I am a new user of IPUMS, and am seeking to obtain longitudinal data on multiple indicators (such as race, occupation, industry) aggregated to the national (USA) level as case counts. For example, I want a dataset where one row might be ‘African-American/Black’ and the column is year, and the cell gives the number of African-American/Black respondents in that year (either for the Census as a whole, or from one of the 1% or 5% samples).
I have been able to see tables with this structure by beginning to Select Data, clicking on a given harmonized indicator, and then choosing to view Codes on a “case count” basis. But I dont know how to ask for such a dataset…when I have tried I have ended up with datasets where the row is an individual respondent instead.
Appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction!
The large majority of IPUMS data, including IPUMS USA, is household or individual level microdata, meaning that the data delivered to users will be, essentially, rows of household or person records. This data can then be read into statistical analysis software (such as Stata, SPSS, R or even Excel) and users can perform analyses, such as generating frequency tables, on their own. Based on information you provided here, you may be interested in using our online data analysis tool. This tool increases the accessibility of data by allowing users to analyze data through a web-interface without needing to use statistical software. The SDA tool is a web-based interface that allows you to generate frequency tables, cross-tabulations, and summary statistics; create customized data visualizations, including bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots; perform regression analysis; and export results as a CSV file for presentations or further analysis. This blog post and video tutorial details how to use the tool and includes a walkthrough example on how to generate a weighted frequency table.
Screenshot of a table output generated by IPUMS USA online data analysis tool showing RACE by YEAR (2020-2024):
Another option is to use IPUMS NHGIS, which redistributes summary tables from the decennial censuses and American Community Survey. These tables provide data for geographic areas, rather than microdata for individuals and households. The tables also include “nation-level” data giving aggregate characteristics for the entire U.S. The caveat is that NHGIS includes nation-level data only from source datasets that provided nation-level totals. That includes most sources going back to 1980, but many sources for 1970 and earlier years include data only for states or lower levels.
