Dissemination and Outreach – Use It for Good

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.

Powered by IPUMS at PAA 2023

May 18, 2023May 18, 2023 by mpcblog

By Stacy Nordstrom

We attend the Population Association of America (PAA) annual meeting every year and we are always inspired by the outstanding research being shared. We love having conversations with users at our booth, at poster sessions, at presentations, or even just in the lobby. This year was a little extra special because we also gathered to celebrate 30 years of IPUMS.

Steve Ruggles gives a speech in a room full of people watching him — IPUMS Director Steve Ruggles shares a few words at the IPUMS 30 Celebration

We also were thrilled to celebrate with Elizabeth Heger Boyle. She was honored with the Harriet B. Presser Award for her record of sustained research contributions to the study of gender and demography. Dr. Boyle pioneered IPUMS Global Health, democratizing access to women and children’s health data and unleashing innovative new streams of cross-national comparative research.

IPUMS Announces 2022 Research Award Recipients

May 5, 2023April 17, 2023 by mpcblog

We are excited to announce the winners of our annual IPUMS Research Awards competition. These awards honor outstanding published research and graduate student papers from 2022 that use IPUMS data to advance or deepen our understanding of social and demographic processes.

The 2022 competition awarded prizes for the best published and best graduate student research in eight categories:

IPUMS USA, providing data from the U.S. decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and includes full count data, from 1850 to the present.
IPUMS CPS, providing data from the monthly U.S. labor force survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), from 1962 to the present.
IPUMS International, providing harmonized data contributed by more than 100 international statistical office partners for over 500 censuses and surveys from around the world for 1960 forward as well as full count historical (NAPP) data.
IPUMS Health Surveys, which makes available the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
IPUMS Spatial, covering IPUMS NHGIS, IPUMS IHGIS, and IPUMS Terra. NHGIS includes GIS boundary files from 1790 to the present; IHGIS provides data tables from population and housing censuses as well as agricultural censuses from around the world; Terra provides data on population and the environment from 1960 to the present.
IPUMS Global Health, providing harmonized data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the Performance Monitoring and Accountability surveys, for low and middle-income countries from the 1980s to the present.
IPUMS Time Use, providing time diary data from the U.S. and around the world from 1965 to the present.
IPUMS Excellence in Research, this award is an opportunity to highlight and reward outstanding work using any of the IPUMS data collections by authors who are underrepresented in social science research.

The awards committee reviewed hundreds of submissions; from these, we selected the 2022 winners.

IPUMS FAQ: What are Virtual Office Hours?

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by mpcblog

by Amy Grotsun and Kari Williams

While scrolling through an IPUMS email or checking up on the latest IPUMS tweets you may have read about IPUMS Virtual Office Hours. You also probably wondered, “What even are virtual office hours?” Today we are here to answer that question.

In the wake of canceled conferences during spring of 2020, IPUMS wanted to create an opportunity to connect with data users about questions they might have when using the data–the kind of thing you might pop by the exhibit hall booth to ask. We found that we connected with virtual conference attendees as expected, but many other IPUMS data users as well. As in-person conferences resume, we will continue to host virtual office hours quarterly so we can continue connecting with a broad range of IPUMS users.

IPUMS at ICFP2022

November 30, 2022 by mpcblog

by Devon Kristiansen

IPUMS was proud to partake in the International Conference on Family Planning in Pattaya City, Thailand. We participated by hosting a pre-conference workshop, sponsoring the conference, staffing an exhibit both, and presenting research as part of the conference program. The conference, held between November 14th and 17th, 2022, had 3,500 in-person attendees, with many virtual participants, as well.

Research staff representing IPUMS PMA, IPUMS DHS, IPUMS MICS, and IPUMS International conducted a 2-hour pre-conference workshop, providing participants with an overview of each of the IPUMS data collections featuring international data as well as a website and data analysis demonstration.

2022 Data-Intensive Research Conference

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022 by mpcblog

By Kari Williams

Registration is now open for the 2022 Data-Intensive Research Conference, being held July 20-21 in person in Minneapolis, MN and online. This event is sponsored by the Network for Data-Intensive Research on Aging (NDIRA), part of the University of Minnesota’s Life Course Center (which is co-located with IPUMS).

The conference will feature research presentations and discussions focused on the 2022 theme: Contextualizing Work and Health across the Life Course. The program includes research that leverages large-scale population data (including some #poweredbyIPUMS work) to explore these concepts. Here’s a sneak peak at the conference program. We are excited for research that digs into many different aspects of work (paid work, caregiving, labor market transitions) and health (health behaviors, health conditions, disability, wellbeing) with a life course perspective.

IPUMS Announces 2021 Research Award Recipients

April 19, 2022April 19, 2022 by mpcblog

IPUMS is excited to announce the winners of its annual IPUMS Research Awards. These awards honor the best published research and nominated graduate student papers from 2021 that use IPUMS data to advance or deepen our understanding of social and demographic processes.

This year we are pleased to announce the IPUMS Excellence in Research Award. The IPUMS mission of democratizing data demands that we increase representation of scholars from groups that are systemically excluded in research spaces. This award is an opportunity to highlight and reward outstanding work using any of the IPUMS data collections by authors who are underrepresented in social science research*. In addition to the Excellence in Research Award, the 2021 competition awarded prizes for the best published and best graduate student research in seven categories, each associated with specific IPUMS data collections:

IPUMS USA, providing data from the U.S. decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and includes full count data, from 1850 to the present.
IPUMS CPS, providing data from the monthly U.S. labor force survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), from 1962 to the present.
IPUMS International, providing harmonized data contributed by more than 100 international statistical office partners for over 500 censuses and surveys from around the world for 1960 forward as well as full count historical (NAPP) data.
IPUMS Health Surveys, which makes available the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
IPUMS Spatial, covering IPUMS NHGIS, IPUMS IHGIS, and IPUMS Terra. NHGIS includes GIS boundary files from 1790 to the present; IHGIS provides data tables from population and housing censuses as well as agricultural censuses from around the world; Terra provides data on population and the environment from 1960 to the present.
IPUMS Global Health, providing harmonized data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the Performance Monitoring and Accountability surveys, for low and middle-income countries from the 1980s to the present.
IPUMS Time Use, providing time diary data from the U.S. and around the world from 1965 to the present.

Over 2,000 publications based on IPUMS data appeared in journals, magazines, and newspapers worldwide last year. From these publications and from nominated graduate student papers, the award committees selected the 2021 honorees.