Data Projects – Page 4 – Use It for Good

Geospatial Contextuals from IPUMS International

May 28, 2025January 12, 2024 by mpcblog

By Ryan Gavin & Quinn Heimann

IPUMS International launched a new platform that will aid researchers using geospatial contextual data along with IPUMS International census microdata!

What is geospatial contextual data?

Geospatial contextual data describe features of the physical and social environment of a geographic area, and allow users to explore how contextual factors interrelate with individual characteristics and outcomes. For example, in their 2020 paper in Global Environmental Change, Mueller et al. estimated the effects that climate-related variables had on migration in Botswana, Kenya, and Zambia between 1989 and 2011. Often, however, these data are large, complex, and packaged in unfamiliar ways. With this new platform, IPUMS International simplifies the process of identifying and linking contextual data with our robust repository of census microdata.

Geospatial contextual data can vary across space, time, or both and often do not obey administrative boundaries. IPUMS International is unique in offering spatiotemporally harmonized administrative geography variables, which when linked to time-variant contextual data, allow researchers to explore the relationship between social phenomena and temporally-dynamic geospatial data using a consistent spatial footprint.

For example, researchers might be interested in studying how changing January precipitation in Bangladesh from 1991-2011 is associated with social or demographic variables. In this case, harmonized geographic variables are ideal because of administrative boundary changes in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2011.

Maps of Bangladesh in 1991, 2001, and 2011 showing the total January Precipitation using year-specific geography and harmonized geography. — Bangladesh map showing January precipitation totals for each census year, showing the difference between year-specific and harmonized geography for measuring effects.

IPUMS International: 2023 Highlights & Heading Into 2024

December 18, 2023December 18, 2023 by mpcblog

By Jane Lee, IPUMS International

IPUMS International is entering 2024 with a strong head start on partner relations and great energy for continued data engagement with partners and with data users. Thanks to user feedback and productive engagement with existing and prospective national statistical office (NSO) partners, users can expect access to additional census and survey data and new, exciting enhancements in 2024.

2023 was packed fuller than usual with renewed interactions with National Statisticians and statistical offices worldwide. Our attendance at the UN Statistical Commission meetings in February garnered productive conversations with countries, and we were able to move those conversations closer to next steps at the ISI WSC in July, and at the International Conference of Labor Statisticians, in October, which was an opportunity for IPUMS to connect specifically about labor force survey data sharing with NSO representatives from more than 25 countries.

Group of people standing in front of backdrop at the IAOS Conference workshop IPUMS remains committed to regional and conference-based engagement. In May, we hosted a pre-conference workshop in conjunction with IAOS (International Association for Official Statistics) Conference in Livingstone, Zambia.

The 14+ NSO labor force and census experts who attended participated in robust cross-country discussions and shared expertise, tools, and technology related to census. In partnership with UNESCWA, IPUMS International joined NSOs and data users in October at the Regional Workshop on Population Projection and Use of Microdata in Rabat, Morocco. There, IPUMS piloted a new training for statistical offices on the preparation of public-use files for the 40+ attendees.

Introducing the MEPS Prescribed Medicines Data

May 28, 2025November 20, 2023 by mpcblog

By Julia A. Rivera Drew

The Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is a short panel survey collecting information for a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population. Since 1996, the MEPS has collected information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; health status; medical conditions; and health care access, utilization, and expenditures.

Based on information provided by a family respondent about each family member at each interview, AHRQ produces a dataset of all reported fills of prescribed medicines purchased by family members during the calendar year (including refills). For example, if a prescription was filled monthly, there would be 12 records for that specific prescribed medicine (DRUGID) in the annual file. The prescribed medicines data includes information such as the medication name (RXNAME), national drug code (RXNDC), therapeutic classification (MULTC1), when the person began taking the medication (RXBEGMM and RXBEGYR), amounts paid (RXFEXPTOT), and source of payment (RXFEXPSRC).

IPUMS MEPS provides a harmonized and integrated version of the MEPS Household Component data, including data from the prescribed medicines files.

2022 ATUS Eating and Health Module Data: New Variables and Updates

May 28, 2025November 7, 2023 by mpcblog

By Annie Chen & Sarah Flood

The American Time Use Survey Eating and Health Module, funded by the Economic Research Service, asks a series of questions related to grocery shopping, food preparation, and nutrition. The most recent module was fielded in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic and was previously fielded in 2006 to 2008 and 2014 to 2016. The 2022 Eating and Health Module, set to be fielded again in 2023, asks new questions, asks similar questions in different ways than previously fielded modules, and contains additional variables of high interest to researchers.

