Hi, can I merge 2010 census tracts to their equivalent PUMAS from the ACS 2015 5-year file? Thank you.
The Census redraws PUMA boundaries every 10 years based on population information gathered from the most recent decennial census. ACS samples incorporate the new PUMAs within a few years of the Decennial Census. In Muli-year ACS files, PUMA boundaries depend on the original year the respondent was interviewed (via MULTYEAR). Therefore, with the 2015 5-year ACS file, respondents from 2011 correspond to the Census 2000 based PUMAs, while respondents from 2012 - 2015 correspond to the Census 2010 based PUMAs.
You can use this crosswalk between 2000 and 2010 PUMAs to get all of your data into 2010 PUMAs (here is information about this crosswalk) and then use the 2010 Census Tract to 2010 PUMA Relationship File to obtain the 2010 Census tracts.
Thank you for the response. Just to check to see if I got this correct, I’ve pasted the following info from puma00_puma10 crosswalk (see below). So based on the info, the G0602401 puma in 2000 became G06000101 in 2010?
| GISJOIN10 | PUMA00 |
| G06000101 | G0602401 |
Correct. To give you another example, 2000 PUMAs G0100100, G0100600, G0100700 all became a part of G01000100 in the 2010 PUMAs. The column PERCPOP10 indicates the percentage of the 2010 PUMA population in the area of intersection.