profiles, Group Quarters Profiles, and Workplace Geography Tables

The Census Bureau today released 2006 ACS selected population profiles, group quarters profiles, and workplace geography tables.

The selected population profiles include 2006 ACS estimates on selected race, Hispanic origin, and ancestry populations. The 2006 ACS data provide key socioeconomic and housing characteristics for about 200 selected population groups at the national and state levels. It allows for easy comparisons across groups and access to a range of data from age, marital status and fertility, to language spoken at home, and educational attainment.

The group quarters data provide the first social and economic characteristic profiles of people living in group quarters - such as college/university housing, adult correctional facilities, and skilled nursing facilities - in nearly three decades.

Workplace-based tables use a person’s place of work as the unit of analysis, as opposed to all of the other ACS tables that use a person’s place of residence.

The data may be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder Website at: <http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en>.
___________________________________________________________

The ACS is a key component of the Census Bureau’s 2010 Decennial Census
Program, which also consists of early planning and modernization of
geographic operations and a short-form only for the 2010 Census.
___________________________________________________________________

**Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 02:16 PM

September 24, 2007

From IRiSS Eye on the World: New Secure Data Center Opens

September 19, 2007

This fall IRiSS will open a new Secure Data Center to support research that analyzes confidential and sensitive data sets. According to IRiSS director Karen Cook, the center will develop expertise and specialized infrastructure to stay ahead of two trends in the social sciences--one is the demand for access to the growing mass of micro data available to the research community; the other is the heightened concern about the protection of these data.

Sociology Professor Matthew Snipp has been appointed the founding director of the center. Snipp indicates that leading the list of projects to be launched this year is the opening of a Stanford node of the Census Bureau's Research Data Centers, in collaboration with UC Berkeley. In addition to the many data sets from the Census Bureau, the new center will soon also provide access to health microdata from the National Center for Health Statistics. Future initiatives will facilitate access to a variety of data sets with special licensing restrictions and protections.

Snipp's own research uses Census data to understand how factors such as residence, education and family composition are related to racial identification and especially to questions about multiracial backgrounds.

Inquiries about the Secure Data Center should be sent to IRiSS-info@stanford.edu

Posted by ronbo at 06:16 PM

September 13, 2007

ANES Announcement: New data available from a collaboration with the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS)

In 2005, the American National Election Studies (ANES) announced a new collaboration with the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS). The first product of that collaboration was the purchase of four minutes of time for ANES questions to appear on the 2006 Young Adult component of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY). A preliminary dataset from this collaboration is now available.

The 2006 Young Adult questionnaire can be viewed at this location:
ftp://ftp.chrr.ohio-state.edu/pub/usersvc/Child-Young-Adult/childya2006/YA2006%20Table%20of%20Contents.html
The ANES questions are YASR-77 through YASR-93, which appear in the "Young Adult Self-Report" section of the questionnaire.

The 2006 Young Adult data itself is available through a preliminary release on the NLS Web-Investigator website, at this location:
http://www.nlsinfo.org/web-investigator/index.php
There is no charge to use the data access tool, though users have to register beforehand.

The National Longitudinal Surveys are run by the Center for Human Resource Research (CHRR) at the Ohio State University. Since the 1960s, CHRR has conducted longitudinal surveys with nationally representative national panels of adults and children. This work has been funded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Institute for Child Health and Development, and other agencies. The collaborations between ANES and NLS are intended to allow scholars to link electorally-relevant and socially-relevant response across generations. Such linkages can be used to investigate many topics, including how participation and turnout depend on parent-child relations. The longitudinal nature of the NLS studies will further allow studies of how changes over the lifespan affect electorally relevant variables.

The ANES questions included on the 2006 Young Adult study were selected after consultation with the ANES user community. For more information about the collaboration and the questionnaire development process, please refer to these previous announcements on the ANES website:
- January 19, 2006: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/20060119.pdf
- October 10, 2006: http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_NLS_20061019.pdf

We hope you enjoy this new addition to the ANES data collection!

Sincerely,
Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
ANES Principal Investigators

Posted by ronbo at 03:17 PM

September 12, 2007

From ACS Alert, Number 53: U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2006 ACS Data on Social, Economic, and Housing Characteristics, Demographic and Housing Estimates, and Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) Data

American Community Survey Alert, Number 53
(released September 12, 2007)

The Census Bureau today released ACS social, economic, and housing characteristics, demographic and housing estimates, and PUMS data. Data are again available for the nation, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district, and all counties, places, and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

Key topics included in this release consist of:

*Educational attainment
*Industry
*Occupation
*Class of worker
*Journey to work
*Employment status
*Work status
*Veteran status
*Housing
*Households and families
*Marital status
*Migration

These data may be found at: <
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en>.

As noted in the 2006 ACS data release on Aug. 28, 2007, this year marks the first time that ACS data products cover the total U.S. population, including populations residing in group quarters (such as prisons, college dormitories, military barracks, and nursing homes).

The Census Bureau’s Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2006 ACS data to 2005 ACS data, as well as comparing 2006 ACS data to Census 2000 data. This guidance may be found at: <
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm>.

The final release of 2006 ACS data will occur on Sept. 27, 2007 and consist of selected population profiles/tables for about 200 selected population groups by race, Hispanic origin, and ancestry. In addition, this release will include group quarters profiles, the first such release since the 1990 Census. Also released at that time will be workplace geography tables.

Posted by ronbo at 07:12 PM

September 11, 2007

From MEPS list: Recent MEPS Data Products and Publications

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS data products and publications.

Recent MEPS Data:

MEPS HC-094B: 2005 Dental Visits
Release Date: August 2007

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, the Dental Visits File provides detailed information on dental events for a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United Sates during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 10 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005), and contains variables pertaining to household reported dental visits. The file includes the date of the dental event, type of provider seen, if the visit was due to an accident, reason for the dental event, and whether or not medicines were prescribed. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094B

MEPS HC-094C: 2005 Other Medical Expenses
Release Date: August 2007

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on the purchase of and expenditures for medical equipment, supplies, glasses and other medical items for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with medical items during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2 and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 9 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094C

MEPS HC-094H: 2005 Home Health File
Release Date: August 2007

This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public use data files drawn from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC). Household-reported information on expenditures for home health visits including the type of provider, type of services received, length of the visit, reason for the visit, expenditures, and sources of payment. Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on home health care for a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated with home health care during the 2005 calendar year. This file consists of 2005 data obtained in the 2005 portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 9, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2005 portion of round 3 for Panel 10 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005). This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-094H

Recent MEPS Publications:

Research Findings No. 27: Health Care Expenditures for Uncomplicated Pregnancies
Release Date: August 31, 2007

This report uses data pooled from three panels (2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04) of the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) to estimate medical expenditures (in 2004 dollars) associated with an uncomplicated pregnancy and in-hospital delivery. This Research Findings is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/rf27/rf27.pdf

Statistical Brief #179: Aspirin Use among the Adult U.S. Noninstitutionalized Population, with and without Indicators of Heart Disease, 2005
Release Date: July 2007

This Statistical Brief provides estimates of aspirin use among the U.S. population age 18 and older. The brief further looks at the use of aspirin among those with or without indicators of heart disease. The estimates presented are derived from data collected in the questionnaire used in the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st179/stat179.pdf

Statistical Brief #180: The Top Five Outpatient Prescription Drugs Ranked by Total Expense for Children, Adults, and the Elderly, 2004
Release Date: July 31, 2007

Using data from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this Statistical Brief provides information on the top five outpatient prescription medicines ranked by total expenditures as reported by households in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population in calendar year 2004 for children age 17 and under, adults age 18-64, and the elderly age 65 and older, as well as information on average total payment and average out-of-pocket payment per purchase for the top five drugs for each subpopulation. Only prescribed medicines purchases in an outpatient setting are included in the estimates. Insulin and diabetic supplies and equipment are included in MEPS prescribed medicines estimates. Over-the-counter medicines are excluded from these estimates as are prescription medicines administered in an inpatient setting or in a clinic or physician's office. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st180/stat180.pdf

Statistical Brief #181: Co-pays, Deductibles, and Coinsurance Percentages for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in the Private Sector, by Firm Size Classification, 2005
Release Date: August 15, 2007

Using data from data from the 2005 Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), this Statistical Brief examines what percentage of enrollees paid a deductible and the size of deductibles, what percentage paid co-pays and the size of the co-pays, and the average coinsurance percentage paid. These values are compared for firms of different employment size. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st181/stat181.pdf

Statistical Brief #182: Co-pays, Deductibles, and Coinsurance Percentages for Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in the Non-Federal Workforce, by Industry Classification, 2005
Release Date: August 15, 2007

Using data from data from the 2005 Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), this Statistical Brief examines what percentage of enrollees paid a deductible and the size of deductibles, what percentage paid co-pays and the size of co-pays, and the average coinsurance percentage paid. These values are compared for employers by industry classification. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st182/stat182.pdf

Statistical Brief #183: Long-Term Uninsured in America, 2002-2005: Estimates for the U.S. Population under Age 65
Release Date: August 28, 2007

Using information from the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) for 2004 and 2005, this Statistical Brief provides detailed estimates for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized non-elderly (under age 65) population that was uninsured for the entire 2002-2005 period and identifies groups most at risk of lacking any coverage over that four-year period. The addition of questions in MEPS to determine health insurance coverage profiles for the period covering 2002 and 2003, in concert with information on health insurance profiles from the National Health Interview Survey for 2003, facilitated these analyses of extended longitudinal profiles. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st183/stat183.pdf

Posted by ronbo at 05:40 PM

From Eurobarometer List: NEW EUROBAROMETER RELEASES

Dear list members,

we are pleased to announce the following Eurobarometer release:

ZA Study 4527
ICPSR Study Number [not yet assigned]
EUROBAROMETER 66.2

Carried out and managed by TNS OPINION & SOCIAL (BRUSSELS), on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between October 6 and November 8, 2006.

Coverage: 25 EU member countries plus accession countries (AC) Bulgaria and Romania, the candidate country (CC) Croatia, and the Turkish Cypriote Community (TCC)

TOPICS:
- Nuclear energy and safety (report published)
- Public health: Electromagnetic fields (report published)
- Public health: Alcohol habits (report published)
- Public health: Smoking habits and passive smoking (report published)
- Public health: Organ donation (report published)
- Public health: Personal state of health and prevention - EMBARGO -

ZA Study 4542
FLASH EUROBAROMETER 202
Young Europeans - A survey among young people aged 15-30 in the European Union

Carried out and managed by THE GALLUP ORGANISATION, on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between January 30 and February 4, 2007.

Coverage: 27 EU member countries (after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania)

TOPICS:
- Political participation
- Employment situation
- Personal meaning and future of the European Union

If you would like to order the data, please contact YOUR data archive:

http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/staff/archives.htm

For more information on the respective Eurobarometer please see:

http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/standard_eb_profiles/indexframe_profiles.htm
http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/flash/flash_eb_studyprofiles.htm

The official standard reports are available on the Commission's website:

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb67/eb67_en.htm

With kind regards
Meinhard Moschner

--
GESIS-ZA Central Archive for Empirical Social Research Meinhard Moschner meinhard.moschner@gesis.org Tel. ++49 +221 47694 21 Fax. ++49 +221 47694 44 For more information on EUROBAROMETER please see: http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

Posted by ronbo at 02:35 PM

September 07, 2007

From Census Product Update (September 2007): Income in the United States

Real median household income rose between 2005 and 2006 in 15 states and the District of Columbia, while no states experienced a decline. Seven states that experienced increases were in the West (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington), six were in the South (Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas) and two were in the Midwest (Kansas and South Dakota). Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut had the highest median household incomes in 2006, while Mississippi and West Virginia had the lowest. Additional 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) Income and Poverty data are available from the American FactFinder Data Sets page.

Posted by ronbo at 05:22 PM

September 04, 2007

ANES Announcement: Place Questions on the 2008 Edition of the Face-to-Face Time Series Study

On September 17, 2007, the American National Election Studies will begin accepting proposals for questions to include on the face-to-face survey we will conduct before and after the 2008 election (we refer to this as the "Time Series" survey, because it continues 50 years of ANES face-to-face interviewing).

This year, for the very first time, anyone can submit a proposal of items to be included in this study through the ANES Online Commons. This letter describes that new opportunity.

About the ANES Time Series Study

The ANES’s core mission is to promote cutting-edge and broadly-collaborative research on American national elections. To honor and expand the existing literature on voting and elections, we must continue to pursue the traditions of excellence established by past ANES studies and, at the same time, take ANES in new directions, so as to empower scholars to enhance the depth and breadth of our collective understanding of electorates. For us, what matters most is the credibility of the study design and its ability to provide data for the many scholars who seek to evaluate an ever-expanding range of important hypotheses.

The heart of the ANES is its presidential year time series surveys. The time series legacy is well known, having generated thousands of publications and serving as a model for election studies around the world. Every four years, a large representative sample of American adults has been interviewed face-to-face on two occasions, first between Labor Day and Election Day, and again between Election Day and the onset of the winter holidays. The two interviews will last no less than one hour each in 2008. Pre-election interviews focus on candidate preferences and anticipated vote choice, plus an array of possible predictors of candidate preferences, turnout, citizen engagement, and an array of indicators of cognitive and behavioral engagement in the information flow of the campaign. Post-election interviews measures a variety of behavioral experiences people might have had throughout the campaign (e.g., turnout, mobilization efforts), plus additional posited predictors of candidate preferences, turnout, and citizen engagement.

Some of the questions asked during these interviews are categorized as "Core" items, meaning that they have been asked regularly over the years, are scheduled to appear on subsequent editions of the ANES Time Series, and permit comparisons across elections. A purpose of categorizing items as Core is to assure scholars who conduct longitudinal analyses that they can continue to depend on ANES to include variables that have been shown to perform well in the past. The Core questions are an important reason for the continuation of ANES Time Series maintaining its traditional methodology. They are its "roots."

At the same time, ANES has sought to evolve the time series in innovative ways. The non-Core component of each questionnaire has routinely focused on matters of interest to the current election cycle. These items are often selected from the "ANES Inventory," which includes questions that have been asked in past ANES surveys but are not part of the Core.

The non-Core content of questionnaires has varied over the years. For example, candidate positions on issues of government policy are recognized as predictors of candidate preferences, but two one-hour interviews do not permit measuring positions on all of the many issues enjoying government attention at any one time in history. So from year to year, different choices have been made about which issues to address.

To enhance the credibility of the study design and its ability to provide data infrastructure for the many scholars who seek to evaluate an ever-expanding range of important hypotheses, ANES in 2008 will attempt to balance demands for continuity and innovation in a more inclusive and transparent manner than ever before.

About the Online Commons

Content for the 2008 ANES Time Series Study will evolve from two sources:

- Previous ANES Time Series questionnaires
- New proposals received via the ANES Online Commons (OC)

The ANES Online Commons promotes communication among scholars and yields rigorously reasoned proposals about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships. The OC uses open source software, tailored to accommodate ANES needs. It improves the quality and scientific value of ANES data collections. In the first two uses of the ANES Online Commons (for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study and for the 2008-2009 Panel Study, respectively), more than 500 scholars participated, and more than 2200 questions were proposed.

The ANES Online Commons will begin accepting proposals for the 2008 Time Series Study on September 17, 2007, and will continue to do so until 3:00 pm Eastern Time on January 15, 2008. The Online Commons will remain open for two additional weeks thereafter to allow commentary and revision of the proposals. This opportunity is open to anyone who wants to make a constructive contribution to the development of ANES surveys.

About the 2008 Edition of the ANES Time Series Study

We will conduct the presidential year study via face-to-face interviewing of a nationally representative sample of Americans and with a high response rate, as has been done in past studies. The spirit of this instruction is to maintain continuity in the data collection methodology, so as to maximize comparability of results. We expect to conduct 1,810 hour-long pre-election interviews and 1,629 seventy-minute post-election reinterviews. Moreover, we believe, as a result of a cooperative grant awarded to Gary Segura and Matthew Barreto at the University of Washington, that we will interview an additional 350 Latino voters as a targeted oversample. Therefore, the total number of interviews should top 2100. Subsequent collaborations with entrepreneurial scholars under our recently announced Complementary Cases program may push the total number of interviews even higher (see http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_BMCC_Announcement_20070813.pdf)

As in the past, ANES will continue to emphasize best practices in sample design, respondent recruitment, and interviewing. As always, we aim to provide top-quality service in many respects, including: (1) the careful and extensive planning that must be done before the field work begins, (2) the hard work that will be done by interviewers, supervisors, and study managers during data collection to monitor productivity and make adjustments in strategy to maximize the quality of the final product, and (3) the extensive data processing efforts (including integration of an extensive contextual data file) that will be required to assemble and document the final data set.

