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.
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!
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
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.
