Hello, I am trying to get population counts by age, sex, race, and hispanic origin at the county level for ACS 2015-2019 5-year estimates. Is the best way to do this by using the IPUMS USA system and making COUNTYFIP the column variable? I have generated some counts using this tool for California with RACE as the row variable, filters for age and sex, and a hispanic origin as the control, and I noticed that not all counties are present in the resulting tables. I just want to ensure that this is the best tool to use to get these geographic-based estimates.
Thank you!
It sounds like you are using SDA (our online analysis platform) to complete your analysis, please correct me if I am wrong. Though the method you have outlined could work, not all counties are identifiable in public use files due to confidentiality reasons. Some counties have been identified using geographic identifiers such as Public Use Microdata Areas (see this blog post for more information).
Alternatively, NHGIS provides summary tables of US Census data that are aggregated at various geographic levels (including at the county level). Aggregated data from IPUMS NHGIS include more detailed geographic identifiers than the person-level microdata used in IPUMS USA. Assuming there is a table that works for your criteria (e.g., your specific age groups), these data can allow you to get county-level measures for the entire US. IPUMS provides resources to help users get acquainted with our projects, including this introductory tutorial on NHGIS and this tutorial on the NHGIS Data Extract System, among others. In addition, there are exercises on how to work with NHGIS data using Excel or R.