IPUMS – Page 5 – Use It for Good

New Year, New Me: IPUMS Bibliography

June 21, 2025January 14, 2020 by mpcblog

With a new year comes resolutions to become better versions of ourselves. Perhaps you have resolved to be more organized, appreciate the little things, or just reaffirm your commitment to using data for good-never for evil. Dream big because IPUMS wants to help you achieve your goals (unless you have again promised yourself that you will floss daily)!

We recently resolved to outperform Google*. An ambitious team, led by Erin Meyer, set out to close the gap between citation counts in the IPUMS bibliography and Google Scholar. They scoured the internet to uncover your incredible research accomplishments that use IPUMS data. And oh did they find research!

The Revival of Quantification

June 6, 2025December 18, 2019 by mpcblog

In November, our fearless leader, Steve Ruggles, gave his presidential address at the annual Social Science History Association (SSHA) conference in Chicago. It was titled “The Revival of Quantification.” Ruggles describes long-run trends in quantification in history. He also focused on the relationship of historical quantification to political activism, relativism (no absolute truth), and objectivism (one Truth and that Truth is reached through empirical observation).

In the Archive: “25 Years of IPUMS Data”

December 18, 2019July 22, 2019 by mpcblog

“25 Years of IPUMS Data,” the current IPUMS/MPC archive exhibit, highlights a dynamic quarter center history of data innovation at the University of Minnesota. In the late 1980s, the Social History Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota’s History Department proposed “the creation of a single integrated microdata series composed of public use samples for every year … with the exception of the 1890 census, which was destroyed by fire.” The primary aim was to make the U.S. census microdata “as compatible over time as possible while losing little, if any, of the detail in the original datasets” (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: A Prospectus).

Where IPUMS Begins: The 1880 U.S. PUMS

June 22, 2025July 24, 2017 by mpcblog

Display case with various MPC and IPUMS items, including spiral-bound books of user notes and technical documentation, an 1880 subsample in a frame, and a banner that says "Where IPUMS Begins: The 1880 U.S. PUMS"

The IPUMS journey to global domination dissemination is being celebrated this summer through an exhibit in the Seminar Room at the Minnesota Population Center.

Building Community through Education, Sociability, and Shared History

June 6, 2025February 15, 2017 by mpcblog

Quilt square that has a blue hat and the words "Data Wizard" on it — A quilt square created by IPUMS/MPC staff.

Building a strong sense of community is fundamental to nurturing and sustaining successful organizations. IPUMS and the MPC pursue three avenues—educational, social, and historical—for building community for its faculty, research associates, staff, and affiliates.

Data Release: U.S. Household-level Full Count Data from 1790-1840

June 16, 2025December 5, 2016 by mpcblog

1800census

In collaboration with our partners at Ancestry.com, the Minnesota Population Center has released new historical census data through IPUMS-USA. Full count data for 1790-1840 is available via IPUMS-USA as household-level and county-level datasets* for each decennial census year and for the combined years, 1790-1840.

Wrangling International Census Tables

August 2, 2025November 17, 2016 by mpcblog

World map with different shades of blue showing the amount of worksheets in each of the countries IPUMS-International currently disseminates census microdata from 82 countries around the world. It’s an impressive collection. But it still only covers about half the world’s countries. Under the TerraPop project, we are working to assemble a truly comprehensive global collection of population data.