Moreover, the 2008 edition of the ANES Time Series will include an exciting new feature. We can offer researchers the opportunity to present visual stimuli to respondents during the interview. For up to ten minutes of the post-election interviews, interviewers will position their laptops so that respondents can see the screen, put headphones on to hear sounds, and view still pictures or video presentations (such as campaign ads or news stories). We will be particularly interested in proposals that can leverage this technology. Because so much of contemporary politics revolves around visual images, the potential value of this presentation medium is high.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

The new version of the Online Commons will accept two categories of proposal:

- Category 1: Proposals to add questions to the 2008 ANES that are not included in the ANES Core.
- Category 2: Proposals to change the ANES Core.

To have a question included on the 2008 ANES, Category 1 proposals are sufficient. To have a question included in the 2008 -and- future editions of the ANES Time Series, a Category 2 Proposal is required.

When the ANES Online Commons reopens on September 17, it will contain a full listing of questions that constitute the current "Core," as well as a comprehensive list of questions in the ANES Inventory. Some questions that have appeared on the ANES repeatedly are not currently part of the Core. Their repeated appearance has been the result of previous ANES Boards of Overseers and PIs deciding to run the questions. Arguments for their inclusion in 2008 will help to bolster their case for inclusion.

In what follows, we first describe the criteria by which all proposals will be evaluated. Then, we describe a number of additional requirements for Category 2 proposals. We strongly encourage anyone who is considering making a proposal to read the following section carefully.

These nine criteria will be focal in the evaluation of each proposal:

1. Demonstrated Validity and Effectiveness of Questions. Questions may be taken from the inventory of questions that have been asked in prior ANES surveys (for lists of these questions, see http://www.electionstudies.org/resources/questions/questions.htm). Questions may also be those that have been asked in other empirical studies and have been shown to yield valid and reliable measurements of the constructs of interest. Rigorous demonstrations that are directly applicable to the electoral context will have an advantage. For questions new to the ANES, it is critical that the proposer provide evidence of effective item functioning. Due to the broad demand for questions and high expectations for questionnaire quality, untested questions cannot be considered in this competition.

2. Building on a Solid Empirical Foundation. Have the ideas advocated in the proposal been empirically tested and supported by past research? For many proposals, demonstrating the effect of the variables in previous election-oriented research will provide valuable evidence in this regard. For other proposals, it can be helpful to see that focal concepts have also been evaluated in a laboratory setting, in addition to past performance on sample surveys.

3. Building on Solid Theoretical Footing. Do the ideas in this proposal follow from strong, convincing theory about how people are likely to think and/or act? Given ANES’s mandate to serve a broad user community, it is important that users be able to understand, and explain to others, the theoretical rationale for including particular concepts and questions on the ANES survey. Concepts should be defended as part of a set of cause-and-effect relationships that ultimately have the potential (alone or with other factors) to have a significant impact on vote choice or turnout. Regarding the questions that represent the concepts, it is important to think about the quality of the data that questions will provide. Quality, in turn, is a function of wording. If we ask a question that a nationally representative set of respondents understand in the same way, then the data has greater value in analyses that depend on comparing responses. Many questions, however, either confuse respondents or are asked in ways that should undermine an analysts confidence in the comparability of responses. Much of the feedback that we offer to OC proposers is in the spirit of working with them to arrive at more effective theoretical arguments about the relevance and role of particular concepts and questions.

4. Breadth of Relevance and Generalizability. Will the ideas being advocated be interesting, and/or provocative, and/or counter-intuitive to many scholars? Given the broad usage of the ANES Time Series, are unable to accommodate requests to include questions that are relevant for one - or only a few - hypothesis tests. Questions that can be used in a wide range of analyses will be advantaged. [The ANES Bonus Minutes program offers limited opportunities for scholars who have more specifically tailored interests. Please see http://www.electionstudies.org/announce/newsltr/ANES_BMCC_Announcement_20070813.pdf for details.]

5. Suitability to ANES. What kinds of statistical analyses would be required to make the most of the proposed questions, and can these analyses be conducted with the array of measures that will be available to analysts? This criterion is critically important as most ANES users draw inferences from the data using statistics. This criterion may lead us not to act on some very good ideas, if the ideas are likely to produce very unusable data (e.g., proposals featuring questions for which it is likely that only a few respondents will say "yes"). While such frequencies can be valuable to know, they can limit the usefulness of such variables to most ANES users.

6. Bridge-Building. Can the ideas proposed build intellectual bridges from one or more research traditions to others? There is no single approach to explaining turnout or vote choice. Where possible, however, we would like to challenge researchers within certain paradigms to explore the consequences of interacting with other scientific communities. In the past, we have received proposals that brought ideas from outside traditional ways of looking at elections into the context in exciting and potentially path-breaking ways. Subject to such proposals meeting the other stated criteria, wed like to see more of this.

7. Controversy-Relevant. Are the ideas proposed relevant to ongoing controversies among researchers, such that our including particular questions can advance the debate?

Special Rules for Proposals Pertaining to Category 2 Proposals (Changing the ANES Core)

When the 2008 questionnaires are designed, the status of the Core will be central considerations. Core questions need not have an infinite shelf life. Science advances, and new insights can reveal more effective ways of asking important questions or can show that some questions do not in fact meet the requirements of staying in the core.

But the core should be changed only very rarely, recognizing the value of continuity over time. Our default intent for the 2008 study is to include all questions that are were in the Core as of the last Time Series study in 2004.

We will welcome proposals to change the Core, but the burden of proof required for making such changes will be high. We will take most seriously arguments that are backed by concrete evidence and strong theory.

To balance the scholarly benefits of continuity and innovation, we are committed to holding the size of the ANES Core constant. The Core will constitute a majority of the 120 minutes of interviewing time. [The result of separate calls for proposals will increase the total length of the interview. A joint call for proposals by ANES and the Department of Homeland Security will be made later this fall and will add 17 minutes to the post-election wave. An existing call for scholars to contribute to the study by purchasing "ANES Bonus Minutes" may increase the total amount of interviewing time even further. All of these additional questions will be available for everyone in the ANES user community to use.]

Since the size of the Core will remain constant, proposals to elevate to Core status questions must include not only a full explanation as to why the ANES user community will benefit by such a change, it must also name specific questions now in the Core that will be removed from the Core to make room for the new content. This requirement reflects the hard choices that ANES would have to make with respect to such proposals and we feel that it is beneficial to the user community to require scholars who wish to change the Core to offer rigorous and public arguments about the tradeoffs involved.

If changes are made to an existing question in the Core, they will be made with a "splice." In many cases, the splice will result in a randomly-selected subset of survey respondents (usually numbering about half of the sample) receiving the traditional version of the question and all other respondents receiving the new version. Scholars can then use a comparison of responses to the old and new to construct a means of continuing inference.

We are excited about the opportunity to build the 2008 edition of the ANES Time Series study with you. Please feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone (e.g., your students) who you think might be interested. For additional information about how to submit a proposal and the proposal evaluation process, please visit http://www.electionstudies.org. We hope to hear from you.

Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia
Principal Investigators
American National Election Studies

ANES is funded by the National Science Foundation

Posted by ronbo at 11:02 AM

August 30, 2007

From ResourceShelf Blog: Health Information: CDC Wonder Adds New Data and Features, Registration No Longer Needed

By resourceshelf on Uncategorized

News today from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta about the CDC WONDER Database

+ Quick overview from the FAQ:

Wide-ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) — is an easy-to-use internet system that makes the information resources of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) available to public health professionals and the public at large. It provides access to a wide array of public health information.

Here are just a few highlights from the “What’s New” page:

We’ve identified the list of WONDER system data queries on our home page, since data is what WONDER is all about. The inclusive list of CDC web resources for data is still available, click on the “Topics” tab for a categorized list, or click on the “A-Z Index” tab for an alphabetical list.

Search the entire WONDER site to the searches that already existed for the Scientific Data and Prevention Guidelines document collections. The search includes data request forms and help files along with the document collections, and should greatly enhance the ability to find the data you’re looking for.

and Recently Added Data:
Disease Trends data for 1996 - last week

Mortality data from the CDC 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System as printed in Table III of the MMWR each week.
Morbidity data on provisional cases of selected national notifiable diseases, from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). NNDSS data reported by the 50 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories are collated and published weekly as numbered tables printed in the back of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Cases reported by state health departments to CDC for weekly publication are provisional because of ongoing revision of information and delayed reporting.
Data are updated weekly.

Source: CDC

Posted by ronbo at 04:56 PM

From ACS Alert: American Community Survey Alert, Number 52 (SPECIAL NOTICE)

(released August 30, 2007)

**Notice to all subscribers:
We have updated the links to information released in "American Community Survey Alert, Number 51" (issued August 28, 2007). They are:

Income, Poverty, and Earnings:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010583.html.

Federal Register Notice on Proposed ACS Data Products Containing Multiyear Estimates:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-16850.htm.

Posted by ronbo at 02:40 PM

August 28, 2007

From UN Pulse: Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Data Recently Updated

August 23, 2007

The UN Statistics Division has recently updated more than 70 series of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) data and more updates will be uploaded soon.

Posted by ronbo at 11:06 AM

From American Community Survey Alert: 2006 ACS Data on Income, Poverty, and Earnings; Feedback Solicted on ACS Proposed Multi-year Data Products

Number 51 (released August 28, 2007)

U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2006 American Community Survey Data on Income, Poverty, and Earnings

The Census Bureau today released income, poverty, and earnings data from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), in conjunction with the Census Bureau’s annual release of income, poverty, and health insurance data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). These data and general information about today’s release may be found at: < http://www.census.gov/PressRelease/www/releases/archives/news_conferences/010500.html
>.

This year’s data release marks the first time that ACS data products cover the total U.S. population, including populations residing in group quarters (such as prisons, college dormitories, military barracks, and nursing homes). The Census Bureau’s Web site now contains guidance on comparing 2006 ACS data to 2005 ACS data, as well as comparing 2006 ACS data to Census 2000 data. This guidance may be found at: < http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/compACS.htm >.

Data are again available for the nation, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district and all counties, places, and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

As part of today’s release, the ACS Web site recently was redesigned to make navigation easier and to help users find the information they need more quickly. The Web site is primarily a documentation and information site. As in past years, all the data from the ACS may be found on the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder: < http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en >.

Additional data from the 2006 ACS will be released as follows:

*Sept. 12, 2007: ACS social, economic and, housing characteristics, demographic and housing estimates, and Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) data. The data will consist of:

*Educational attainment
*Industry
*Occupation
*Class of worker
*Journey to work
*Employment status
*Work status
*Veteran status
*Housing
*Households and families
*Marital status
*Migration

*Sept. 27, 2007: ACS group quarters and selected population profiles/tables for about 200 selected population groups by race, Hispanic origin, and ancestry. This marks the first release of group quarters profiles since the 1990 Census. Also released at that time will be workplace geography tables.

Federal Register Notice Solicits Feedback on Proposed ACS Data Products Containing Multiyear Estimates

A Federal Register notice (#3510-07-P) released today seeks user input on proposed modifications to the current line of ACS data products to accommodate the multiyear estimates beginning in 2008. Currently official ACS data products are only available in the form of single-year estimates for years 2005 and 2006.

The notice and supporting documentation may be found at: < http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html >. Once there, scroll down to the Census Bureau section and click the “text” link.

Questions about the proposed data products may be directed to Doug Hillmer, Assistant Division Chief, Data Products, American Community Survey Office, on (301) 763-2994, by e-mail at Douglas.w.Hillmer@census.gov, or by mail at U.S. Census Bureau, Room 3K275, Washington, DC 20233-0001.
________________________________________________________________

***Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888)346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 10:39 AM

August 25, 2007

Selection from IASSIST US Regional Report 2005-2006: Federal Reserve Board data

In April 2006, the Federal Reserve Board implemented Data Download, an interactive access and download application, delivering customized data sets in a variety of formats. Data Download is the first application to deliver data in SDMX-ML,, a technical statistical data standard that is gaining support among central banks and statistical agencies. The SDMX-ML technical standard was developed by the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) initiative under the governance of the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Eurostat, the United Nations, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. [Contributed by San Cannon]

Posted by ronbo at 08:41 PM

August 20, 2007

From ResourceShelf: Now Available: The Electronic Edition of Federal Elections 2006

ResourceShelf post on August 20, 2007:

The electronic edition of Federal Elections 2006: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives is now available on-line. Printed copies are expected by the end of August.

You can download the complete document or by chapters. Most material available in both PDF and XLS formats.

Source: Federal Election Commission

Posted by ronbo at 07:07 AM

August 02, 2007

From ESDS: Exciting new web portal for ESRC Census Programme

A new web portal has been launched - Census.ac.uk - providing a significantly enhanced web presence for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Census Programme, which gives access to census data from 1971 onwards to academics in UK higher and further education. Census.ac.uk (http://census.ac.uk) is the central point for the Programme. A wealth of census information - from 1971 through to 2001 - was already presented to the UK academic community through the Census Programme, though in an irregular format which tended to emphasise who was distributing particular data, rather than the breadth of data available. The emphasis has now changed to help users identify the full range of data which can support their work.

Available from Census.ac.uk:

*for the first time, a census data search facility based on structured metadata
*details of the 1971-2001 census data available to UK academics
*an enhanced registration process to gain access to the data
*overviews of census data which are available to all enquirers, and
*an introduction to the structure of the ESRC Census Programme.

Census.ac.uk also gives users the opportunity to register their research outputs online, in accordance with their obligations under the Programme's licence for data use. There is access to aggregate data, the National Statistics Postcode Directory, interaction data, digitised boundary data and microdata, as well as metadata for longitudinal studies covering the whole of the UK. Census.ac.uk has been developed by a team working at the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex, in conjunction with the Programme's six data support units and the UK census agencies.

Posted by ronbo at 05:47 PM

August 01, 2007

From Census Product Update (7/27/2007): Hot Tip - Demographic Information for the World!

Did you know the Census Bureau has information for all countries and areas of the world? Check out demographic indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy, fertility rates, net migration, and population growth. The data include current estimates that project age and sex distribution to 2050!! Find out more!

Posted by ronbo at 08:54 PM

Recent Medical Expenditure Panel Study (MEPS) Data Products and Publications

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS data products and publications.

Recent MEPS Data:

MEPS HC-093:2006 P10R3/P11R1 Population Characteristics
Release Date: July 2007

This public use data file is the tenth point in time data file to be released from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). The data are being released both as an ASCII file (with related SAS and SPSS programming statements) and in SAS transport format. This public use file provides information on data collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian non-institutionalized population of the United States during the early part of 2006. The data consist of 2006 data obtained in Round 3 of Panel 10 and Round 1 of Panel 11 of the MEPS Household Component and contains variables pertaining to survey administration, demographics, employment, health status, and health insurance. This public use data file can be accessed at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-093

MEPS Tabular Data:

Tables of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Estimates from the 2005 MEPS Insurance Component

Private sector estimates for year 2005 from the MEPS-Insurance Component have been posted on the MEPS website. Tables include statistics, at both the national and state levels, on employer-sponsored health insurance: offers and enrollments, number and types of insurance plans, premiums, benefits, contributions by employers and employees, and employer characteristics. They can be accessed at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/Insurance.jsp

Analytical Tools: 2005 MEPSnet/IC Data

The MEPSnet query system has been updated to include estimates from the private sector 2005 MEPS-Insurance Component tables (see above). MEPSnet/IC can be found at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/MEPSnetIC.jsp

Posted by ronbo at 08:50 PM

July 12, 2007

From Census Product Update: Hot Tip - Want The Latest Data?

CPU07-14
July 12, 2007

The U.S. Census Bureau will release data from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) in August and September. This year's data release marks the first time that group quarters (such as prisons, college dorms, military barracks and nursing homes) are included in the data products. For the full schedule, see the press release or visit our Question & Answer Center and search for "2006 ACS release."

Posted by ronbo at 08:47 PM

June 27, 2007

CSES Announcement: CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems) Module 2 dataset release

Dear CSES User Community,

We are very pleased to announce that the CSES Module 2 Full Release dataset is now available for download from the Data Center on the CSES website (www.cses.org).

The title "Full Release" indicates that all election studies from CSES Module 2 are now included in the file. Ten new election studies have been added, bringing the final total to 41 election studies in all.

Preparation of the release included extensive review of the individual election studies, the merged cross-national dataset, and the documentation. Numerous improvements, updates, and additions were made as a result of this review. For details about some of the changes, please reference the Errata page for CSES Module 2 in the Data Center.

After you have downloaded the Full Release, you may also be interested in downloading a new Researcher Contribution from the Data Center. The contribution was prepared by Matias Bargsted and is titled "Complementary Macro Level Data for CSES Modules 1 and 2". Included in the contribution are 43 variables on a wide range of topics not already covered by CSES macro data.

If you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail to "cses@umich.edu" and we would be glad to help.

