# Underlying files for CPS Education Supplements (October)?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [March 18, 2018, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223 "2018-03-18T05:29:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bdz4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@bdz4](https://forum.ipums.org/u/bdz4)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/1 "2018-03-18T05:29:00Z")

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IPUMS has data from the CPS Education Supplements (October) back to 1976. I need to get the underlying files for these supplements, but NBER doesn’t have 1976, 1979 - 1983, or 1985 -1988.

Any idea where I can find these files?

thanks

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**Author:** ![Michelle\_Pratt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/michelle_pratt/32/194_2.png) [@Michelle\_Pratt](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Michelle_Pratt)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/2 "2018-03-19T15:01:00Z")

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You can access the education supplement data by creating an extract with [IPUMS CPS](https://cps.ipums.org/cps/) (you’ll first need to create an account). On the [samples page](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/samples), you will find the education supplement samples under “Supplement Topics”. Some videos to help get you started are available [here](https://cps.ipums.org/cps/tutorials.shtml).

Additionally, we have each year of the education supplement codebooks available [here](https://cps.ipums.org/cps/codebooks.shtml#ed_codebooks).

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**Author:** ![bdz4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@bdz4](https://forum.ipums.org/u/bdz4)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/3 "2018-03-19T21:04:00Z")

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Some of the variables I need are not in the IPUMS data set. That’s why I need the underlying files.

thanks

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**Author:** ![Michelle\_Pratt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/michelle_pratt/32/194_2.png) [@Michelle\_Pratt](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Michelle_Pratt)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/4 "2018-03-19T22:33:00Z")

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Unfortunately, I am unaware of additional sources for the data. You can try contacting the [Census Bureau](https://www.census.gov/about/contact-us.html) or the [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/cps/#data).

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**Author:** ![bdz4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@bdz4](https://forum.ipums.org/u/bdz4)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 10:39pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/5 "2018-03-19T22:39:00Z")

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Is there some else at IPUMS who might know where you got October Supplement data from? BLS and the Census only have CPS files back to 1994.

thanks

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**Author:** ![Michelle\_Pratt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/michelle_pratt/32/194_2.png) [@Michelle\_Pratt](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Michelle_Pratt)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/underlying-files-for-cps-education-supplements-october/2223/6 "2018-03-21T19:18:00Z")

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Would you mind sharing the variables that are of specific interest to you? You can either post them here, or email us at ipums@umn.edu. We may be able to make the variables you are interested in publicly available.