Hi, I am using the ACS 2015, 5 years est. I am trying to create a US map in Stata by PUMA level but wanted to draw the state lines. To do that I need puma and state shapefiles. I am using the PUMA shapefiles published by IPUMS, but the state boundaries I am getting from the census and they are not congruent with the PUMA shapefiles.
Do you have state shapefiles that I could use with your PUMA shapefiles?
I also tried to use the PUMA shapefiles from the census but the map I get is not good.
Thanks!
IPUMS USA’s PUMA shapefiles are based on IPUMS NHGIS shapefiles, which are in turn based on Census TIGER/Line Shapefiles. The link you provided to Census shapefiles goes to their “Cartographic Boundary Files”, which are a simplified version of the TIGER/Line files that do not align with the more detailed TIGER/Line Shapefiles or the NHGIS files.
At the bottom of the IPUMS USA Boundary Files page, you’ll find a link to IPUMS NHGIS and a summary of the many boundary files available through that site, which includes state-level files. The NHGIS versions will generally align correctly with the IPUMS USA PUMA files.