Best regards,
-Dave

David Howell
Director of Studies
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

Posted by ronbo at 03:45 PM

June 19, 2007

From Census Bureau (6/18/07): Census Bureau Launches Older Worker Profiles for 31 states

The U.S. Census Bureau, in the Local Employment Dynamcis (LED) partnership with 31 states, has launched a series of reports on older workers that presents a detailed picture for people 55 and older in the work force, beginning with the release of "The Geographic Distribution and Characteristics of Older Workers In Iowa: 2004" today (news release).

"The retirement of baby boomers will have a huge impact on the work force," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. "Businesses and planners need a better understanding of labor force trends, the loss of experienced workers and the payout of retirement benefits."

Reports will be issued on a flow basis for the other 30 partner states:

* Second wave: Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Hawaii and Indiana.
* Third wave: Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky and South Carolina.
* Fourth wave: Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
* Fifth wave: California.

The report and additional tables may be found at http://lehd.did.census.gov/led/library/profiles.html. For additional information about the LED partnership, please visit http://lehd.did.census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 07:24 PM

June 15, 2007

From MEPS list:

AHRQ will be conducting a two-day hands-on HCUP and MEPS Data Users Workshop in Rockville, MD on: September 19-20, 2007

AHRQ is sponsoring a workshop in September to facilitate the health services research community in using data from two AHRQ databases: the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The workshop will provide researchers with information on the components and capabilities of the two databases. Participants would have an opportunity to learn how to extract data for research projects using either of the data bases. A working knowledge of SAS is required. There will be a $75 charge for attending.

Day 1 of this workshop will consist of lectures designed to provide a general overview of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).

On day 2, participants will be given the opportunity to attend sessions on either MEPS or HCUP; have an opportunity to bring up specific research questions; and participate in hands-on training. Participants will apply the knowledge gained from the first day's lectures to formulate a research plan that utilizes the various MEPS-HC files and linkage capabilities, OR learn how to use HCUP and its software tools. The day 2 sessions will be separate concurrent hands-on workshops run for both MEPS and HCUP.

A PC will be available for each participant. Each participant will construct an analytic file and begin to conduct analyses. Those attending MEPS hands-on session on 2nd day could bring a CD with their active MEPS project and get expert help on their research questions. Programmers and AHRQ staff will be available to provide assistance.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) is a family of powerful health care databases, software tools, and products. HCUP data enable research on a broad range of topics related to health care, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national, State, and local market levels. In addition, HCUP makes available at no charge a number of software tools to facilitate use of HCUP and other administrative data. For more information about HCUP, please visit http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov

For any other questions email workshopinfo@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 11:33 AM

From Census Product Update (6/15/07): Hot Tip - Improve Your Data Searches in American FactFinder!

The "About the Data" tab on the left side of American FactFinder (AFF) home page is a good resource for both the beginner and the seasoned data user. Learn, or refresh your memory, about the types of tables and maps you can choose in AFF. For example, do you remember how Geographic Comparison Tables differ from Detailed Tables or from Quick Tables? Or how Thematic Maps differ from Reference Maps? You don't need to be an expert to learn the differences, so take a few minutes to read over the definitions and the examples shown -- this will ensure you are getting the most out of your data requests from AFF.

Posted by ronbo at 11:30 AM

June 06, 2007

From IPUMS list: New IPUMS-International data!

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the latest expansion of the IPUMS-International data series. In early June 2007 we added 17 new samples for Argentina, Hungary, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Portugal, and Rwanda. The data series now contains 202 million person records from 80 censuses in 26 countries.

In addition to adding more samples, we have constructed location-of-spouse data for all samples in the data series. The spouse locator identifies the record number within the household of each person's spouse.

You can read more about the expanded data series at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html. As always, if you discover problems with the system or have suggestions for improving it, we welcome your feedback.

We are also eager to hear about the results of research using these data. Please email us citations to any books, journal articles, conference presentations, or working papers you have authored. You can also enter the bibliographic information yourself at http://bibliography.ipums.org.

Posted by ronbo at 01:41 PM

June 01, 2007

From ACS Alert No. 49 (6/1/07): U.S. Census Bureau Seeks Input on ACS Summary File (ACS-SF) Prototype

The ACS Office developed and released last January a prototype ACS Summary File (ACS-SF), and encourages data users to provide comments on this prototype to help us design and implement the full version of the ACS-SF by December 2007.

The ACS-SF contains the detailed tables for all geographies published by the 2005 ACS and is similar to the Census 2000 summary files. The Census Bureau plans to provide a separate set of summary files for one-year and three-year estimates beginning in 2008, and for five-year estimates
beginning in 2010.

Please send your comments on the ACS-SF prototype via email to: nicholas.m.spanos@census.gov no later than July 31, 2007. Subsequent updates or changes to the ACS-SF will be announced via ACS Alert and on the ACS Web site: www.census.gov/acs/www.
______________________________________________________________________

Posted by ronbo at 01:54 PM

New MEPS Data Releases and Announcement of MEPS Restricted Data Availability at Census Bureau Research Data Centers (RDC's)

AHRQ is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with the Census Bureau to make AHRQ's restricted MEPS data available to qualified researchers through the Census Research Data Center (RDC) network. The RDC network currently consists of 9 regional datacenters in NY, NC, MI, IL, MD, CA, and MA. For more information on the Census Bureau Research Data Centers please see: www.ces.census.gov.

Proposals will be accepted by CES beginning July 1, 2007 to use AHRQ data sets. AHRQ will handle all proposal review and disclosure avoidance review for RDC projects using AHRQ data. If a researcher chooses to use a Census Bureau RDC for their project, the standard AHRQ data center fee will be waived. Standard Census RDC access charges, if any, will apply. Proposals to use AHRQ data at a Census Bureau RDC will be subject to the standard Census RDC proposal process, but will not have to meet Census Bureau standards, just AHRQ standards (Proposals to use confidential data from both the Census Bureau and the AHRQ must use the existing Census Bureau application procedure, and will also be reviewed by AHRQ, and the Internal Revenue Service if tax data is involved.)

All researchers will need to become Special Sworn Status (SSS) employees of the Census Bureau -- in case of incidental access to confidential Census Bureau or Internal Revenue Service data while in an RDC -- and will also be required to become National Center for Health Statistics agents (as AHRQ data is based on the National Health Interview Survey), and take the appropriate training for both roles.

Researchers currently using the Rockville AHRQ data center will be able to transfer their research to a Census RDC site once they become SSS employees. Contact the appropriate Census RDC Administrator for more information on the SSS process.

For more information on the proposal process or the datasets, see the AHRQ data center web site at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/onsite_datacenter.jsp

List of Datasets that will be available:

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS):

a. Household Component-Insurance Component linked file (1996-1999, 2001) b. Nursing Home Component (1996) c. Medical Provider Component (except directly identifiable data) d. Two-Year, Two-Panel Files e. Area Resource File (county-level data that can be linked to MEPS-HC)

Please contact AHRQ at CFACTDC@AHRQ.HHS.GOV for complete details on additional non-public MEPS data available for RDC use.

Recent MEPS Data Products:

MEPS HC-091:2005 Jobs File

This public use data file contains jobs-level data from the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States during the calendar year 2005. The file contains job-level information collected in Rounds 3-5 for the ninth Panel and Rounds 1-3 for the tenth Panel of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005); it includes variables pertaining to household-reported jobs, including wages, hours, industry, and occupation. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-091

MEPS/NHIS 2005 Link File: 2005 MEPS/2004 & 2003 NHIS Link File

All ten (1996-2005) MEPS/NHIS Link Files are included on one CD-ROM. The MEPS/NHIS Link Files CD is available by request only. The 2005 MEPS/NHIS Link File contains a cross-walk that will allow data users to merge the MEPS 2005 Full-Year Population Characteristics public use data file, HC-090, with the NHIS 2003/2004 person-level public use data files. In this linkage file, a record exists for each person in the HC-090 file. Sample persons in NHIS that do not link to any MEPS sample persons are not represented in the linkage file. Sample persons in the HC-090 file who do not link with the 2003 NHIS or 2004 NHIS respondent person sample have a value of 9999 for the NHIS link id. The HC-090 file covers calendar year 2005 and contains data from Rounds 3, 4, and 5 of the MEPS Panel 9 (which uses the 2003 NHIS as its sampling frame) combined with data from Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of the MEPS Panel 10 (which uses the 2004 NHIS as its sampling frame). Confidentiality forms must be filled out and submitted to AHRQ before this file can be obtained. See HC-NHIS Link File ordering instructions for more information on how to obtain this file. See : http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/more_info_download_data_files.jsp#hc-nhis for more information on how to obtain this file. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=LINK_2005HC/NHIS

MEPS HC-090: 2005 Full Year Population Characteristics

Released as an ASCII file (with related SAS and SPSS programming statements) and a SAS transport dataset, this public use file provides information collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian non-institutionalized population of the United States for calendar year 2005. This file consists of MEPS survey data obtained in Rounds 3, 4, and 5 of Panel 9 and Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of Panel 10 (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2005) and contains variables pertaining to survey administration, demographics, employment, health status, quality of care, patient satisfaction, health insurance and person-level medical care use counts. The 2005 Full-Year expenditure and income data will be forthcoming. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detail.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-090

Recent MEPS Publications:

MEPS Research Findings No. 26 Family-Level Expenditures on Health Care and Insurance Premiums among the U.S. Nonelderly Population, 2004

This Research Findings presents estimates on health care expenditures and health insurance premiums aggregated to the family level, for all nonelderly families in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/Pub_ProdResults_Details.jsp?pt=Research%20Findings&opt=2&id=812

Posted by ronbo at 01:01 PM

May 25, 2007

Selections from the ESS User Bulletin 9 - May 2007

1. Selection of Questionnaire Design Teams for ESS Round 4

Two teams have been selected by the ESS Scientific Advisory Board to design the usual 50-item rotating modules for ESS Round 4. The successful teams are:

* 'Experiences and Expressions of Ageism': led by Dominic Abrams at the University of Kent in the UK, Luisa Lima at the University of Lisbon in Portugal and Geneviève Coudin of Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale in France.

* 'Welfare attitudes in a changing Europe’: led by Stefan Svallfors at Umeå University in Sweden, Wim van Oorschot at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Peter Taylor-Goodby at the University of Kent, Christian Staerklé at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Jørgen Goul Andersen at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Further information about the successful applications can be found on the home page of the ESS website.

Fieldwork for ESS Round 4 will start in September 2008.

2. ESS News

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
Eighteen national research councils, together with the European Science Foundation, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding about the future of the ESS. The Memorandum commits its signatories to try to establish a framework for longer term collaboration on the funding of the ESS. The Research Councils to have signed the Memorandum so far are from: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Efforts are also being made to secure funding for the ESS from the European Commission under Framework Programme 7.

ESS Book
A new edited volume about the ESS has recently been published by Sage Publications. ‘Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally: lessons from the European Social Survey’ is edited by Roger Jowell, Caroline Roberts, Rory Fitzgerald and Gillian Eva, with chapters from many members of the ESS Central Coordinating Team. Six of the eleven chapters describe and justify separate aspects of the ESS’s methodology – sampling, questionnaire development, translation, event-reporting, response enhancement and data access and documentation – each drawing conclusions for comparative social measurement more generally. Two further chapters deal more broadly with the ESS as a measurement model and what we are learning from it. And the final three chapters deal with substantive findings from the early rounds. Further information can be found on Sage’s website or by clicking here: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book228801

ESS Codebook: Round 1 and Round 2
An ESS codebook has also recently been published, containing all questions and response distributions from Rounds 1 and 2 in an easily accessible format. It costs £30 for UK customers and £35 for the rest of the world, including all postage and packaging. If you would like to order a copy, simply download, print and complete the order form, which can be found on the ESS website and post it to: Mary Keane, Room DG16, Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, Social Science Building, City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK.

ESS Website
The ESS website has recently been re-designed and upgraded in an attempt to make it even easier to use and navigate. The site will be re-launched on Friday 1st June at the usual address (www.europeansocialsurvey.org).

ESS Training Courses
The first ESS Training Course on "Designing and Implementing Questionnaires for Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Contexts" will be held at Ljubljana University, Slovenia, on the 6th-7th of August, 2007. The course will focus on questionnaire design and implementation within a framework of survey process quality monitoring and includes consideration of documentation and quality monitoring. Examples will be drawn from the ESS, the ISSP and other well-known cross-national surveys. Courses are funded by the European commission under an infrastructure grant to the ESS.

The course instructor is Professor Janet Harkness, Director of the Survey Research and Methodology Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the UNL Gallup Research Center, and Senior Scientist at ZUMA, Mannheim, Germany. Although this course is now oversubscribed, it will be repeated at a later date. In addition, there will be nine more ESS Training courses on other topics of comparative research over the next four years.

For more information on these courses please visit http://www.cjm.si/ESS_Train

3. Conferences, programmes and sessions

ESRA 2007 conference
A reminder that the second European Survey Research Association conference (ESRA 2007) is being held on 25-27 June 2007, hosted by the University of Economics, Prague. Registration for the conference is now open. See http://esra.sqp.nl/esra/conferences/2007/

Conference on Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences (QMSS) programme of the European Science Foundation (ESF)
This will take place the week before ESRA 2007, from 21st - 23rd June 2007 and will also be hosted by the University of Economics, Prague. The two conferences have been timed to facilitate attendance at both events. More details can be found at: http://www.s3ri.soton.ac.uk/qmss/conf07/

---

5. User update

The latest user statistics show that the number of ESS users currently stands at 13,797. Further details can be found on the Archive and Data pages of the ESS website.

6. About the ESS

Posted by ronbo at 08:54 PM

May 07, 2007

From Census Product Update: Hot Tip - U.S. Census Bureau Releases Research Data from Study on Multi-Year Estimates

The Census Bureau has released research data on single and multi-year estimates in preparation for the 2008 release of official 3-year estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS). A total of 14 data sets were created for this study using data from 1999 to 2005: three 5-year estimates, five 3-year estimates, and six 1-year estimates. Data profiles that include demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics are available for a broad set of geographic areas in 34 ACS Test counties. In addition to the online data profiles, background information about the study, methodology documentation, quality measures, and a set of questions and answers are available on the ACS web site under "Advanced Methodology."

Posted by ronbo at 11:23 PM

April 26, 2007

From ANES list: ANES 2006 Pilot Study Full Release is Now Available

Dear ANES User Community:

We're delighed to announce the full release of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study dataset and codebook. The Pilot Study data were previously made available in an "advance release." The full release features a nonresponse adjustment weight, additional auxillary ariables (such as geocodes and derived variables to summarize other variables), data from 10 additional interviews conducted after the data processing for the advance release had begun, and more complete documentation.

Any analysis of ANES Pilot Study data that is intended for publication should be based on this full release, which replaces the advance release.

To download the 2006 ANES Pilot Study dataset, or to visit the study page and learn more about the survey, please visit our Data Center at http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter.htm

The 2006 ANES Pilot Study appears in the blue box to the left of the page, just under the ANES Cumulative Data File.

One noteworthy feature of the 2006 Pilot Study is that all of the Pilot Study respondents completed a pre-election interview in 2004. Many essential variables regarding the 2006 respondents (including basic demographics) are contained in the ANES 2004 time series data file (not to be confused with the 2004 ANES Panel Study). The 2004 time series file can be merged with the 2006 ANES Pilot Study for analysis. For more information, see the Pilot Study codebook introduction (ftp://ftp.electionstudies.org/ftp/nes/studypages/2006pilot/anes_2006pilot_int.txt).

As always, we are happy to receive your questions and comments on all aspects of the ANES at anes@electionstudies.org.

Sincerely,

Matthew DeBell, Ph.D.
Director of Stanford Operations for the American National Election Studies
Institute for Research in the Social Sciences Stanford University

Posted by ronbo at 04:05 PM

April 23, 2007

From Census Product Update - - April 19, 2007: Hot Tip - Estimates Web Page Is a Valuable Resource!

Roll your cursor over the orange bar at the top of the Estimates page for all sorts of information related to estimates, including estimate schedules, and archives! The Population Estimates Program publishes total resident population estimates and demographic components of change (births, deaths, and migration) each year (reference date July 1). The program also publishes the estimates by demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin) for the nation, states and counties. In addition to the resident population universe, it also produces population estimates for these universes: resident plus armed forces overseas, civilian, and civilian non-institutional at the national level; and civilian at the state level.

Posted by ronbo at 07:15 AM

March 20, 2007

From the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) news list: New CESSDA web site

The Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) redesigned web site is now online at http://www.cessda.org. In addition to the new layout, the site has several new features including the CESSDA Data Portal which allows easy access to the catalogues of member organisations. Other pages provide a central news forum about CESSDA activities, links to official documents, contact details and other relevant information. The site's content will continue to be developed and will include a members' section.

CESSDA also has a new email address: cessda@cessda.org.

