# population size variables before year 1986

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/population-size-variables-before-year-1986/1553>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [January 25, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/population-size-variables-before-year-1986/1553 "2017-01-25T15:31:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Ianhety](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/977dab/32.png) [@Ianhety](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Ianhety)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/population-size-variables-before-year-1986/1553/1 "2017-01-25T15:31:00Z")

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Hello. I recently have a question about the population size variables in CPS. I found there exists three variables:

[MSACMSZ](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/MSACMSZ) (1986-2004), [MSAPMSZ](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/MSAPMSZ) (1995-2004), and [CBSASZ](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/CBSASZ) (2004-2016)

So none of these variables are available before year 1986. Is there any other variable related with population size before 1986?

Also is there any population density variable?

Thanks!

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