New Variables in 2022

The 2022 ATUS Eating and Health Module asks a series of new questions related to exercise/physical activity, grocery shopping, meal preparation, and food quality. The food quality questions are especially interesting because they provide researchers with the opportunity to assess relationships between food quality and time use, which hasn’t been possible previously with these data. This is the first time that the ATUS has asked any information about respondents’ food intake on the ATUS diary day. The module is also responsive to changes in shopping behavior during the pandemic, specifically online grocery shopping and grocery delivery/pickup options. The shopping and meal preparation enjoyment questions might allow for comparisons to the ATUS Well-Being Module (fielded in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021).

Announcing IPUMS MICS

May 28, 2025October 19, 2023 by mpcblog

By Anna Bolgrien

IPUMS has an exciting new data collection to announce: IPUMS MICS!

IPUMS MICS is the integrated version of UNICEF MICS (Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys), the largest and most robust source of data on women and children’s well-being across the globe, including countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Separate datasets cover women of childbearing age, children aged 0 to 4, children aged 5 to 17, respondent’s birth history, men, household members, and household characteristics.

Currently, IPUMS MICS includes harmonization of data from 202 MICS samples, which represent 88 countries, and cover surveys conducted between 2005-forward. There are over 800 integrated variables currently available on our website. Future releases will expand the sample and variable coverage of IPUMS MICS.

Accessing IPUMS NHGIS in R: A Primer

June 13, 2025September 18, 2023 by mpcblog

By Finn Roberts & Jonathan Schroeder

R users have a powerful new way to access IPUMS NHGIS!

The July 2023 release of ipumsr 0.6.0 includes a fully-featured set of client tools enabling R users to get NHGIS data and metadata via the IPUMS API. Without leaving their R environment, users can find, request, download and read in U.S. census summary tables, geographic time series, and GIS mapping files for years from 1790 through the present. This blog post gives an overview of the possibilities and describes how to get started.

What you can do with ipumsr

Request and download NHGIS data

You can use ipumsr to specify the parameters of an NHGIS data extract request and submit that request for processing by the IPUMS servers. You can request any of the data products that are available through the NHGIS Data Finder: summary tables, time series tables, and shapefiles. You can also specify general formatting parameters (e.g., file format or time series table layout) to customize the structure of your data extract.

Once you have specified a data extract, you can use a series of ipumsr functions to:

submit the extract request to the IPUMS servers for processing
check on the extract status
wait for the extract to complete
download the extract as soon as it’s ready
load the data into R with detailed data field descriptions.

This workflow allows you to go from a set of abstract NHGIS data specifications to analyzable data, all without having to leave your R session!

Going Global: IPUMS International

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 by mpcblog

By Diana Magnuson

Display case with a banner "Going Global: IPUMS International" and memorabilia from around the world — The display case at IPUMS HQ

A new exhibit, “Going Global: IPUMS International,” is now on display at IPUMS headquarters, housed at the University of Minnesota. The exhibit features pieces that tell the history and scope of IPUMS International.

Beginning in 1999 with a social science infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation, IPUMS International had a simple yet audaciously ambitious goal: preserve the world’s microdata resources and democratize access to those resources. Twenty-four years later, the goals are: collecting and preserving census and survey data and documentation; harmonizing those data; and disseminating the harmonized data free of charge. The data series includes information on an impressive range of population characteristics, including fertility, nuptiality, life-course transitions, migration, labor-force participation, occupational structure, education, ethnicity, and household composition.

Dr. Bob McCaa standing behind a table with stacks of paper — Dr. Bob McCaa

Source data for IPUMS International are generously provided by participating national statistical offices. Our staff develop and nurture relationships with representatives of NSOs from around the world. As IPUMS International got underway, co-principal investigator Dr. Bob McCaa, University of Minnesota Department of History, “proved to have formidable persuasive powers and managed to convince . . . agency directors of the benefits of preservation and access to scientific information.” Over time, IPUMS International developed a team of research scientists articulating to a broad international audience the significance of the IPUMS data collection, harmonization, and preservation work. Today, an NSF advisory committee, senior personnel including research scientists and data analysts, an external advisory panel, and graduate and undergraduate research assistants all support the work of IPUMS International.