# Can I merge NHIS and CPS data sets?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-i-merge-nhis-and-cps-data-sets/3774>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [September 24, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-i-merge-nhis-and-cps-data-sets/3774 "2020-09-24T19:38:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Arwa\_Alalwani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Arwa\_Alalwani](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Arwa_Alalwani)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-i-merge-nhis-and-cps-data-sets/3774/1 "2020-09-24T19:38:47Z")

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Hi,  
I want to use variables in both CPS and NHIS. can I merge both ?  
meaning is the identifies YEAR, SERIAL, PERNUM … is same in both data sets ? if not, is there any identifier in IPUMS data sets ?

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**Author:** ![KariWilliams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@KariWilliams](https://forum.ipums.org/u/KariWilliams)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/can-i-merge-nhis-and-cps-data-sets/3774/2 "2020-09-25T02:46:08Z")

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CPS and NHIS are separate datasets; they cannot be merged. IPUMS uses similar variable names for identifiers, but records with the same YEAR/SERIAL/PERNUM in NHIS and CPS are not the same person. Please let me know if you have any questions about either dataset.