Hi,
I am currently studying with your data for a reasearch using variables for the Person gruop, where I require information about the state in which they are currently living. However, the only variable available I saw was the last year residence (if the person have moved, variable MIGPLAC1).
One way I thought will solve my problems if by looking at the data from the household the person is from, but this lead me to another problem which is using YEAR, SAMPLE and SERIAL as a whole to identify every family, select the state and then using all the variables I mention + PERNUM to identify the people and associate to them this states, which is something I don’t know how to do using STATA (I refer to mixing all these identifiers and what goes after that).
IPUMS USA offers two state variables, STATEFIP and STATEICP. These two variables have different coding schemes but both report the state a household is located in. By default, data extracts are created in rectangular structure, meaning the household-level variables you’ve included in your extract are added to the person-level record lines. This means that both state variables are applied to person records, meaning each person in the IPUMS USA data has a value of STATEFIP and STATEICP on their record line, which corresponds to their household record’s state. There should not be any issues identifying the state of residence of each respondent.
Hi,
Does this mean that when selecting the microdata that I need at the individual level together with the STATEIFP variable, for example, the State in which your family lives would already be associated with the person who is part of that family?
Household level variables such as STATEFIP are automatically associated with the person records corresponding to that household in the default data extract format (rectangularized on person). When you add STATEFIP to your data extract, it will be automatically applied to the person records. Note that you will need to include at least one person level variable (e.g. SEX, AGE) to create an extract that includes person records. Also, the household level variables describe characteristics of households, which are not synonymous with families. A household refers to a single housing unit and includes everyone who is staying at a sample address at the time of the survey and will be there for at least two months. A household can be made up of multiple families or non-related individuals. Additionally, related family members who live at different addresses are not included in the household.