PMA Data Analysis Hub

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By Matt Gunther

IPUMS PMA has launched a new blog aimed at introducing harmonized family planning data through step-by-step analysis examples written in R. Whether you’re looking for a place to dive into Performance Monitoring for Action data or a way to learn more about free and open-source data analysis tools, the PMA Data Analysis Hub is a great place to start!

You’ll find a new post every two weeks highlighting different tips for working with PMA data. Usually, we organize these posts in a series around a theme or a particular group of variables. For example, did you know that PMA collects data from both individuals and health service providers in the same geographic area? We’ve just completed our first series of posts showing how to use service provider data as context for the family planning outcomes experienced by individuals.

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Where was IPUMSI in 2020?

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By Jane Lyon Lee, IPUMS International

Last March, when the IPUMS International research team attended the 51st Meeting of the UN Statistical Commission, we were just beginning to hear about the spread of a novel virus. We soon discovered that the Commission meeting would be our last in-person event of the year. Soon after, a pandemic quickly paralyzed our world, including the ever-important census and survey work. We all were called on to seek out and, in some cases, create new paths via which data collection, protection, analysis, and dissemination could continue.

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How has COVID-19 affected 2020 data collection efforts?

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By Julia A. Rivera Drew, Sarah M. Flood, Renae Rodgers

IPUMS integrates data from several major US surveys that collect data throughout the year. Below, we discuss how COVID-19 has affected how US statistical agencies have collected these survey data in 2020.

Current Population Survey (CPS)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau have continued to collect data on a monthly basis during the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing some procedural modifications to protect the safety of respondents and Census Bureau employees and adding a short supplement to capture the effects of the pandemic on work in the United States.

Changes to Interviewing Procedures

Current Population Survey (CPS) data collection for March had already begun when the Census Bureau suspended in-person data collection on March 20th, 2020. Two call centers that assist with CPS data collection also closed down at this time. However, data collection continued exclusively by phone through June of 2020. In July, in-person interviews began in some areas of the country and the call centers that had been closed in March re-opened. In-person interviews were resumed in all areas of the country in September 2020 and data collection has returned to a normal routine. More information on how alternative data collection procedures affected response rates, attrition, and employment data is available on the IPUMS CPS website.

Additional COVID-related content

The COVID-19 outbreak prompted the BLS to add five questions to the monthly CPS survey about work in the time of COVID-19. These questions were first asked in May. Though the question about foregoing medical care due to the pandemic was dropped from the survey after October of 2020, all other questions will remain in the survey until further notice. Researchers may preview the questions or access the COVID-specific variables via IPUMS CPS.

IPUMS CPS will continue to update our documentation on the effects of the pandemic on CPS data collection and to make new data available as quickly as possible. Follow @ipums on Twitter for the latest updates.

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Mapping Block-Level Segregation: The Twin Cities’ Black Population, 1980-2010

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Research, data preparation, story and graphics by Amalea Jubara and Yaxuan Zhang (Minnesota Population Center, Summer Diversity Fellows), mentored by Jonathan Schroeder (IPUMS Research Scientist) and Ying Song (Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Environment & Society)

Edited by Jonathan Schroeder (IPUMS Research Scientist)

IPUMS NHGIS Block Data: An Expanding Collection

The most spatially precise U.S. census data are block-level tables, summarizing population and housing characteristics for millions of blocks throughout the country. IPUMS NHGIS provides block-level tables for the 1970 to 2010 decennial censuses as well as block boundary files for 1990, 2000 and 2010. This collection is set to grow substantially in the next few years as NHGIS adds new 2020 census block data and as we continue with a major initiative to construct 1980 and 1970 block boundary files. This expansion will open up new possibilities for high-precision spatial analysis across a longer time span.