The CESSDA Data Portal provides a seamless interface to datasets from social science data archives across Europe. The data may be located in several ways, for example by searching or browsing by topic, keyword or data publisher. The data portal may be searched and viewed in any one of nine languages.

Most of the datasets are freely available for academic use. However the individual data archives have different access conditions for their materials. Consult the relevant data archive for more information about these access conditions and possible charges.

The CESSDA Data Portal builds on the work of the EU-funded project Multilingual Access to Data Infrastructures of the European Research Area (MADIERA). The project was based on the DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) specifications for documenting datasets, the European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST) enabling multilingual functionality, and the Nesstar technology providing functionality for browsing and analysing data.

Posted by ronbo at 01:48 PM

March 08, 2007

From Census Product Update: Hot Tip & Recently Released

Hot Tip - State and Local Government Employment and Payroll

Ever wonder how many people are employed by state and local governments - from state-owned alcoholic beverage stores to law enforcement officers to higher education - and the payroll of these governments? The 2006 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll has the data you are looking for. This survey measures the number of State, Local and Federal civilian government employees and their gross payrolls and provides data on full-time and part-time employment, part-time hours worked, full-time equivalent employment, and payroll statistics by governmental function.

* Keep New:
* Posted on: Thu, Mar 8 2007 8:07 AM
* Email This
* Clip/Blog This

Recently Released - Population

American Community Survey Reports Present Portrait of Racial and Ethnic Population Groups. Three reports provide information on a number of characteristics such as; education, household type, income, commuting, etc. Data are presented in tables, figures, and maps. In addition, the Asian and Hispanic reports present data for select groups (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese for Asians; Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Peruvians for Hispanics). Two additional reports on the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population, and the American Indian and Alaska Native population will be released later this year.
The American Community -- Hispanics: 2004 (PDF - 1 MB)
The American Community -- Blacks: 2004 (PDF - 916 KB)
The American Community -- Asians: 2004 (PDF - 1 MB)

Posted by ronbo at 06:17 PM

February 23, 2007

From Census Product Update - - February 23, 2007

See the complete online version

Fact of the Day - The Asian Population

The report "The American Community - Asians: 2004," shows that about one-half of Asians in the United States lived in three states -- California, New York, and Texas. California (with about 35 percent), had more than one-third of the Asian population, followed by New York (about 10 percent) and Texas (about 6 percent). The ten states with the largest Asian populations in 2004 were California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Combined, these states represented about three-fourths of the total Asian population.

Hot Tip - Quarterly Workforce Indicators Now Available on DVD!

A complete set of 2005 Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) (including employment, job creation, wages, and worker turnover) for 37 partner states under the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) partnership is now available on multiple DVDs from the Census Bureau. The QWI are built upon wage records in the Unemployment Insurance system and information from state Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data, covering over 75% of total wage and salary civilian jobs. In our catalog, click "Business," then "Local Employment Dynamics" for purchase or information!

Posted by ronbo at 06:12 PM

January 31, 2007

From ACS-Alert: American Community Survey Alert, Number 45 (January 31, 2007)

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases Prototype ACS Summary File (SF)

A prototype of the ACS Summary File (SF) will be released Feb. 14, 2007 on the ACS Web site. This is a postponement of two weeks from the release date announced in the Dec. 28, 2006, ACS Alert, Number 44.

Details on accessing the files and accompanying technical documentation will be released via ACS Alert on Feb. 14.

The Census Bureau and American Community Survey Office hopes this prototype ACS-SF will give data users the opportunity to work with this set of files and provide the Census Bureau with useful comments. Feedback may be sent to: cmo.acs@census.gov.

*2006 ACS Content Test Reports Now Available

In 2006, the Census Bureau conducted the first test of new and modified content since the ACS reached full implementation levels of data collection. The 2006 ACS Content Test report series presents the results of that testing that will help determine the content for the 2008 ACS.

There are 21 reports in the series, which may be found on the Census Bureau’s Web site at: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/AdvMeth/index.htm >.

Posted by ronbo at 02:34 PM

January 25, 2007

Hot Tip from Census Product Update

Entire Dataset Now Available in QuickFacts!

For many years, State and County QuickFacts has provided a convenient sampler of the range of data available at the county level from the Census Bureau. Now, in addition to the simple one-area-at-a-time display, QuickFacts enables users to download the entire dataset in an ASCII .csv format! Many of these same data items were previously downloadable from American FactFinder or other sources, but that required loading several different data sets to see the same range of data. Other items in QuickFacts have not previously been easily derivable from other sources (for example, population estimates by age, race/origin, or sex). The QuickFacts download file provides many of the numbers in both percentage and raw form for easy analysis but full flexibility for comparisons and ranking. The new download file gives data for the U.S., states, and counties. A download file including cities with 25,000 or more inhabitants is coming this spring.

The link for downloading appears at the bottom of each QuickFacts profile. Have fun with it!

Posted by ronbo at 02:13 PM

January 17, 2007

From ANES User List:

LESS THAN TWO WEEKS LEFT TO SUBMIT QUESTIONS FOR THE 2007-2009 ANES PANEL STUDY

We're writing today to remind you of what we hope you already know: The deadline is coming up for proposing questions for a new and dynamic ANES survey. The 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study will track the attitudes of a nationally representative group of respondents from well before the primaries begin to well after the campaigns have ended. This new study offers a great chance to see whether and how people change before, during, and after the 2008 presidential campaign season.

The only means for having questions you want placed on the ANES 2007-2009 Panel Study is to submit a proposal to the ANES Online Commons. We have heard from a number of people and we know that some of you are in the process of preparing proposals. This is exciting. In recent days, we have received proposals entitled "Predicting Political Attitudes and Voting Results: Insights from Demography," "Approval Voting Question," "Generativity in Politics: Caring for the Future," and "Issue Salience - the Open-Ended Problems Question." We very much hope you'll consider submitting a proposal as well.

Two weeks from today, the Online Commons will close. No decisions have been made yet about the content of the six political waves of this study. So if you have ideas that can improve this new study, now is a great time to tell us. If you have ever wanted a particular question or set of questions to appear on a panel study, particularly one conducted under the rigorous standards of the ANES, now is the time to act!

Don't be left behind.

Sincerely,
Jon Krosnick and Skip Lupia
website: www.electionstudies.org
email: anes@electionstudies.org

Posted by ronbo at 05:15 PM

January 13, 2007

NEW Eurobarometer releases - January 11, 2007

Announcing the following NEW Eurobarometer releases:

ZA Study Number 4416
ICPSR Study Number [not yet assigned]
EUROBAROMETER 64.4

Carried out by TNS OPINION & SOCIAL and managed by EOS GALLUP EUROPE (BRUSSELS), on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between December 7, 2005, and January 11, 2006.

Coverage: 25 EU member countries
+ Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, and the Turkish Cypriote Community (TCC)

TOPICS:
- Mental well-being
- Telecommunication access and use in the household
- Children and the Internet: illegal and harmful content
- Food purchase/consumption and farmed animals' welfare (EMBARGO)

ZA Study Number 4424
FLASH EUROBAROMETER 175
The EURO - 4 years after the introduction of banknotes and coins

Carried out by EOS GALLUP EUROPE (BRUSSELS), on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion, between October 5 and October 14, 2005.

Coverage: 12 EURO-zone countries

----

Stanford users, send a request to SSDS Data Services if you are interested. Click on the contact us link.

Posted by ronbo at 01:41 PM

Selections from the Census Product Update -- January 11, 2007

Fact of the Day

Who's Moving? Geographic Mobility: 2000-2005 Has the Answers!

In 2005, 107.0 million people age 5 years old and over in the United States lived in a different residence than 5 years prior. The number of movers was virtually the same as the 106.6 million movers reported from the period 1990-1995 â€“ the last time 5-year migration data was collected. The distribution of movers by type of move was: 52 percent of movers within the same county, 23 percent of movers from a different county within the same state, 20 percent of movers from different state, and 6 percent of movers from abroad. Find these tables and more, including characteristics of movers and nonmovers by type of move, online.

Hot Tip

State Legislative District Data Now Available

The State Legislative District Summary Files (SF-1 and SF-3) provide data from Census 2000 for the state legislative districts whose boundaries were defined and delivered to the Census Bureau by the respective state governments during the 2005-2006 period. All 50 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico participated in this program. The subject content of the files is identical to the corresponding Census 2000 Summary Files. SF-1 includes population items such as age, sex, race, Hispanic or Latino, etc. SF-3 includes selected social, economic and housing characteristics including income, poverty, employment, education, and more. The data are available in American FactFinder. Will also be available as a two DVD set in the future. Disc one will contain the SF-1 and SF-3 data, and disc two will contain the block supplement file which associates the 2000 tabulation blocks with each State Legislative District.

Hot Links

* Current Census Product Update -- Full Issue
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/cpu.html
* Census Bureau Training
http://www.census.gov/mso/www/training/index.htm
* Census Bureau Home Page
http://www.census.gov
* Census Bureau Catalog
http://censuscatalog.mso.census.gov/esales/start.swe
* Economic Briefing Room
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm
* Census Bureau Regional Offices
http://www.census.gov/field/www/
* State Data Centers
http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/
* Recently Released
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/recently_released/index.html
* Guide to Media Types
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/mediat~1.htm
* Upcoming Releases From the Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/upcoming_releases/index.html
* How To Order Products
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cpu/order.html

For general/technical questions regarding Census Bureau data products, go to https://ask.census.gov.

You also can call the Customer Services Center (Monday through Thursday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM EDT and Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM EDT) at 301-763-INFO (4636) or fax us at 301-457-4714.

Posted by ronbo at 01:39 PM

January 10, 2007

From ANES User List: ANES Announcement: An Advance Release of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study is Now Available

Dear ANES User Community,

An advance release of the 2006 ANES Pilot Study dataset and documentation is now available for download from the ANES website.

The 2006 dataset is being released more quickly than ever before so that users will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the new Pilot Study questions in time to decide whether to propose them for inclusion on the upcoming 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study. The deadline for proposing questions for the 2007-2009 ANES Panel Study is January 31, which is only three weeks from now. For more information about posting a proposal, please visit the ANES Online Commons at this location: http://www.electionstudies.org/onlinecommons.htm

To download the 2006 ANES Pilot Study dataset, or to visit the study page and learn more about the survey, please visit our Data Center at: http://www.electionstudies.org/studypages/download/datacenter.htm
...The 2006 ANES Pilot study appears in the blue box to the left of the page, just under the ANES Cumulative Data File.

If you have questions, or if we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by email to: anes@electionstudies.org

IMPORTANT NOTE: The dataset and all accompanying documentation currently available for the 2006 ANES Pilot Study are an "Advance Release". The Advance Release is primarily intended for only a few particular, limited applications. Before analyzing the data, it is very important for users to understand how an Advance Release differs from a Full Release of an ANES dataset. Please refer to the Advance Release codebook introduction for more information.

Best wishes,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
American National Election Studies (ANES; www.electionstudies.org)

Posted by ronbo at 06:21 PM

December 28, 2006

American Community Survey Alert, Number 44

(released December 28, 2006)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

*U.S. Census Bureau Releases Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) User Guide (English version)

*First ACS Summary File Scheduled for Release in January 2007

*Contact Us

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) User Guide (English version)

The Census Bureau recently released an online guide to using 2005 PRCS Data Products (English version). The Guide is in PDF format and may be downloaded for use as a reference document.

A Spanish-language version of the guide will be available in 2007.

The Guide may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/FinalReviewPRCSUserGuide.doc.edits.3.pdf
.

* First ACS Summary File Scheduled for Release in January 2007

The first ACS Summary File is scheduled for release on the ACS web site on January 31, 2007. The file covers detailed tables from the 2005 ACS data releases. Detailed documentation will be provided as part of the release for this new data product.

Information about the ACS Summary File may be found at:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/New_ACS_Summary_File_Specification-rev2.doc
.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The ACS is a key component in the Census Bureau's 2010 Decennial Census Program, which also consists of early planning and modernization of geographic operations and a short-form only for the 2010 Census.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

* Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 01:51 PM

December 19, 2006

National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)

The National Historical Geographic Information System (funded by NSF) at the Minnesota Population contains almost a terrabyte of historical census data and boundary files covering the United States from 1790 to 2000. Boundary files for historic counties and census tracts were created over the course of the project and are available either through the aggregate data access system or directly from the main page of the site.

The current contents of NHGIS cover the following areas:

* The modern Census of Population and Housing standard files for 1970-2000 (note that 2000SF4 will be added early in 2007)
* Historical census data including Religious Censuses, and pre-1930 Economic and Agriculture tables translated from printed sources for:
US, States, and Counties (1790-1960)
Tracts and limited Enumeration District and Ward data (1910-1960)
* Banking Establishments for US, State, and County 1920-1936
* County Business Patterns for US, State, and County (1970-2003)
* Farm Values for US, State, and County (1850-1959)
* Special and Supplemental Files from the 1980 and 1990 Census

Additional historical files on historical election returns, Economic and Agricultural Censuses will be added during the coming year. Access to all summary levels for the modern census files will be added in the near future.

The NHGIS collection is through http://www.nhgis.org and is open to all for research purposes. Registration requires completing a short
form.

Posted by ronbo at 02:01 PM

December 07, 2006

New IPUMS-International data!

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the latest expansion of the IPUMS-International data series. In December 2006 we added 16 new samples for Belarus, Cambodia, Greece, the Philippines, Romania, Spain, and Uganda. The data series now contains 185 million person records from 63 samples and 20 countries. The new URL is http://international.ipums.org.

As the database grows, we constantly try to make it easier for researchers to use. With this release we have improved the data system in several ways. In addition to the 400 harmonized IPUMS variables, users can now view and extract over 5,000 unharmonized variables specific to the individual samples. These have undergone differing degrees of processing, but they generally contain all of the useful information in the original samples that does not pose a confidentiality concern. A second enhancement is the ability to filter all variable documentation based on user sample selections, limiting the information on the screen to what is relevant to the researcher. Finally, some complex variables now have additional "general" versions utilizing only their first digit or two, making them easier to use.

You can read more about these and other improvements at http://international.ipums.org/international/news.html. As always, if you discover problems with the system or have suggestions as to how it could be improved, we welcome your feedback.

We are also eager to hear about the results of research using these data. Please email us with book or journal article citations, conference presentations, or working paper releases so we can include them in the IPUMS bibliography.

Regards,
The IPUMS Team
ipums@pop.umn.edu

Posted by ronbo at 02:50 PM

December 06, 2006

Census Product Update: Selected announcements

Recently Released - click for full December 1, 2006 Bulletin

Population

America Speaks: A Demographic Profile of Foreign-Language Speakers for the United States: 2000. Internet files show national- and state-level data on who speaks English and who does not, broken down by type of household, age of householder, education attainment, and income.

Current Population Survey Design and Methodology (Technical Paper No. 66). (PDF - 3.19 MB). This document describes changes made to the Current Population Survey (CPS) since 2000. The CPS is the country's primary source of labor force statistics.

Fourth Wave of 2005 American Community Survey Data. Internet files in American FactFinder showing profiles of social, economic, and housing characteristics for selected age, race, Hispanic or Latino origin, and ancestry groups for nearly 7,000 areas, including all congressional districts and counties, cities, and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more.

Economic Census and Surveys

Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries From the 2005 Annual Survey of Manufactures. (PDF - 1.6 MB). PDF report presenting manufacturing establishments statistics for industry groups and industries from the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM). Presents 2005 through 2002 data at the three-through six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)-based levels. Includes such statistics as number of establishments, employment, payroll, value added by manufacture, cost of materials consumed, detailed capital expenditures, supplemental labor costs, fuels and electric energy used, inventories by stage of fabrication, value of shipments, detailed miscellaneous receipts, and interplant transfers.

Value of Product Shipments From the 2005 Annual Survey of Manufactures. (PDF - 724 KB). PDF report presenting value of product shipments from the Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM). Presents 2005 through 2002 shipments data for the 473 six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)-based product groups, 1,450 seven-digit NAICS product classes, and products primary to more than one industry.

State-Level Data for Industry Groups From the 2005 Annual Survey of Manufactures. (PDF - 1.2 MB). PDF report presenting similar statistics at the ''all manufacturing'' level for the United States, each state, and the District of Columbia. This Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM) report presents 2005 and 2004 data at the three-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) level for employment, payroll, value added by manufacture, cost of materials consumed, value of shipments, and total capital expenditures.

Posted by ronbo at 07:43 PM

November 30, 2006

From Census Product Update: American Community Survey Profiles - News in Brief

Hot Tip

In mid-November, the Census Bureau released data profiles for about 200 race, ethnic, and ancestry groups in areas of one million or more population. These profiles are based on the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) and are accessible in the American FactFinder. A profile exists only when a group numbers 65,000 in the area under consideration.

