How do I merge census summary data on U.S. cities to IPUMS. Also, the city variable in IPUMS has missing data for many large U.S. cities (hence the need for summary data). Why is this?
Hi, I am not sure which dataset or sample you are using, but to merge related data to IPUMS data you’d need some kind of standard identifier similar to a FIPS code, or you’d need to match on names/manually. The reason for many missing data on cities is probably because most IPUMS samples will A) only reliably identify to the PUMA level and B) only identify such places with >100,000 population. See this information from the IPUMS USA dataset.
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The “PUMA Match Summary” files available in the CITY comparability section include both the IPUMS CITY codes and the Census Bureau’s Place FIPS codes. Those files enable you to link the census city-level summary data to IPUMS microdata. Please see @Ivan_Strahof’s answer to your other post for more details on this.
As @Chris_B mentioned, the issue is that cities are not directly identified in the microdata after 1980. You can read more about this in the Comparability Section for CITY.
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Thank you. I will read these references and get back to you with more questions.