I am trying to download a bunch of panel data on veteran status, education level, and a host of demographic variables. But I need this data at the state level. I couldn’t seem to find a way to specify geographic regions. Is this possible through IPUMS?
States can be identified through either STATEFIPor STATEICP. As long as proper weights are applied, IPUMS-USA data will be representative at the state level. The person-weight variables indicate how many persons in the population are represented by each sample case, so a state’s population is simply the sum of the PERWTvalues for each respondent in that state. For person-level analyses, use PERWT, and for household-level analyses, use HHWT. You can learn more about sample weights onthis page.
If you only want data on certain states, it is possible to download ACS data for select states by using the Select Cases option. Before you submit your extract on the Extract Request screen, choose “Select cases”, choose STATEFIP or STATEICP, and highlight the value(s) of interest. Then, you can simply submit your extract as normal. The generated data extract will have data for only the state(s) you selected.
If you are interested in state-level data only, I recommend checking out another MPC project: NHGIS. NHGIS offers many of the official Census tables going back to 1790 at several geographic levels, including state. While NHGIS is primarily focused on mapping data, the summary tables can be extracted independent of shape files as .csv files with optional descriptive headers. Additionally, the Census’ American FactFinder site is another source for Census tables.
I hope this helps.