Whenever the Census Bureau issues a major data release like this, we usually do a press release summarizing the findings and include other helpful reference information. Even if you're not a reporter hot on a story, you may find this information useful. The press release for these data is accompanied by a media toolkit, an ACS users guide, links to the detailed tables, the release schedule, links to the forms included in ACS mailings, etc. Especially useful is a presentation on the data done by Census Bureau staffer Ken Bryson showing what's included and how to access it in FactFinder or FTP.

To find our news releases, just click on the "Releases" link on the Census Bureau homepage.

Posted by ronbo at 06:50 PM

November 14, 2006

American Community Survey (ACS) Alert: U.S. Census Bureau Releases Final 2005 ACS Estimates

American Community Survey Alert, Number 43
(released November 14, 2006)

The Census Bureau today released 2005 ACS estimates on selected race, Hispanic origin and ancestry populations. Today’s release also includes profiles for the population 60 years and over and 65 years and over.

The 2005 ACS data provide key socioeconomic and housing characteristics for about 200 selected population groups at the national and state levels. It allows for easy comparisons across groups and access to a range of data from age, marital status and fertility, to language spoken at home and educational attainment.

The data may be found on the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder Website at: <http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en>.

In addition, updates to the online “Guide to ACS Data Products” were released. The Guide now includes two spreadsheets listing the iterated selected population profiles (SPPs) that are available for the ancestry and race/Hispanic origin groups by geography on the American FactFinder and the ACS FTP site. The ancestry and race/Hispanic origin group spreadsheets will contain the following two worksheets:

*GeobyRace—Geography as rows and race/Hispanic origin (or ancestry) by columns
*RacebyGeo—Race/Hispanic origin (or ancestry) as rows and Geography by columns

If an iterated SPP is available for the specific geography, an “X” is placed in that cell.

The Guide may be found at: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/index.htm>.
___________________________________________________________________

The ACS is a key component in the Census Bureau’s 2010 Decennial Census Program, which also consists of early planning and modernization of geographic operations and a short-form only for the 2010 Census.
___________________________________________________________________

* Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 03:09 PM

October 26, 2006

From Census Product Update: Recently Released

October 19, 2006

Population

Detailed Tables Provide Data on Educational Attainment and School Enrollment. Online tables in spreadsheet format (about 1,200 tables) provide data in greater detail than other Census 2000 products. Tables for 15 race groups and each of the states cover subjects that include the education of native- and foreign-born residents by age, education by labor force status, earnings by education level, school enrollment by age and characteristics of adults enrolled in school.

More Than 39 Million Americans Changed Addresses Last Year. Read more in Geographical Mobility: 2005. Internet files containing national and regional information on how often and how far people move, along with characteristics of the movers and their reasons for moving.

Census Bureau Releases Third Wave of 2005 American Community Survey Data (Housing Characteristics). The latest release shows housing characteristics for nearly 7,000 areas, including all congressional districts and counties, cities, and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more. Data include types of homes, median value, heating fuel used, and plumbing facilities.

Latest Economic Indicators

Monthly Wholesale Trade: August 2006. Press release showing estimates for sales, inventories on a non-LIFO ("last in-first out") basis, and stock-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by three-digit major kind-of-business groups.

Quarterly Financial Report for Retail Trade: 2nd Quarter 2006. Press release shows second quarter sales of large retail trade corporations. Includes large U.S. retailers' after-tax profits.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: August 2006. Press release showing monthly exports, general imports (including data by country), and limited data on imports for consumption.

Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services: September 2006. Press release presenting advance monthly estimates of retail store sales by kind-of-business groups. Report includes seasonally adjusted estimates and percentage changes for major kind-of-business groups.

Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales: August 2006. Press release showing sales, inventories, and inventories-to-sales ratios for the combined domestic activities of retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.

New Residential Construction: September 2006. Press release showing data for housing starts, completions, and building permits.

Economic Census and Surveys

2002 Survey of Business Owners, Characteristics of Businesses. Internet tables and report in PDF (PDF - 7.56mb) showing data for respondent firms by Hispanic or Latino origin, race, and gender and presented by industry classifications at the U.S. level and by size of firm (employment and receipts). Data include additional demographic and economic business characteristics for home-based, family-owned, and franchised businesses; types of customers and workers; sources of financing for expansion, capital improvements, or start-up; the year the owner(s) in 2002 established, purchased, or acquired the business; and the sole proprietor's self-employment or business activities.

2002 Survey of Business Owners, Characteristics of Business Owners. Internet tables and report in PDF (PDF - 512kb) showing data for the owners of respondent firms presented by employment status and business interest. Data include additional demographic and economic owner characteristics, such as: Hispanic or Latino origin, race, gender, age, education level, and veteran status; average number of hours spent managing or working in the business; primary function in the business; and whether the business provided the primary source of personal income.

Zip Code Business Patterns 2003-2004 Released on DVD. Files on DVD presenting business establishment counts summarized for nine employment-size classes by hundreds of NAICS codes and about 40,000 ZIP codes nationwide. A second data set includes summary data by ZIP code (no NAICS or employment-size class breakdown) for number of employees, first-quarter payroll, annual payroll, and total number of establishments. (Product ID: V1-E04-ZCBP-09-US1, $70)

Governments

2005 State and Local Government Employee-Retirement Systems. Annual data on revenues, expenditures, financial assets, and membership for public employee-retirement systems. Data are shown for individual retirement systems as well as overall at the national, state, and local levels.

Reference and Compendia

Facts for Features. Collections of statistics from the Census Bureau's demographic and economic subject areas commemorate anniversaries or observances or provide background information for topics in the news:

Special Edition: 300 Million People

Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - Oct. 15)

Halloween (October 31, 2006)

Veteran's Day (November 11, 2006)

American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month (November)

Posted by ronbo at 05:55 PM

October 12, 2006

From Eurobarometer list:: EB 64.3 released

Dear list members!

I am pleased to announce the following Eurobarometer release:

ZA4415 / ICPSR ___ EUROBAROMETER 64.3
November-December 2005

Carried out by TNS OPINION & SOCIAL and managed by EOS GALLUP
EUROPE (BRUSSELS), on request of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Directorate General Press and Communication, Public Opinion.

TOPICS:
- Learning, knowledge and use of foreign languages
- Biotechnology and genetic engineering
- Organized crime and corruption
- Health consciousness: breastfeeding, diet, physical activity,
overweight children, state of health (EMBARGO)
- Smoking habits and passive smoking (*)
- AIDS prevention (*)
- Medical errors (*)
- Consumer rights (EMBARGO)

(*) These moduls were only surveyed in Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey,
Croatia, and Northern Cyprus (TCC).
In the 25 EU member countries identical questions were asked in the
framework of Eurobarometer 64.1 which
will be released by the archive at latest in November.

If you would like to order the data, please contact YOUR data archive:

http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/staff/archives.htm

For more information on Eurobarometer 64.3 please see the corresponding
study profile at:

http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer/standard_eb_profiles/indexframe_profiles.htm

With best regards
Meinhard Moschner

--
GESIS/ZA
Central Archive for Empirical Social Research
Meinhard Moschner moschner@za.uni-koeln.de
Tel. ++49 +221 47694 21
Fax. ++49 +221 47694 44
For more information on EUROBAROMETER please see:
http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer

Posted by ronbo at 12:11 PM

September 22, 2006

From MEPS list: Upgraded MEPS Website and Recent Data Products

Major upgrade to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Web site

During the first week of September 2006, significant changes were
made to the MEPS Web site. This is the first major upgrade to the
MEPS site since its initial launching over a decade ago.
The new MEPS Web site is designed to be more user-friendly. Content
on the old site was sometimes difficult to locate and often required
going through multiple Web pages; the new site has a more logical
structure and provides multiple ways to find the information you are
seeking in fewer steps.
The new MEPS Web site has a lot of new content. A few examples
include: a complete set of MEPS Household Component questionnaires
for all survey years; an index of topics that provides links to
tables, files, and publications by specific areas of interest;
improved survey methods documentation, including survey sample sizes
and response rates by year; MEPS Insurance Component State data in
spreadsheet formats for all prior years; and improved documentation
throughout the site.
The new MEPS Web site has more powerful databases and search engines.
This will improve the speed, quality, and reliability of searches
and downloads of public use files, publications, and tables.
The new MEPS Web site has been upgraded to meet all current Federal
Web standards.
As with any change, there will be a transition period for those who
were familiar with the old site. For example, if you bookmarked
pages to the old site, those bookmarks will no longer work. If you
have problems finding the information you need, please contact us at
mepsprojectdirector@ahrq.hhs.gov and we will be glad to help you
navigate the new MEPS Web site.

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS
data products and publications:

Recent MEPS Data Products:
MEPS HC-085B: 2004 Dental Visits
Release Date: August 2006
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public
use data files drawn from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
(MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS
and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, the
Dental Visits File provides detailed information on dental events
for a nationally representative sample of the civilian,
noninstitutionalized population of the United Sates during the 2004
calendar year. This file consists of 2004 data obtained in the 2004
portion of round 3 and rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 8, as well as rounds
1, 2, and the 2004 portion of round 3 for Panel 9 of the survey
(i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2004),
and contains variables pertaining to household reported dental
visits. The file includes the date of the dental event, type of
provider seen, if the visit was due to an accident, reason for the
dental event, and whether or not medicines were prescribed. This
file is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detai
l.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-085B

MEPS HC-085C: 2004 Other Medical Expenses
Release Date: August 2006
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public
use data files drawn from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
(MEPS) Household Component (HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS
and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this
public use file provides information on the purchase of and
expenditures for medical equipment, supplies, glasses and other
medical items for a nationally representative sample of the civilian
noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used
to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated
with medical items during the 2004 calendar year. This file consists
of 2004 data obtained in the 2004 portion of round 3 and rounds 4
and 5 for Panel 8, as well as rounds 1, 2 and the 2004 portion of
round 3 for Panel 9 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS
panels covering calendar year 2004). This file is available on the
MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detai
l.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-085C

MEPS HC-085H: 2004 Home Health File
Release Date: August 2006
This public use data file is one in a series of event-level public
use data files drawn from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
(MEPS) Household Component (HC). Household-reported information on
expenditures for home health visits including the type of provider,
type of services received, length of the visit, reason for the
visit, expenditures, and sources of payment. Released as an ASCII
file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport
format, this public use file provides information on home health
care for a nationally representative sample of the civilian
noninstitutionalized population of the United States and can be used
to make estimates of the utilization and expenditures associated
with home health care during the 2004 calendar year. This file
consists of 2004 data obtained in the 2004 portion of round 3 and
rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 8, as well as rounds 1, 2, and the 2004
portion of round 3 for Panel 9 of the survey (i.e., the rounds for
the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2004). This file is available
on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/download_data_files_detai
l.jsp?cboPufNumber=HC-085H

Recent MEPS Publications:
Statistical Brief #136: The Long-Term Uninsured in America,
2001–2004: Estimates for the U.S. Population under Age 65
Release Date: August 2006
This Statistical Brief provides detailed estimates for the U.S.
civilian noninstitutionalized non-elderly (under age 65) population
that was uninsured for the entire 2001–2004 period and identifies
groups most at risk of lacking any coverage over that four-year
period. Estimates are based on information from the Household
Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) for 2003
and 2004, additional questions in MEPS to determine health insurance
coverage for 2001 and 2002, and health insurance profiles from the
National Health Interview Survey for 2002.The full Statistical Brief
is available on the MEPS website at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st136/stat13
6.pdf

Statistical Brief #137: Treatment of Sore Throats: Antibiotic
Prescriptions and Throat Cultures for Children under 18 Years of
Age, 2002–2004 (Average Annual)
Release Date: August 2006
This Statistical Brief uses data from the Household Component of the
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) to examine the
percentages of children under 18 years of age for whom, within the
past 12 months, 1) contact was made with a doctor or other health
professional primarily regarding a serious sore throat, 2) an
antibiotic was prescribed for those who contacted a health
professional, and 3) a throat swab was administered before
prescribing an antibiotic. Variations in these three measures are
examined by selected demographic characteristics and insurance
status. The full Statistical Brief is available on the MEPS website
at:
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st137/stat13
7.pdf

Posted by ronbo at 04:29 PM

August 29, 2006

American Community Survey Alert, Number 41

(released August 29, 2006)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional action and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2005 ACS Economic Estimates; data are first from full implementation of ACS

* ACS Reference Guides Now Available ______________________________________________________________________

* U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2005 ACS Economic Estimates; data are first from full implementation of ACS

The U.S. Census Bureau today released the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data on economic characteristics for the nation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, every congressional district and all counties and places with 65,000 population or more. Economic characteristics for Puerto Rico and 12 municipios and other geographic areas in Puerto Rico also were released based on the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS).

These data were released in conjunction with the Census Bureau’s annual release of income, poverty and health insurance data.

Today’s release covers nearly 7,000 geographic entities and marks the first year that ACS data are available for areas with populations of less than 250,000. It is part of the full implementation of the survey, which will provide updated data on an annual basis for all levels of geography (including census tracts and block groups) by 2010.

Reported characteristics include: *Income *Poverty *Employment status *Occupation *Industry *Journey to work

ACS 2005 PUMS data also were released today and may be found at: < http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/acs_pums_2005.html>.

The physical and financial characteristics of housing estimates are planned for release on Oct. 3. Additionally, selected population profiles with data by race, Hispanic origin and ancestry will be released on Nov. 14. Comparable PRCS data will also be released under the same schedule.

* ACS Reference Guides Now Available

The Census Bureau has developed several products to assist data users in understanding the 2005 ACS data. Using Data from the 2005 American Community Survey is a handbook for users that covers a broad set of topics relating directly to the 2005 ACS. It is available in PDF format and can be downloaded for use as a reference document. The Guide to the ACS Data Products is an online tool that allows users to obtain additional information about the 2005 data products. The ACS Data User Training Guide is a set of PowerPoint presentations that you can use to train general audiences about the ACS.

These documents may be found on the ACS Web site (www.census.gov/acs/www) under the tab labeled “Using the Data.”

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail < cmo.acs@census.gov >.

Posted by ronbo at 03:30 PM

From the ESS User Bulletin 6, August 2006: ESS News

Round 3 fieldwork

Round 3 fieldwork will be getting underway at the start of September 2006. The first data release from the ESS Data Website http://ess.nsd.uib.no will be in the autumn of 2007. Please click here if you would like to see the Questionnaire.

This round's rotating modules are:
o Personal and Social Well-being: Creating indicators for a flourishing Europe
This module seeks to evaluate the success of European countries at promoting the personal and social well-being of their citizens and represents the first systematic attempt to create a set of policy-relevant national well-being accounts.
o The Timing of Life: The organisation of the life course in Europe
The module aims at furthering our understanding of the views of European citizens on the organisation of the life course and of their strategies to influence and plan their own lives.

So far 25 countries have confirmed their participation for Round 3:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and United Kingdom

ESS Infrastructure Award gets underway

In May 2006 the survey's Central Co-ordinating Team was delighted to start work on a grant by the European Commission to fund Infrastructure activities over the next five years. The activities include Networking, Access and Joint Research activities.

Networking activities include quality enhancement meetings to improve methodology in cross-national surveys, improvements to the ESS websites, a new on-line ESS bibliography and new on-line training modules using ESS data. In addition there will be new methodological work conducted by a network of researchers aimed at developing event reporting, as well as a series of training courses for young researchers.

Access activities include improving web-based access to substantive, methodological and process data, metadata and protocols. These will include access to a cumulative dataset in due course.

Joint Research activities include a programme of research into mixed mode data collection, research investigating improving representativeness and response rates and a vast programme of research looking at the reliability and validity of ESS questions and possible data corrections for measurement error.

More details will appear on the ESS website shortly.

About the ESS

The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically-driven social survey designed to chart and explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of its diverse populations. The survey covers over 25 European nations and employs rigorous methodology. Funding for the central design and coordination of the ESS comes from the European Commission via its Framework Programmes, supplemented by support from the European Science Foundation which initiated the project. Funding for national data collection and coordination comes from funding agencies in participating countries.

