Modernizing the U.S. Census (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
D Research Uses of Census Data
D Research Uses of Census Data
Pages 259-272
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 259... ...
, the census is often used indirectly for weighting sample surveys or for serving as the denominators for demographic rates. Decennial census data are of primary importance in three different respects.
|
From page 260... ...
Aggregated data are made available in published form that are widely available in libraries and research centers and in summary tapes. The Census Bureau released a number of different summary tape files containing an immense quantity of census data arranged by geographic category.
|
From page 261... ...
The large PUMS data files permit research of literally ten of millions of observations, including the creation of samples of minority populations that cannot be found in any other available national sample. Although the PUMS files sacrifice the geographic detail of aggregated census data, they compensate by freeing the researcher to produce tables that do not appear in the aggregated data.
|
From page 262... ...
provides a basis for estimating future fertility and family trends of particular population groups and, in this way, facilitate understanding of future national population growth and identification of the local social services and support needs that are likely to confront those population groups in the future. In similar fashion, census data support exploration of the relationship between health and functional abilities, on the one hand, and socioeconomic status on the other.
|
From page 263... ...
to a predominantly old one. Heightened research attention is being given to examining the nature of the elderly population, and decennial census data are one of the chief tools used in such examinations.
|
From page 264... ...
Researchers use the aggregated data from the 1990 census to measure this type of segregation and to compare results with similar data from the 1970 and 1980 censuses. Such measurements permit researchers to investigate the economic consequences of residential segregation, as well as to probe into racial attitudes and discriminatory practices that may promote different levels of racial segregation in various locales.
|
From page 265... ...
In the 1960s and 1970s, these programs were less favored than efforts focused on general economic vitality. In the 1980s, an increasing number of social science articles and books raised new concerns about the urban poor, persistent poverty, the growth of an "underclass," and the neighborhood and community problems of the "disadvantaged." Researchers began to use a much richer array of census data in the 1980s, along with noncensus data keyed to census geography, to document levels and changes in a medley of indicators of undesirable social conditions.
|
From page 266... ...
The second innovation is new technology for manipulating census spatial data and matching noncensus data to census geography: the TIGER system. Social scientists have rapidly increasing accessibility to powerful personal computer systems and work stations required for use of these new tools.
|
From page 267... ...
DEVELOPMENT OF CENSUS MICRODATA FILES The incredible volume of raw data produced by census enumeration has compelled the Census Bureau to be a persistent innovator in techniques of mass data processing. Successive developments in punched card technology, machine-readable coding, and computers enabled the Census Bureau to keep up with the processing demands and to issue an ever-expanding shelf of publications.
|
From page 268... ...
Several 1.0 percent public-use sample tapes from the 1970 census were released as routine census products, along with many other alternatives to the traditional bound sets of tables, and a 1.0 percent public-use sample from the 1960 census was subsequently produced by the Census Bureau in the 1970s, providing a large comparable sample for the 1960 and 1970 censuses. Development of Summary Tape Files Summary tape files are selected census items and cross-tabulation arranged by geography.
|
From page 269... ...
Availability of the 1850 PUMS files will provide an important baseline for historical studies. The availability of the 1850 census microdata will extend the current series of census PUMS data back to a period prior to the Civil War, filling in a critical gap in the study of long-term social change.
|
From page 270... ...
Work for producing the 1850 and 1880 PUMS files was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. At the same time that work has proceeded on censuses from the nineteenth century, researchers have worked with the Census Bureau to take samples from the remaining censuses of the twentieth century.
|
From page 271... ...
Census files are large and complicated. Researchers who try to use the large 5 percent PUMS files for the 1990 census find that they receive several dozen computer tapes, that the initial processing of the tapes requires trained computer programming staff, and that there is considerable cost and time required to ready the data for analysis.
|
From page 272... ...
Although the summary tape files with aggregated data may limit the particular cross-tabulations available, aggregated data have often been used for studies of residential settlement, especially residential segregation, based on the spatial analysis of particular social groups. 2Individual microdata were not collected from the slave population in the 1850 census.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.