Hi IPUMS team,
I noticed that 1950 census did not include the HISPAN variable in the full count but has it in the 1% sample. I am wondering if you have a potential future release date to update this variable in the full count data.
I am using the 1950 full count data for my project, and classifying non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks are the most crucial part of it. IF the HISPAN variable is not available, is there another way to specify non-Hispanic Whites using other variables?
Thanks!
The current version of the 1950 full count census data provided by IPUMS USA is a preliminary release, and thus does not include all variables that are available in the 1950 1% sample. While we hope to be able to provide HISPAN In a future release of the 1950 full count data, the timing for that is unknown. In censuses from 1970 and earlier, Hispanic ethnicity was not asked or reported directly. Therefore, the variable HISPAN reports Hispanic ethnicity as imputed (allocated) by IPUMS in pre-1980 samples. You can read more about how IPUMS made determinations about Hispanic ethnicity in the description tab of HISPRULE. You could use some of these rules (e.g., that a person is Hispanic if they were born in a Hispanic area according to BPL) to make determinations about Hispanic ethnicity for individuals in the 1950 full count data. Note that SPANNAME is not yet available in the 1950 full count data, and so rules 6 and 7 from the HISPRULE documentation cannot be applied to the current version of the data.
Thank you very much!