The project is directed by a Central Co-ordinating Team:

City University: Roger Jowell, Rory Fitzgerald, Caroline Roberts, Gillian Eva, Daniella Hawkins, Mary Keane http://www.city.ac.uk/

University of Leuven: Jaak Billiet http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/sociologie/ENG/onderzoekeng/ispoeng/index.htm

NSD Norway: Bjorn Henrichsen, Kirstine Kolsrud, Knut Kalgraff Skjåk http://ess.nsd.uib.no/

ZUMA Germany : Peter Mohler, Janet Harkness, Sabine Haeder, Achim Koch, Annelies Blom http://www.gesis.org/en/zuma/index.htm

University of Amsterdam: Willem Saris, Irmtraud Gallhofer http://www.english.uva.nl/

SCP Netherlands : Ineke Stoop http://www.scp.nl/english/index.shtml

To contact the CCT via the London office e-mail: ess@city.ac.uk

Posted by ronbo at 03:23 PM

August 21, 2006

From SIPP Users List - Digest, Volume 1, #243

On August 24, 2006, the Bureau of the Census will conduct a meeting to discuss the re-engineering of the Survey of Income and Program
Participation (SIPP) specifically, the content of the new survey. The meeting will be held in the Gannett/Hollerith conference rooms at the U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, Maryland. The meeting will begin at approximately 10 a.m. and adjourn at approximately 12 noon. The meeting is open to the public and seating is available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

The SIPP has been the primary data source used by policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of government programs and to analyze the impacts of options for modifying them. The SIPP’s longitudinal design has many advantages, but imposes considerable burden on respondents and makes review and data processing difficult and time-consuming. The re-engineered system, to be known as the dynamics of economic well-being system, is expected to reduce respondent burden and attrition and deliver data on a timely basis. Although it will not supply the same level of detail as the SIPP, its design must offer policymakers and researchers data that address the same basic issues.

A major goal of this new system is to develop monthly estimates of whether and how much individuals participate in cash-assistance programs, and to include a longitudinal component. For more information about the new system see www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/dewb.html. Also, suggestions about content in the new system can be conveyed by completing the stakeholder matrix at the same web site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Johnson, Chief, Housing and
Household Economics Statistics Division, Department of Commerce, U.S.
Census Bureau, Room 1071, Federal Building 3, Washington, DC 20233. His telephone number is (301) 763-6443.

Posted by ronbo at 08:10 PM

American Community Survey Alert, Number 40 (released August 15, 2006)

U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2005 ACS Social and Demographic Estimates; data are first from full implementation of ACS

The U.S. Census Bureau today released the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data on social and demographic characteristics for the nation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, every congressional district and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more. In addition, data on demographic and social characteristics for Puerto Rico and 12 municipios and other geographic areas in Puerto Rico also were released. These data are based on the Puerto Rico Community Survey.

Today’s release covers nearly 7,000 geographic entities and marks the first time that ACS data are available for areas with populations of less than 250,000. It is part of the full implementation of the survey, which will provide updated data on an annual basis for all levels of geography (including census tracts and block groups) by 2010.

Reported characteristics include:

*Race and ethnicity
*Ancestry
*Origins and language
*Age and sex
*Education
*Marital status
*Grandparents as caregivers
*Veteran status
*Disability status
*Household size
*Citizenship and year of entry

The data may be found at: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=ACS&_submenuId=&_lang=en&_ts=

Economic data will be released in conjunction with the Census Bureau’s annual release of income, poverty and health insurance data on August 29, with physical and financial characteristics of housing planned for release on October 3. Additionally, selected population profiles with data by race, Hispanic origin and ancestry will be released on November 14. Comparable data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey will also be released under the same schedule.

Online “Guide to the 2005 ACS Data Products" Now Available

An online "Guide to the 2005 ACS Data Products" was recently released. Included in the Guide are a list of data products, a list of geographical areas for which data are available and step-by-step instructions for accessing the data on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder (AFF) site. The Guide may be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/users_guide/index.htm

In addition, the “2005 ACS Data User Guide” that is designed to help data users understand the types of data available from the ACS and how to interpret these data will be available shortly.

A similar user guide for the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) will be released in Spanish in the next few weeks.

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail < cmo.acs@census.gov >.

Posted by ronbo at 05:41 PM

July 28, 2006

From Census Update: Upcoming Releases

[see Census Update: Upcoming Releases]

Population

First Wave of 2005 Data From American Community Survey. Extensive data on demographic and socioeconomic topics available in the American FactFinder for areas of 65,000 or more. Available mid-August.

Educational Attainment in the United States: 2005. Annual Internet files from the Current Population Survey, with national and state data on educational attainment. Also included are earnings data by level of education and statistics by race and Hispanic origin.

Financing the Future: 2001-2002. Internet files providing data on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of college students and the costs and financing associated with their schooling during the 2001-2002 academic year.

Geographical Mobility: 2005. Internet files containing national and regional information on how often and how far people move, along with characteristics of the movers and reasons why they move.

Poverty Status of Families by Type and by U.S. Citizenship Status of the Householder: 2003. Four national-level tables from the American Community Survey present poverty data on the foreign-born by the citizenship status, year of entry, region of birth, and family type.

State and County Population Estimates by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin: July 1, 2005. Population estimates by these demographic characteristics for the nation's states and counties.

Economic Census and Surveys

"On the Map" Interactive Online Tool. Three more states join "On the Map" (16 states are currently available), an interactive mapping application that shows where people work and live with companion reports on their age, earnings and industry distributions. "On the Map" is a component of the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) partnership between the Census Bureau and state labor market information agencies. LED supplies statistics on employment, job creation, turnover, earnings by industry, age, and sex, and provides dynamic information on the rapidly changing economy.

Economic Indicators

Construction Spending (Put-in-Place): June 2006. Press release showing estimates of the value of total new construction put in place by type of construction (residential and non-residential) annual value, and by type of owner (private and public). Scheduled for release August 1, 2006.

Full Report on Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders: June 2006. Press release showing information on key business indicators. Revised durable goods totals, in addition to nondurable goods manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders. Scheduled for release August 3, 2006.

Monthly Wholesale Trade: June 2006. Press release showing estimates for sales, inventories on a non-LIFO ("last in-first out") basis, and stock-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by three-digit major kind-of-business groups. Scheduled for release August 9, 2006.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: June 2006. Press release showing monthly exports, general imports (including data by country), and limited data on imports for consumption. Scheduled for release August 10, 2006.

Reference and Compendia

Facts for Features: Unmarried and Single Americans Week (Sept 17-23). The third full week of September is dedicated to the approximately 90 million unattached Americans. The Census Bureau presents statistics about this group, comprising about 41 percent of all U.S. residents age 18 and older.

Facts for Features: Special Edition: 300 Million. To commemorate the expected historic milestone of the nation's population reaching 300 million later this year, this collection of statistics compares life today to 1967, when the population reached 200 million, and to 1915, when it reached 100 million.

Posted by ronbo at 05:39 PM

From the US Census Bureau Census Product Update (CPU06-15) - July 28, 2006

[Selected tidbits. See the full online bulletin for more.]

Fact of the Day

Housing Features, Amenities, Finance, and More in 2005 American Housing Survey

In 2005, the nation's homes numbered 124,377,000. Of these 108 million were occupied units. Almost 98.8 million of all units were in metro areas; those in the suburbs (59.0 million) outnumbered those in central cities (35.8 million). Water came from a public utility or private company in the case of 108 million units; wells supplied water for 15.4 million. For 10.6 million the water from the primary source was not safe to drink.

These findings come from the newly released U.S. summary report on the American Housing Survey (AHS). The AHS has data on many more housing topics than the census or the American Community Survey. It is a particularly important source of data on housing conditions: sagging roofs, holes in the floor, sloping walls, broken or boarded up windows, exposed wiring, major street repairs needed, proximity of vandalized buildings, or accumulations of trash - the survey has information on these and other topics.

The Census Bureau conducts the survey on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) so be sure to check out HUD User site as well as the Census Bureau's AHS site.

Hot Tip

American Community Survey: First Release of 2005 Data

Look for the first release of 2005 data from the American Community Survey (ACS) in August. The initial release of data will include social and demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, Hispanic origin) for the nation, all 50 states and the District of Columbia, every congressional district and all counties and places with populations of 65,000 or more. At the end of August, economic characteristics will be disseminated in conjunction with the Census Bureau's annual release of income, poverty and health insurance data. In early October, housing characteristics data will be released, and finally, in November, selected population profiles with data by race, Hispanic origin and ancestry will be released. Comparable data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey also will be released following the same schedule.

Posted by ronbo at 02:59 PM

July 27, 2006

From the Medical Expenditure Panel Study (MEPS) list: Recent release of MEPS Data Product

Recent MEPS Data Product:

MEPS HC-084: 2005 P9R3/P10R1 Population Characteristics
Release Date: July 2006

This public use data file is the tenth point in time data file to be released from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). The data are being released both as an ASCII file (with related SAS and SPSS programming statements) and in SAS transport format. This public use file provides information on data collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian non-institutionalized population of the United States during the early part of 2005. The data consist of 2005 data obtained in Round 3 of Panel 9 and Round 1 of Panel 10 of the MEPS Household Component and contains variables pertaining to survey administration, demographics, employment, health status, and health insurance. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=200

Posted by ronbo at 05:25 PM

July 26, 2006

From the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) Newsletter - Volume 29, No. 7, July-August 2006

[Excerpts from the APDU newsletter]:

"The Federal Forum on Child and Family Statistics recently released new data at its web site: www.childstats.gov. The site includes a wide range of Key National Indicators of Well-Being: 2006, covering the topics of population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. Comparative data on the site go back on an annual basis
to 1999."

---

"The June 2006 Population Bulletin focuses on the topic of Controlling Infectious Diseases. The report, written by Mary M. Kent and Sandra Yin, includes sections on the demographic dimension of
the problem, geographic disparities, differences by age, and disability and ill health. Special sections discuss diarrheal diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, and what the future may hold in terms of the next pandemic. The report is available from the Population Reference Bureau: www.prb.org."

---

"The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have released microdata files from the 2005 American Housing Survey (AHS). Findings at the national level place the median value of a new home (built in the last four years) at $237,000, while monthly housing costs were about $800. A wide range of statistics is available. Go to www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/ahs.html for more information on the AHS and its products."

Posted by ronbo at 04:26 PM

June 26, 2006

From the CSES (Comparative Study of Electoral Systems) List: CSES Announcement: Module 3, and IPSA panels

Dear CSES user community,

We write with two announcements of interest to you:

1. The CSES Module 3 questionnaire is now available. To view or download the file, visit the CSES website and click on the “Collaborators” link to the left of the page.

The availability of Module 3 means that data collection for Module 2 is now complete. Future data collections should make use of the new Module 3 questionnaire except by prior agreement with the Secretariat.

To be included in the final CSES Module 2 dataset, collaborators must deposit their data and all related materials with the Secretariat on or before the end of this year. The deadline is December 31, 2006. We must also receive all necessary documentation (questionnaires, Macro Reports, and Design Reports) by that date.

2. If you will be attending the 20th IPSA World Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, we are pleased to report that CSES will be featured in these two panels from the Japanese Political Science Association (JPSA) Session:

- New Directions of Electoral Studies: Electoral Behavior and Political Attitudes with ANES & CSES Data (Monday July 10, 2006)

- Political Behavior within Institutions: Comparative Perspectives Using Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Data (Wednesday July 12, 2006)

We have provided additional details about these panels below my signature in this email. When you arrive in Japan, please review the final conference program to verify the dates, times, and locations, as they are subject to change.

Best personal regards,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

-----

JS01.582: New Directions of Electoral Studies: Electoral Behavior and Political Attitudes with ANES & CSES Data

Monday, July 10, 2006 – 09:00 to 13:00 –(SP-4F Room 3) Sun Palace – Room 3

Convenor: Yamada, Masahiro – Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Chair: Yamada, Masahiro – Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Discussant: Nishizawa, Yoshitaka – Doshisha University, Japan

Papers:

Remaking the American National Election Studies, 2006-2009
Lupia, Arthur – University of Michigan, United States of America
Krosnick, Jon A. – Stanford University, United States of America

The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Project: An Overview
McAllister, Ian – The Australian National University, Australia
Howell, David - University of Michigan, United States of America

-----

JS01.314: Political Behavior within Institutions: Comparative Perspectives Using Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Data

Wednesday July 12, 2006 – 15:00 to 19:00 – (202) Multipurpose Hall – Quarter Floor Area

Convenor: Ikeda, Ken’ichi – University of Tokyo, Japan
Chair: Ikeda, Ken’ichi – University of Tokyo, Japan
Discussant: Yamada, Masahiro – Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan

Papers:

Consolidating Democracy: A Comparison of the 2001 and 2005 Parliamentary Elections in Thailand
Albritton, Robert – University of Mississippi, United States of America
Bureekul, Thawilwadee – King Prajadhipat’s Institute, Thailand

Electoral Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy
Thomassen, Jacques – University of Twente, The Netherlands
Aarts, Kees – University of Twente, The Netherlands

Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Postcommunist Societies
McAllister, Ian – The Australian National University, Australia
White, Stephen – University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Political Support for Democracy and Satisfaction with Democracy in
European Political Systems
Haerpfer, Christian – University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

-----

Posted by ronbo at 05:31 PM

June 19, 2006

From the US Census Bureau Census Product Update (CPU06-12) - June 16, 2006

Statistical Abstract Now Available Online in Spreadsheet Format!

Before now, online tables from the Statistical Abstract were available only in PDF format. With the recent redesign to the Statistical Abstract website, tables are now available in downloadable spreadsheet format, in addition to PDF format. This allows for quick and free access to the tables for analysis and use. Once on the Census website, click "Statistical Abstract" on the bottom of the page. The Statistical Abstract section headings are listed along the left margin - - choose your section of interest and the table titles from that section will appear. In addition to the accessing the spreadsheets, browse the new site to see other features such as; access to other statistical compendia websites, a guide to sources, top five data links, access to state statistical abstract links, and more! Explore all the new features on the Statistical Abstract website today!

Posted by ronbo at 06:09 PM

June 07, 2006

From ACS-Alert mailing list: American Community Survey Alert, Number 38

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional actions, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

*U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2005 ACS Special Product for the Gulf Coast Area

The Census Bureau today released a special product to assist communities in understanding the changes affecting the local population and economies of areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The 2005 ACS Special Product for the Gulf Coast Area is available on the ACS Web site: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/gulf_coast/index.htm>.

The data profiles of local geographies include separate columns for the 8-month period of January through August 2005 and the 4-month period of September through December 2005. The selected demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics are available for state and sub-state areas of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Additional information on the 2005 ACS Special Product on the Gulf Coast Area, including data profiles, maps of the affected areas, methodology, geography definitions, and questions and answers, may be found on the Special Product Web site: <http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/gulf_coast/index.htm>.

The 2005 ACS Special Product for the Gulf Coast Area is based on the 2005 ACS sample that was designed to produce twelve-month estimates. Producing eight-month and four-month estimates means that the sample sizes and the reliability of the estimates will be reduced. In addition, for some areas, it was very difficult to conduct interviewing in the immediate aftermath of the hurricanes. The 2005 ACS sample was selected from an address list developed early in 2005 and therefore the estimates will not reflect any (including temporary) housing added to the address list after that date.

In August 2006, the Census Bureau will release its regular data products for the ACS, reflecting data collected in 2005. These products also will include data for areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Attached are: a one-page description of the 2005 ACS Special Product for the Gulf Coast Area and a series of questions and answers that provide more detail.

The Census Bureau today also released a special January 1, 2006 set of estimates for the Gulf Coast area.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888) 346-9682 or e-mail .

General information about this mailing list is available at <http://lists.census.gov/mailman/listinfo/acs-alert>.

(See attached file: Gulf Coast Special Product Q&As June 7.doc)(See
attached file: Gulf Coast Special Product Factsheet June 7.doc)

Posted by ronbo at 09:01 PM

June 05, 2006

From the Census Q & A website: CENSUS BUREAU TO RELEASE SPECIAL PRODUCTS FOR GULF COAST AREA

The U.S. Census Bureau will release on June 7 two special data products for the Gulf Coast area affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The first product provides special population estimates for the hurricane-affected areas along the Gulf Coast, as of Jan. 1, 2006. While not official figures, these estimates provide the population size before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the region last fall. The estimates cover the 117 counties initially designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as eligible for individual or public assistance (IPA). In December, Gulf Coast states will have the next snapshot of their population totals when the Census Bureau releases the official 2006 mid-year population estimates for all states.

The second product shows the demographic, socioeconomic and housing characteristics of the population in those 117 IPA counties. These data come from the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS), which is ordinarily designed to produce annual estimates of characteristics of population and housing based on at least a full year of data collection. However, to provide an earlier look at the hurricanes’ effect on the region, the Census Bureau divided the 2005 data into an eight-month period (January through August) before the hurricanes and a four-month period (September through December) after the hurricanes. Because of the shorter time periods, the sample sizes and the reliability of the estimates are reduced. In addition, for many areas, conducting interviews in the immediate aftermath of the hurricanes proved very difficult. The 2005 ACS sample was selected from an address list developed early in 2005 and therefore the estimates will not reflect any (including temporary) housing added to the address list after that date.

This special ACS product precedes the planned 2005 ACS data releases, the first of which is scheduled for August 15. Demographic, social, housing and economic data for the nation, states and Census Bureau tabulation areas of 65,000 or more will be available starting on that date and continuing in three additional data releases scheduled later in 2006. Data will also be released for the Puerto Rico Community Survey. The ACS, fully implemented across the nation in 2005, provides annual updates on characteristics data that were previously only available every 10 years.

