MPC launches IPUMS Higher Ed, new data tool for researching education attainment

The Minnesota Population Center has released a new data project: IPUMS Higher Ed. IPUMS Higher Ed is composed of three National Science Foundation surveys of college degree holders in the United States:  the National Survey of College Graduates, the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the National Survey of Recent College Graduates.  Only the respondents who have a degree in science or engineering (or related fields) or work in a science or engineering occupation are included in the SESTAT file for that year.  The first version of IPUMS Higher Ed website will provide integrated SESTAT and SDR files from 1993 to 2013.

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The Census Bureau will keep marital history questions—but what’s next?

When the Census Bureau announced its recommendation to keep marital history questions in the American Community Survey (ACS) after soliciting comments from the public for 90 days, you may have assumed that demographers everywhere were relieved. And why not? Their retention in the ACS was a major victory for, well, everyone: academics, journalists, statisticians, policy analysts, and anyone with a stake in the history of the two largest program in the federal government, Social Security and Medicare.

But there was troubling news hidden in this announcement: the Bureau’s “deeply flawed” method for evaluating questions is still in place.

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