Hello!
I have analyses that use the variable MIGTYPE1 and MIGRATE1 using ACS 5-Year samples. I notice that MIGTYPE1 is not readily available in the 2022 ACS, and that MIGRATE1 is only available in the 2022 ACS 1-year survey and is not included in the 5-year survey. Is there any plan to update these variables for 2022?
Apologies if this is related to my question in this forum posting, which highlighted IPUMS’s work in updating MIGPUMAs for the ACS 2022 sample.
Thank you in advance for your answers and for the work that you all do at IPUMS!
Yes, we plan to extend both MIGRATE1 and MIGTYPE1 for the 2022 samples in a future release; these variables require special handling to account for the changes in PUMA (and MIGPUMA) boundaries with the 2022 ACS.
A number of other migration variables are currently available in the 2022 5-year file including MIGPLAC1 (State or country of residence 1 year ago), which will allow you to identify some of the categories in MIGRATE1 including movers between states, non-movers, and those who moved from abroad. MIGMET131 together with MIGPUMA will similarly allow you to identify respondents with MIGTYPE1 categories N/A, Not in metropolitan area, and Abroad. Please note when using a 5-year file that bridges two PUMA/MIGPUMA definitions (such as the 2022 5-year file) that geography variables for observations included in the years before the change (i.e., MULTYEAR = 2018-2021) are created using the older vintage boundaries, while observations in the period after the change and created using the newer vintage. This can significantly affect your estimates if, for example, a metro area in MIGMET131 is identified in the earlier period, but not in the latter. This can also affect estimates for MIGTYPE1, which depend on the number and size of cities and metropolitan areas that can be identified using MIGPUMA1.
IPUMS NHGIS also releases summary tables created by the Census Bureau that report geographically aggregated estimates using ACS data (for geographies as small as census tracts in 5-year ACS files). The estimates in these tables do not rely on MIG/PUMA, but come from the internal Census file. The 2022 5-year ACS summary tables include estimates of the number of persons who moved within and across MSAs and principal cities that you might consider using if you do not require individual-level microdata.