mpcblog – Page 28 – Use It for Good

New user interface for TerraPop

June 4, 2025January 4, 2016 by mpcblog

The TerraPop team is excited to announce the launch of a new, completely redesigned user interface. TerraPop enables research, learning, and policy analysis by providing integrated spatio-temporal data describing people and their environment. The new interface is more intuitive and easier to use. Choosing data and creating an extract are structured as a step-by-step process. You are guided through the workflow, seeing the information you need to make selections at each step. Throughout the process, you have access to complete metadata describing available variables, datasets, and geographic levels. Give the new extract builder a try.

MPC launches IPUMS Higher Ed, new data tool for researching education attainment

May 14, 2025December 24, 2015 by mpcblog

Woman in a lab coat and gloves working on lab equipment

The Minnesota Population Center has released a new data project: IPUMS Higher Ed. IPUMS Higher Ed is composed of three National Science Foundation surveys of college degree holders in the United States: the National Survey of College Graduates, the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the National Survey of Recent College Graduates. Only the respondents who have a degree in science or engineering (or related fields) or work in a science or engineering occupation are included in the SESTAT file for that year. The first version of IPUMS Higher Ed website will provide integrated SESTAT and SDR files from 1993 to 2013.

Diversified Assets: Expanding the Reach of the MPC

May 7, 2025November 30, 2015 by mpcblog

David and Mia standing on the Washington Ave bridge with a blue sky behind them

When Human Resources Associate Mia Riza and Research Associate David Haynes took on the task of creating a diversity program for the MPC in 2015, they looked to their pasts. “I thought of experiences that would have helped me as a student,” says Haynes.

As an undergraduate student, Riza had participated in a diversity program with the Minnesota Historical Society run by Chris Taylor. That program provided a model for fostering professional growth within an academic environment. Haynes and Riza then designed a program that suited the needs of the projects at the MPC. “We thought that a summer opportunity would work best for the Center and also matched students’ needs as they looked for summer internships,” explains Riza, “We want to develop a talent pipeline so that when we have openings later, we have qualified diverse applicants to fill those roles.”

New Frontiers in Big Data

August 14, 2025October 30, 2015 by mpcblog

Figure showing growth of microdata records from IPUMS, 1970-2020. There is a steady increase of public-use data over the time period, with the addition of historical data beginning in the early 2000s and a sharp increase in restricted-use IPUMS-format records in Federal Statistical Research Data Centers in the 2010s

By 2020, MPC will make freely available to researchers worldwide 100% count U.S. Census microdata through 1940. This dataset will include over 650 million individual-level (1850-1940) and 7.5 million household-level records (1790-1840). The microdata represents the fruition of longstanding collaborations between MPC and the nation’s two largest genealogical organizations—Ancestry.com and FamilySearch—to leverage genealogical data for scientific purposes.

“The importance of this massive donation of census data would be difficult to overstate,” says MPC Director Steve Ruggles. “This is one of the largest-scale data-entry efforts ever undertaken.”

Code Switch

May 14, 2025August 31, 2015 by mpcblog

Dr. Carolyn Liebler

University of Minnesota Sociologist Dr. Carolyn Liebler’s work examines changes in racial self-identification over time. Working with her collaborators at the U.S. Census Bureau, Liebler has analyzed a unique big dataset of linked census records — and the results have the potential to revolutionize public policy.

Data-Driven Connections Between Maternal Health and Inequality

May 14, 2025July 31, 2015 by mpcblog

Katy Kozhimannil

Katy Kozhimannil’s work combines her two passions, “data and women’s health.” Kozhimannil is an MPC faculty member and assistant professor in the School of Public Health in the Health Policy and Management division. Her work examines the measurement and improvement of maternity care quality, focusing on vulnerable populations and geographic variations, including rural health. Through her scholarship and advocacy on the behalf of reproductive-age women, Kozhimannil contributes to the evaluation and implementation of policy that has the power to improve maternal health care and the lives of women and their families.

The Census Bureau will keep marital history questions—but what’s next?

May 14, 2025July 27, 2015 by mpcblog

ACS form questions about marital history

When the Census Bureau announced its recommendation to keep marital history questions in the American Community Survey (ACS) after soliciting comments from the public for 90 days, you may have assumed that demographers everywhere were relieved. And why not? Their retention in the ACS was a major victory for, well, everyone: academics, journalists, statisticians, policy analysts, and anyone with a stake in the history of the two largest program in the federal government, Social Security and Medicare.

But there was troubling news hidden in this announcement: the Bureau’s “deeply flawed” method for evaluating questions is still in place.