# Educational attainment by age by county

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/educational-attainment-by-age-by-county/4181>\
**Category:** NHGIS\
**Created:** [June 16, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/educational-attainment-by-age-by-county/4181 "2021-06-16T19:00:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Heather\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Heather\_H](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Heather_H)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/educational-attainment-by-age-by-county/4181/1 "2021-06-16T19:00:47Z")

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Hi there! I need to observe educational attainment over time (1980-2010) for each age at the county level. The NGHIS has some really nice time-series tables with educational attainment by age, but enough granularity - I need counts for each age (e.g., 25, 26, 27), while the time series tables are grouped into age categories (e.g., 25-34, 35-44, 45-64). I understand this is probably due to preserving confidentiality? Either way, would anyone know if this data is available elsewhere (outside of restricted data) - whether that is another IPUMS dataset or another source? Or, perhaps I am overlooking it in the NGHIS? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Grace\_Cooper](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grace_cooper/32/376_2.png) [@Grace\_Cooper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Grace_Cooper)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/educational-attainment-by-age-by-county/4181/2 "2021-06-22T19:06:56Z")

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I don’t believe a single year of age by county is available through NHGIS. Educational attainment can be summarized by age group at the county level using data from [IPUMS USA](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml), though not all counties are identifiable in the data for 1980 - 2010 samples (see this [blog post](http://blog.popdata.org/ipums-faqs-missing-u-s-counties/) for more information). This data is available nationwide, however, at the Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) level (groups of counties or census-defined places with a population of 100,000+ residents), available through [PUMA](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/PUMA#description_section) for the 1990 - 2010 samples. Similarly, information on the county group of enumeration (contiguous areas with a combined population of 100,000+ residents) is available for 1980 through [CNTYGP98](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/CNTYGP98#description_section). The [Missouri Census Data Center Geocorr Application](https://mcdc.missouri.edu/applications/geocorr.html) provides crosswalks for Census data at several geographic levels, including PUMAs and Counties.

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**Author:** ![Heather\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Heather\_H](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Heather_H)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/educational-attainment-by-age-by-county/4181/3 "2021-07-01T21:24:12Z")

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Hi @Grace_Cooper! Thanks so much for the thorough response. I was actually using the IPUMS data initially but gave it up because I was wanting to do a county-level analysis. I’m going to give it another shot with the Geocorr application you mention here. Thanks for pointing me in that direction!

Best,  
Heather