Both of these special data products for the Gulf Coast represent an effort by the Census Bureau to aid local officials and shed some light on the hurricanes’ effects on the region. However, the tabulation of these data were generated using different methodologies than either program, the mid-year Population Estimates or American Community Survey, were designed to use (see the methodology documents for more information). For instance, the special population estimates used an extrapolation approach along with a special Hurricane Katrina change of address file, rather than the component of population change approach normally used to produce population estimates. While the ACS data are normally controlled to mid-year population estimates, the 2005 ACS Special Product for the Gulf Coast data are not controlled to these estimates.

We will update this question upon the release of the data. To keep up to date with this release and related topics:
* Subscribe to ACS Alerts

Posted by ronbo at 04:18 PM

From the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) mailing list: Recent MEPS Data Products

AHRQ is pleased to announce the recent release of the following MEPS
data products:

MEPS HC-083: 2004 Jobs File
Release Date: May 2006

This public use data file contains jobs-level data from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). Released as an ASCII file with SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States during the calendar year 2004. The file contains job-level information collected in Rounds 3-5 for the eighth Panel and Rounds 1-3 for the ninth Panel of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2004); it includes variables pertaining to household-reported jobs, including wages, hours, industry, and occupation. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=198

MEPS HC-082: 2004 Full Year Population Characteristics
Release Date: May 2006

Released as an ASCII file (with related SAS and SPSS programming statements) and a SAS transport dataset, this public use file provides information collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian non-institutionalized population of the United States for calendar year 2004. This file consists of MEPS survey data obtained in Rounds 3, 4, and 5 of Panel 8 and Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of Panel 9 (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering calendar year 2004) and contains variables pertaining to survey administration, demographics, employment, health status, quality of care, patient satisfaction, health insurance and person-level medical care use counts. The 2004 Full-Year expenditure and income data will be forthcoming. This file is available on the MEPS website at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=197

MEPS HC-081: Risk Adjustment Scores File
Release Date: May 2006

This public use data file contains the relative risk adjusted scores
for Panels 1 through 5 of the 1996-2001 Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). Released as an ASCII file with
SAS and SPSS programming statements and in SAS transport format,
this public use file contains person-level records with six relative
risk scores. Each score is are based on one of two modeling
frameworks (age/sex or the hierarchical condition categories-HCC)
for three different insurance categories (Medicare, privately
insured, or Medicaid). This file is available on the MEPS website
at: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=196

MEPS 04HC/NHIS Link File: 2004 MEPS/2003 & 2002 NHIS Link File
Release Date: May 2006 Available by request only.

All nine (1996-2004) MEPS/NHIS Link Files are included on one CD-ROM. The MEPS/NHIS Link Files CD is available by request only. The 2004 MEPS/NHIS Link File contains a cross-walk that will allow data users to merge the MEPS 2004 Full-Year Population Characteristics public use data file, HC-082, with the NHIS 2002/2003 person-level public use data files. In this linkage file, a record exists for each person in the HC-082 file. Sample persons in NHIS that do not link to any MEPS sample persons are not represented in the linkage file. Sample persons in the HC-082 file who do not link with the 2002 NHIS or 2003 NHIS respondent person sample have a value of ‘9999’ for the NHIS link id. The HC-082 file covers calendar year 2004 and contains data from Rounds 3, 4, and 5 of the MEPS Panel 8 (which uses the 2002 NHIS as its sampling frame) combined with data from Rounds 1, 2, and 3 of the MEPS Panel 9 (which uses the 2003 NHIS as its sampling frame). Confidentiality forms must be filled out and submitted to AHRQ before this file can be obtained. See HC-NHIS Link File ordering instructions (http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/FAQs/FAQ_HC.HTM#16) for more information on how to obtain this file.

Posted by ronbo at 02:55 PM

June 02, 2006

From Census Update: Upcoming Releases

Population

Geographical Mobility: 2005. Internet files containing national and regional information on how often and how far people move, along with characteristics of the movers and reasons why they move.

Poverty Status of Families by Type and by U.S. Citizenship Status of the Householder: 2003. Four national-level tables from the American Community Survey present poverty data on the foreign-born by the following characteristics: citizenship status, year of entry, region of birth, and family type.

Economic Indicators

Full Report on Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders: April 2006. Press release showing information on key business indicators. Revised durable goods totals, in addition to nondurable goods manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders. Scheduled for release June 2, 2006.

Monthly Wholesale Trade: April 2006. Press release showing estimates for sales, inventories on a non-LIFO ("last in-first out") basis, and stock-sales ratios for merchant wholesalers by three-digit major kind-of-business groups. Scheduled for release June 8, 2006.

U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: April 2006. Press release showing monthly exports, general imports (including data by country), and limited data on imports for consumption. Scheduled for release June 9, 2006.

Quarterly Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining, Wholesale Trade: First Quarter 2006. Press release showing up-to-date aggregate statistics on U.S. manufacturing, mining, and wholesale trade corporations. Scheduled for release June 12, 2006.

Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services: May 2006. Press release presenting advance monthly estimates of retail store sales by kind-of-business groups. Report includes seasonally adjusted estimates and percentage changes for major kind-of-business groups. Scheduled for release June 13, 2006.

Manufacturing and Trade: Inventories and Sales: April 2006. Press release showing sales, inventories, and inventories-to-sales ratios for the combined domestic activities of retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Scheduled for release June 13, 2006.

Quarterly Services Survey: 1st Quarter. Press release showing quarterly estimates of total operating revenue and the percentage of revenue by class of customer for the services industries. Scheduled for release June 14, 2006.

Economic Census and Surveys

2004 County Business Patterns. Downloadable Internet files and reports available online in PDF providing data on number of business establishments, number of employees, payroll, and employment-size class. The data are provided at various geographic levels, including state, county, and metropolitan statistical area.

Housing

2005 American Housing Survey National Public Use Microdata File. Microdata (i.e., household records with identifying information removed) from this survey enable users to generate their own tabulations on a wide range of housing topics; e.g., housing costs, satisfaction with neighborhood and the frequency of repairs made. The file consists of records of individual responses to the survey, with identifying information removed. Also available in statistical tabulations and as PDF reports.

Reference and Compendia

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2006. Extensive downloadable data released for the first time online.

Facts for Features:

Back to School. Although most students have yet to begin their summer vacation, the Census Bureau is already looking ahead to the close of the traditional summer break. This factsheet presents statistics from the Census Bureau's demographic and economic subject areas pertaining to teachers, students, and the reopening of our country's schools.

Posted by ronbo at 05:49 PM

From the IPUMS-users list: 47 Censuses from 13 Countries

Dear IPUMS-USA User:

The IPUMS-International project would like to announce a major new data release. On June 1 we added 19 new samples from Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, South Africa, and Venezuela to the data series.
IPUMS-International now contains 47 samples from 13 countries, with 143 million person records. We are on schedule to add approximately 100 more samples in the next 4 years. The IPUMS-International site is at http://www.ipums.org/international, and key features of the new release are described at http://www.ipums.org/international/news.html.

The project is modeled on IPUMS-USA, with web documentation and data extraction systems. Registration for IPUMS-International is separate from IPUMS-USA, and access is limited to scholarly and educational purposes.

If you encounter any difficulties with the system, please let us know right away.

Please redistribute this email to any researchers who might be interested.

Sincerely,
The IPUMS Staff

Posted by ronbo at 03:51 PM

April 04, 2006

From the Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) List: SCF Update

This email is to alert users of some updates and additions to the SCF website.

In our continuing effort to deliver high quality data, we have corrected a few minor errors in a few cases in the 2004 SCF data and posted updated versions of the SAS, ASCII, and Stata data sets and the Tabling Wizard on the 2004 SCF homepage. We have also updated the expanded Bulletin-style Excel tables available on the 2004 homepage to account for the changes to the 2004 data. In addition, we have added nominal dollar versions of the Bulletin-style Excel tables from the public and internal data. Finally, a paper by Arthur Kennickell detailing the changes in the distribution of net worth over the 1989-2004 period is now available on both the FEDS working paper webpage (http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2006/200613/200613pap.pdf)
and SCF working papers webpage (www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/oss/oss2/papers/concentration.2004.3.pdf).

Posted by ronbo at 04:58 PM

February 07, 2006

Posted on the SIPP-users list: Important News About SIPP

February 3, 2006

The Phase-Out of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Launch of the Program of Income, Wealth, and Health Insurance Measurement

Due to federal funding constraints, the FY2007 President's budget for the Census Bureau removes the continued full funding of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) program in order to fund higher priority programs “ most notably the 2010 Decennial Census.Â Although this was a difficult decision, the budget does include funds to close out the current SIPP Panel and to begin planning a new data collection system on income, wealth, and program dynamics that meets the policy needs of the country. Full funding for the SIPP in FY2007 would have provided for the preparation, collection, and processing of data for waves 10 and 11 (Annual Income, Taxes, and Retirement Accounts; Child Support Agreements; Adult and Child Disability; Adult Well-Being; Work Schedules; and Child Care) of the 2004 Panel, as well as the continuation of instrument and system modernization for the next panel of SIPP, which was planned to begin in February 2009.

The decreased FY2007 budget includes a total of $9.2M, of which $3.6M will cover a portion of the costs of collecting data through Wave 9 (January 2007) of the 2004 SIPP Panel. Our intention is to enlist the support of SIPP partner agencies to provide the remaining funding (approximately $6.4 M) for collecting and processing the 2004 Panel through Wave 9.Â Without this additional support, data collection for the SIPP 2004 Panel will end in September 2006.

Although the SIPP has long been the leading source of data on the economic well-being of Americans, the length and breadth of the interviews and the longitudinal household design have resulted in ever-increasing sample attrition.Â Many steps have been taken that curtailed attrition, such as dependent interviewing, FR training, promotional materials, and monetary incentives; however, they have not been successful in reducing it to an acceptable level.Â In addition, the complexity of the instrument, the imputations for increasing item nonresponse, and the need to use longitudinal estimation techniques have led to long delays before the data can be understood, documented, and finally, disseminated.

The remaining $5.6M in the FY2007 budget will be used to begin planning and development for a new approach to providing wealth, income, health insurance, and program participation data for the general population of the United States.Â This â€œreengineeringâ€ of the program will take advantage of the advances that the Census Bureau has made in acquiring and integrating administrative records with survey data in recent years, and in modeling for local area estimates.

The measurement program will be a collaborative effort between the traditional SIPP stakeholders, such as the Office of Management and Budget, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration, and the Congressional Budget Office.Â The focus will be on meeting the information needs of these agencies as well as other researchers and policy makers.Â The Census Bureau will soon begin a series of consultations to develop this program.

The preliminary thinking at the Census Bureau is that an existing survey or surveys will provide the baseline data for a sample cohort for which we can obtain current and retrospective income and program data from administrative records and conduct follow-on interviews to obtain more detailed socio-economic data unavailable elsewhere.Â Most likely, this new program will include an annual survey that will probe issues such as health, disability, retirement expectations, and job search that will lead to an understanding of the life events that lead people to enter or leave government assistance programs.

We also envision that partners will provide current administrative record data or funding to design and disseminate a world-class data system to measure income, wealth, and program dynamics.

FY2007 will be a transition year where the current SIPP staffs are refocused on the new program or realigned to other programs, and a
reengineered system of income, program, and wealth data estimation begins to take shape.Â Staff within the Census Bureau is just now beginning this process and will solicit advice from longstanding supporters, and enlist the input of potential new users and sources of data.

Carole Popoff
Branch Chief, Modeling & Outreach Branch
Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division
U.S. Census Bureau
301-763-3222 or carole.l.popoff@census.gov

Posted by ronbo at 03:28 PM

January 27, 2006

U.S. Census Update: Hot Tip

FactFinder Download Center Lets You Download Data for All ZIPs

Callers constantly ask us about downloading data from the Census 2000 Summary Files for all ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) in the country. Up to now you were forced to go state by state in the American FactFinder (AFF), work with the challenging FTP files, or buy the data on DVD. Now salvation is at hand.

American FactFinder now has a new Download Center especially designed for users needing to download a whole set of tables for a whole category of geographic areas - such as counties, places, metro areas, or ZCTAs. The more areas the better, the more tables the better. You will be able download tables from Summary 1 or 3 for all these areas in one operation. Come to the Census Bureau home page and click on the American FactFinder. On the FactFinder page, click on the "Download Center," which then asks you to choose the data file. If you want ZCTA data, pick Summary File 1 or 3 and then "All 5-digit ZIP Code Tabulation Areas." Next decide whether you want all tables in the file or a subset of tables. AFF instructs you to "Start Download" after which you are prompted to open or save the data as a zipped file. After saving the file, open it in Excel and then you may have to divide the data into columns by accessing "Text to Columns" under "Data."

Posted by ronbo at 03:53 PM

December 08, 2005

ANES Announcement: ANES Guide has been updated with 2004 data

Dear ANES user community,

We wanted to let you know that the ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior has been updated with data from the ANES 2004 time series study.

The ANES Guide provides immediate access to tables and graphs that display the ebb and flow of public opinion, electoral behavior, and choice in American politics over time. Questions represented in the Guide are a small but significant portion of the questions that have been asked multiple times in the American National Election Studies time series, which runs from 1948 to the present.

The Guide is a public good and can be viewed on our website at this location:
http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/nesguide.htm

Thank you for your support of the ANES, and best regards,
-Dave
David Howell
Director of Studies
American National Election Studies (ANES)

Posted by ronbo at 06:45 PM

November 18, 2005

U.S. Census Bureau: New Wave of Socioeconomic Data From 2004 American Community Survey

From Census Bureau Product Update Hot Tips

On Thursday, November 17, the Census Bureau released a second wave of data based on the 2004 American Community Survey, more data for areas of 250,000 or more people. In all, we released about 670 tables to supplement the 200-plus tables released in August. Users will especially appreciate the new Subject tables that look very much like the popular Quick Tables released for the Census 2000 Summary Files. To find the ACS data, go to the American FactFinder and click on "Data Sets" and then on "2000-2004 American Community Survey" tab. For a list of the new Subject tables, go to the American Community Survey page, click on "Guide to the ACS Data Products" and then on "Quick Guide to ACS Data in American FactFinder." Go to Appendix 2.

You can view the complete list of new ACS Base tables at
(http://www.census.gov/acs/www/acs-php/all_topics_search.php?acs_topic=all); go to the American Community Survey page and click on the the "Guide to the ACS Data Products" and then on "Links to Table Shells." In the table finder box, click on "All Topics."

Posted by ronbo at 04:07 PM

November 07, 2005

Census Product Update -- November 3, 2005

A Biweekly Bulletin from the U.S. Census Bureau
CPU05-22

See the complete online version [for a complete web-enabled page or] if you have trouble viewing this message.

The Census Product Update is a biweekly listing of recently released and upcoming data products from the U.S. Census Bureau. Editors: Belva Kirk and Greg Pewett (contact information below).

Census Bureau data come in many media types. PDF files cited below can be ordered in print from the Customer Services Center for a cost. Call for prices. Some printed reports must be ordered from the U.S. Government Printing Office (202-512-1800). Before ordering other products listed for sale, be sure to consult the ordering information at the end of this newsletter.

Please use this link to subscribe or unsubscribe from the Census Product Update mailing list.

Headline News

Facts for Features: Veterans Day 2005 (November 11). (Released November 3, 2005)

New Orders for Manufactured Goods in September Decreased $6.8 Billion or 1.7 Percent to $390.0 Billion. (Released November 3, 2005)

Casino Hotels, Bed-and-Breakfast Inns, Full-Service Restaurants, Cookie Shops -- Product Lines of the Accommodation and Food Services Sector Profiled. (Released November 1, 2005) [File Size; 486 KB]

General Summary Report Released for Manufacturing Area. (Released November 1, 2005) [File Size; 1.4 MB]

Total Construction Activity for August 2005 ($1,108.5 Billion) Was 0.4 Percent Above the Revised July 2005 ($1,104.1 Billion) Figure. (Released November 1, 2005)

Books, Software, Movies, Music, Air Time -- Product Lines of the Information Sector Profiled. (Released October 31, 2005) [File Size; 654 KB]

Economic Census Profiles Establishment and Receipt Size.

