Matching 2012 ACS 1-year PUMS with 2011 metro variable (since 2012 metro variables isn't yet available).

USA
1

Hi Joe,

Thanks very much for answering my question a few weeks ago regarding the availability of the METRO variable from the 2012 PUMS. Since the 2012 Metro variable won’t be available for several months, can we merge the 2012 ACS 1-year estimates that we download from Census with the Metro variable from 2011? In past years, the sort order of the two data files were the same so we could simply append the Metro variable onto the larger datafile without an ID. Will this method still work if we’re appending data from different years?

Thanks again for your help,

Tom

2

Since the 2011 and 2012 1-year ACS files represent two different groups of respondents it is not possible to merge the two data files. Furthermore, the reason the METRO variable is not available for 2012 is because the 2012 data file uses new PUMA codes and boundaries that do not directly relate to the 2011 PUMA codes and boundaries, so the METRO variable from 2011 would not accurately represent the 2012 data.

If I misinterpreted your question, please let me know.