A Case Study of the Twin Cities’ Black Population

To demonstrate some of the potential value of this expanding collection, we use NHGIS block data, including some not-yet-released 1980 block boundaries, to explore the recent history of racial segregation and integration in the Black population of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1980 to 2010. We present the block data in an interactive map along with data on early-20th-century racial covenants and the “redlining” zones of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), recently published by the Mapping Prejudice and Mapping Inequality projects.

The block-level changes since 1980 show a striking trend toward greater dispersion and integration of Black residents, but segregation persists; several neighborhoods still have uniformly low or high proportions of Black residents. By overlaying racial covenants and HOLC zones with the block data, we can also find cases where the historical discriminatory practices appear to have left a lasting imprint on the distribution of Black residents.

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1930/31 Time Diary Data from College Educated Women in the United States

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IPUMS Time Use, in partnership with Dr. Teresa Harms of the Centre for Time Use Research, is proud to announce the public release of the 1930-31 USDA College Women Time Use study. These data provide researchers a unique look into the lives of married, college-educated women at the beginning of the Great Depression. The respondents were asked to complete a detailed record of their time use for seven consecutive 24-hour periods (see a sample daily diary below; borrowed with permission from Teresa Harms, CTUR). The women described activities in their own words, listing them consecutively as they occurred throughout the day, with a minimum interval of five minutes. They also recorded the time devoted to various homemaking tasks by other household members and paid help as well as demographic and work status data and information about the household. The data also include the verbatim activity reports and the occupations the women reported at the time of data collection. All data are available via the IPUMS American Heritage Time Use Study (AHTUS) extract system.

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2021 IPUMSI New Data Release Highlights

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Map depicting where IPUMSI has dataIPUMS International has added 19 new census samples and new labor force surveys.  First-time data release countries include four new countries from four different continents—Finland, Mauritius, Myanmar, and Suriname. Other newly added samples extend pre-existing series. Another first is the addition of labor force surveys from Spain and Italy. See a summary of the full IPUMS collection on the IPUMSI samples page.

In addition to the new data, check out the usage-enhancing highlights that are part of this recent release.

  • Spatially-harmonized migration variables
  • New work variables that maximize the utility of newly-harmonized labor force surveys
  • New disability variables per The Washington Group recommendations
  • Access to harmonization tables and code for registered IPUMS data users
  • Population density variables for all samples with the requisite geography- POPDENSGEO1 and POPDENSGEO2 capture the population density in persons per square kilometer of the first and second administrative units of the household, respectively.
  • Variables AREAMOLLWGEO1 and AREAMOLLWGEO2 provided for additional convenience
  • New lower level single-sample variables for select countries, as well as regionalized variables and shapefiles at the 3rd administrative level for Senegal 2013 and 2002, South Africa 2016, 2011, and 2007, and Uganda 2014, and Myanmar 2014

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Locating Dimensions of Women’s Empowerment in Family Planning in Burkina Faso

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By Tayler Nelson

Women’s “empowerment,” defined by Naila Kabeer[1] as “the expansion of people’s ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them,” has been shown[2] to be associated with greater birth spacing, lower fertility, and lower rates of unplanned pregnancy. Yet scholars disagree[3] on how to measure women’s empowerment, and meanings of empowerment can shift across geographic and cultural contexts.

IPUMS PMA’s family planning surveys include variables that can help researchers investigate dimensions of women’s empowerment in family planning. All samples include indicators of women’s knowledge about family planning methods. Many survey rounds dig deeper, collecting data that can be used by researchers and policymakers.

The Burkina Faso 2018 Round 6 survey includes a range of variables measuring family planning attitudes, beliefs, and decision-making dynamics that relate to women’s empowerment. I used a weighted polychoric factor analysis[4] to investigate women’s empowerment in family planning in Burkina Faso. Factor analysis can help researchers reduce a large number of observed variables by identifying similar response patterns among observed variables and grouping them into a smaller set of underlying variables, or factors. Through analyzing how variables are grouped and the strength and signs of coefficients within these groups, researchers can glean insight into which sets of observed variables might be best at measuring an unobserved construct such as women’s empowerment.

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