Homeownership Rate Third Quarter 2005 (68.8 Percent) Not Significantly Different From Third Quarter 2004 Rate (69.0 Percent). (Released October 31, 2005)

Learn About Your State and Local Government Finances. (Released October 31, 2005) [File Size; 4.84 MB]

Census Bureau to Update Numbers on Employment. (Released October 27, 2005)

Commerce Secretary Announces Formation of 2010 Census Advisory Group. (Released October 27, 2005)

Facts for Features: The Holiday Season. (Released October 27, 2005)

Groceries, Cars, TVs, Clothes, Tools -- Product Lines of Retail Trade Industries Profiled. (Released October 27, 2005) [File Size; 2 MB]

New File Highlights Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003. (Released October 27, 2005)

New Orders for Manufactured Durable Goods in September Decreased $4.4 Billion or 2.1 Percent to $207.0 Billion. (Released October 27, 2005) [File Size; 104 KB]

Sales of New One-Family Houses in September 2005 Were at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 1,222,000. This Is 2.1 Percent Above the Revised August 2005 Figure of 1,197,000. (Released October 27, 2005)

Facts for Features: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2005. (Released October 25, 2005)

American Housing Survey for the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. (Released October 24, 2005) [PDF; 4.33 MB]

Construction Summary Sums Up Building Trades. (Released October 24, 2005) [File Size; 516 KB]

Dog Racetrack Operation, Writing Fees, Museums, Historical Sites -- Product Lines of the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Sector Profiled. (Released October 24, 2005) [File Size; 858 KB]

Facts for Features: Halloween 2005. (Released October 24, 2005)

More Than 10 Million Floridians in Path of Hurricane Wilma, Census Bureau Estimates. (Released October 24, 2005)

Prescription Drugs, Optical Goods, Home Hospice Care, Community Housing Services -- Product Lines of the Health Care and Social Assistance Sector Profiled. (Released October 24, 2005) [File Size; 843 KB]

Residential Property Sales, Real Estate Appraisal Fees, Formal Wear and Costume Rental, Residential Furniture -- Product Lines of the Real Estate, Rental, and Leasing Sector. (Released October 24, 2005) [File Size; 529 KB]

Air Traffic Control Services, Truck Transportation, Towing Services, Public Warehousing and Storage -- Product Lines of the Transportation and Warehousing Sector Profiled. (Released October 21, 2005) [File Size; 623 KB]

Fact of the Day

2002 Economic Census Records 6,352 Companies Involved in Oil and Gas Extraction

Of the nation's 18,491 mining companies recorded in the 2002 Economic Census, one-third (6,532) are involved in oil and gas extraction. These companies operate 7,730 establishments - most in Texas, which has 2,990 establishments, more than double the total in number two Oklahoma. You can get data on the mining industry in one volume - the General Summary [File Size, 784 KB] report for the 2002 Economic Census. This report has the standard data (establishments, value added, value of shipments, etc) plus data on establishment-size, inventories, depreciation charges, rents, cost of supplies. To find the report, click on "Economic Census" on the Census Bureau home page and then on "Subject Series" and look for "Mining." The report is in PDF but downloadable data are coming soon.

Hot Tip

Disaster Areas Profiled

You are missing a great tool for navigating our site if you have not tried our online knowledge base - accessible through the "Questions" link at the top of the home page. One service the tool has rendered lately is to give you a short-cut to data profiles on areas affected by the recent hurricanes. The Census Bureau follows the National Weather Service and the FEMA web sites to determine areas that may be affected or have been affected by serious storms and then creates an FAQ to highlight data from Census Bureau programs on these areas. We often create an even more prominent link on the home page to a page with data on these areas.

But you don't need a hurricane to have an excuse to try our "Questions" link. If you don't find an answer, the tool lets you submit your question and one of our agents will try to find an answer. We even have FAQs on data you think we have - which may in fact come from other statistical agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Health Statistics. Questions submitted today may become the FAQs of tomorrow. If you think we need an FAQ on a subject, tell us that - by giving feedback on an existing question or just submitting it as a question on its own. Also, see Answer 989 showing demographic and economic data for some of the metropolitan areas that have received many of the displaced residents.

Hot Links

For general/technical questions regarding Census Bureau data products, go to https://ask.census.gov.

You also can call the Customer Services Center (Monday through Thursday, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM EDT and Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM EDT) at 301-763-INFO (4636) or fax us at 301-457-4714.

For information regarding the content of this publication, contact the editors at mso.census.product.update@census.gov.

Posted by ronbo at 04:38 PM

August 29, 2005

Announcing the New Education Component of the National Longitudinal Study of the Adolescent Health

The first release of education data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement (AHAA) study: <http://www.prc.utexas.edu/ahaa/index.html> are now available through the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) <http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/> .

The AHAA study expands Add Health - one of the decade's most important studies of adolescents - to include detailed measures of academic progress and high school curriculum. While Add Health is a rich source of data on social contexts and adolescent development, Add Health has limited information on the academic trajectories of youth.

Thus, the AHAA study contributes to the Add Health by providing the high school transcripts of Add Health Wave III sample members (N= over 12,000). These data provide an opportunity to examine the effects of education on adolescent behavior, academic achievement, and cognitive and psychosocial development in the 1990s.

The transcripts were coded using procedures designed for the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The first release data includes academic indicators that measure aspects of the students' course-taking enrollment and performance for each high school year and cumulatively for all years (including course sequences in math and science, GPA, and course failures). Additionally, the first release contains measures that link the transcript data to the Add Health survey waves.

For more information about AHAA, Add Health, and the education data please visit the AHAA website:
<http://www.prc.utexas.edu/ahaa/index.html>

The education component is available in the public-use and restricted use versions of the Add Health. For information about obtaining the data see <http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data> .

Posted by ronbo at 02:55 PM

June 15, 2005

Census News Brief - June 15, 2005

HOUSE CUTS $20 MILLION FROM CENSUS BUREAU BUDGET;
2006 CENSUS FIELD TEST COULD BE SCALED BACK

The House of Representatives approved an amendment yesterday to cut $20 million from the Census Bureau's fiscal year 2006 budget, with $10 million coming from the Salaries and Expense account, which funds ongoing demographic and economic surveys, and $10 million from 2010 census planning.

Preliminary information from the Census Bureau indicates that the 2006 Census Field Test, currently planned for Travis County, Texas, and the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota, could be scaled back to one site if the funding is not restored. Alternatives include canceling plans to test a dual English-Spanish language questionnaire and a targeted second mailing to households that don't return the first census form. The Census Bureau is unlikely to deploy new procedures in 2010 that are not tested in advance.

The amendment to cut the bureau's funds was offered by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA). It was approved by a vote of 260 - 168. The money was shifted to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both within the Justice Department. Rep. Baird said increased funds were needed for local law enforcement and international interdiction to fight the growing use of methamphetamines. He questioned the Census Bureau's need for so much money, saying the agency had already received several billion dollars since 2001. "Ask your average man and woman on the street... where should we spend the money? Billions of dollars for the census, or to intercept international narcotrafficking...?" the congressman asked during the debate. Rep. Baird also accused the Census Bureau of wasting money, saying they had handed out paperweights, calendars, and other trinkets during the 2000 census. "I used to teach research design," Rep. Baird said. "I cannot fathom that it costs this much money to modify this census."

Lawmakers speaking in opposition to the amendment were sympathetic to the need for more drug-fighting money, but they suggested that the Census Bureau also needed funds to prepare thoroughly for the next census. Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), chairman of the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, which oversees census programs, said, "It sounds pretty simple, paperweights versus crimefighting... But it is just not that simple. The census provides information vital to how we as a Nation operate." Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), a former ranking member of the census oversight subcommittee, concurred, noting that federal and state funds for education, housing assistance, day care, hospitals, and programs for the elderly are distributed based on census data.

The House is considering the Fiscal Year 2006 Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R. 2862). (Debate is continuing today.) Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Ranking Minority Member Alan Mollohan (D-WV) opposed the amendment, saying that the committee had done its best to balance competing priorities in the massive spending bill and that the Census Bureau needed the funds approved by the committee. (For further information on the committee bill, see the June 12th Census News Brief.)

Rep. Baird was the only lawmaker to speak in support of his amendment. The vote on the Baird amendment can be found at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll248.xml. A similar amendment to last year's appropriations bill, which also would have shifted funds to the COPS program, was narrowly defeated by a vote of 206 - 212.

The Census Bureau's Salaries & Expenses account is now reduced to $198.029 million; the Administration requested $220.029 million. Funding for 2010 census planning is reduced to $453.596 million, with $10 million specifically coming from "Reengineered Design Process for the Short-Form Only Census."

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science is scheduled to consider its version of the fiscal year spending bill next week. Last year, the Senate failed to approve any increase in funds for the Periodic Censuses account, which includes the decennial census and American Community Survey. Most of the requested funds were restored in negotiations with the House, although the Census Bureau was unable to include group quarters in the first year of the ACS survey.

Proposed Constitutional amendment would exclude non-citizens from census: Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) introduced a bill to amend the Constitution, to require that only U.S. citizens be counted for purposes of apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. H.J.Res. 53 would change the word "persons" in the Fourteenth Amendment to "citizens." (The relevant section of the Fourteenth Amendment currently reads: "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.") There are currently four cosponsors on the bill, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

"I find it absolutely outrageous that people who are not in our country legally are having such impact on our political system," Rep. Miller said in a press release.

Previous proposals to amend the law, most notably before the 1990 census, have sought to exclude undocumented residents, but not non-citizen legal residents, from the state population totals used for congressional apportionment. Constitutional amendments must pass both the House and Senate by two-thirds votes, and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years.

Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent consultant in Washington, DC, with support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation and other organizations. Ms. Lowenthal is also a consultant to The Census Project, sponsored by the Communications Consortium Media Center. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at 202/484-3067 or by e-mail at TerriAnn2K@aol.com. Please feel free to circulate this document to other interested individuals and organizations.

Posted by ronbo at 05:14 PM

June 13, 2005

Census News Brief - June 12, 2005

HOUSE PANEL APPROVES '06 CENSUS FUNDS; AMENDMENTS COULD TARGET ACS, 2010 CENSUS ON HOUSE FLOOR

The House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce approved a bill on June 7 that includes funding for Census Bureau programs in fiscal year 2006, which starts October 1. The American Community Survey (ACS) and 2010 census planning activities received roughly the amounts requested by the Bush Administration, but amendments on the House floor could target one or both accounts, as lawmakers look for ways to pay for other programs within the massive spending bill. Overall, the recommended appropriation for the Census Bureau is 12 percent above its 2005 funding level. (Neither the bill nor committee report numbers are available as of this writing.)

Appropriators support shift to ACS; prisoner enumeration to be
studied: The bill allocates $213.849 million -- $630,000 below the request -- to continue designing a short form-only census in 2010. The committee noted in report language accompanying the bill that a simplified, streamlined census should cost $2 billion less than repeating a traditional census with a long form. The bill also includes $79.799 million, the amount requested, for continued updates to the address list (MAF) and digital maps (TIGER system). The committee urged federal, state, and local agencies to share address and geographic information with the Census Bureau, and instructed the bureau to use currently available information whenever possible to improve the MAF and TIGER system.

The American Community Survey (ACS) received $169.948 million, the amount requested. In 2006, the Bureau plans to add group quarters (such as college dorms, nursing homes, and prisons) to the survey for the first time. The committee noted that its support for replacing the once-a-decade long form with an ongoing survey remains "steadfast."

The appropriations bill requires the Census Bureau to continue collecting data on "some other race" in the census, a directive first included in last year's appropriations bill. Before Congress intervened, the bureau had begun testing a revised census race question that eliminated the "some other race" option.

The committee report also directs the Census Bureau to evaluate a change in the way prisoners are counted in the decennial census. Current residence rules place prisoners in the institution in which they are incarcerated on Census Day. Several prison reform advocacy groups have proposed counting prisoners at their pre-incarceration place of residence. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law issued a report last year, Accuracy Counts: Incarcerated People and the Census, in which it argues that counting inmates at their prison location deprives their home communities of funding for services and programs, as well as fair political
representation in state legislatures and Congress. The number of people incarcerated in rural prisons grew significantly in the 1990s, the report notes, with 40 percent of the nation's prison population now housed in rural facilities. The Census Bureau would have 90 days to complete its study of an alternative counting method for prisoners, if the final appropriations bill retains the House report language.

The Brennan Center report is available at:
www.brennancenter.org/resources/cji/RV4_AccuracyCounts.pdf.

Floor amendments could target ACS, 2010 census funds: Funding for the American Community Survey or other Census Bureau programs could be at risk when the full House considers the Science/Commerce appropriations bill on June 14. Last year, ACS funds narrowly survived a vote on the House floor when Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) proposed shifting funds from the survey to a popular community policing program. Congressional sources indicate that Rep. Weiner might offer a similar amendment this year.

The Census Bureau has cautioned that key components of a redesigned 2010 census, including the ACS as a replacement for the traditional long form, could be at risk if Congress cuts funding for these programs below the requested amount. A cut of $52 million, the bureau said, would force it to abandon plans to use hand-held computers for field data collection. It also would eliminate plans for a 2006 field test on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and delay the award of a major data processing contract by six months.

If Congress cuts $26 million from the ACS, the Census Bureau said it would cancel plans to include group quarters in the survey and reduce the sample size by roughly 10 percent. The ACS could not produce reliable data for block groups and census tracts under those conditions, the Bureau warned. The bureau also would eliminate the Methods Panel planned for 2006, which is designed to test all new questionnaire wording and content before 2008, to ensure consistent data collection for the five year period through 2012, when the ACS will first produce block group and tract level data in place of the census long form.

Stakeholders urge full funding for ACS and 2010 census: A diverse group of stakeholder organizations sent a letter on June 9 to key House and Senate appropriators, urging them to reject efforts to reduce funding for the American Community Survey and 2010 census planning. "Operational risk and costs will escalate if the Census Bureau cannot thoroughly test and evaluate new methods and design features," the groups cautioned in their letter to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), chairman and ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce, and to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), their counterparts on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science.

The stakeholders called the ACS "a relatively modest investment [that] will allow legislators to target more effectively hundreds of billions of dollars annually in program funds, and businesses to invest trillions of dollars more prudently, for the betterment of all communities." The full text of the letter will be available soon through the Communications Consortium Media Center (www.ccmc.org), which has organized The Census Project with support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation. A second letter with additional signers may be sent this week.

Posted by ronbo at 01:13 PM

March 28, 2005

NES Announcement: Public Meeting at MPSA in Chicago, and Full Release of 2004 NES time-series data

To: Members of the NES Community
From: Nancy Burns and Donald R. Kinder
Date: March 28, 2005

We're pleased to make two important announcements.

First, we would like to invite you to the NES Public Meeting at the
Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Meeting in Chicago. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 7th from 6-7pm in Room PDR 16 in the Palmer House Hilton (though be sure to check your conference materials when you arrive to verify the location).

Second, we are excited to announce that the Full Release of the 2004 NES time-series study is now available for download from the NES website (http://www.umich.edu/~nes)! To download the dataset, from the main page of the website select "Download Data and Codebooks for Free" to the left, register if you have not already, and select "Time-Series Studies" - the 2004 NES will be the entry at the top of the resulting page.

Data for the 2004 NES Panel Study and the 2004 Contextual File are due to be finished and made available within the next two months.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us by e-mail to
"nes@umich.edu". Thanks!

Posted by ronbo at 03:33 PM

Minorities at Risk Project Data Release

The Minorities at Risk Project is pleased to announce the release of MARGene v.1.06, with data updated through 2003.

The data update includes annual codes for 2001-2003 for political, economic and cultural restrictions; political, economic and cultural differentials; autonomy, political, economic and sociocultural grievances; demographic and ecological stress; state repression; group organization; intergroup and intragroup conflict; and protest and rebellion. Coding was completed for 282 groups tracked by the project. A complete codebook with coding details is available from the project website.

Additionally, the update includes two new groups: Kurds in Syria and Darfur Black Muslims in Sudan.

Data is available through the MARGene data management program, which allows users to customize datasets with only the groups and variables of interest. MARGene v. 1.06 is available for download from the Minorities at Risk Project website: www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar. The data is available free of charge, but registration is required.

In addition to the updated dataset, risk assessments and analytic narratives are also available on the project website.

All questions regarding the data release should be directed to the following:
Amy Pate, Minorities at Risk Project Coordinator, minpro@cidcm.umd.edu
Carter Johnson, Minorities at Risk Project Research Assistant, cjohnson@gvpt.umd.edu

Posted by ronbo at 03:30 PM

March 04, 2005

SIPP: Technical Error in the Weighting of all 2001 Panel Files

A technical error was discovered in the weighting of all 2001 Panel files. The Core and the Topical Module files have been replaced on the SIPP FTP site and the DataFerrett system.

An additional technical error has been discovered in the longitudinal weighting (including calendar year weights) for the 2001 Panel. The longitudinal weighting file has been removed from the SIPP FTP site and from DataFerrett. The process of correcting this problem is underway and a new weighting file will be issued after this process has been completed and verified.

We expect these corrected weights to be available by mid-to-late March. There were cases that incorrectly received zero weights for CY2002 and the longitudinal Waves 1 - 7 and Waves 1 - 9 panel weights. Most of these cases were persons who died between Waves 5 - 9 and therefore should have had a positive weight rather an a zero weight.

For questions pertaining to this issue contact Tracy Mattingly at 301-763-6445.

Posted by ronbo at 01:40 PM