ACS EDUCD

1

Dear IPUMS team,

I am working on re-coding EDUCD variable in ACS, but I am not sure what some values mean.

Does 080 “2 years of college” include people with a college degree?

Does 100 “4 years of college” include people with a college degree?

Do values 110 to 113 (5+ years, 6 years …) include people with a college education but not a degree at all?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Vania Villanueva

2

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is, we don’t know. In the 1940-1980 Decennial Census forms the questions about educational attainment were asked in terms of years as opposed to degrees. We can make educated assumptions based on the typical number of years it takes to complete a specific degree, but we can not say with certainty that a person with 2 years of college has an Associate’s degree.