Revisions Made to IPUMS-CPS

Below is a list of significant changes made to the IPUMS-CPS data, documentation, and extract system.

November 12, 2007.  Released a new data extract system with the Attach Variables feature.  This allows researchers to create variables specifying the characteristics of respondents' spouses, mothers, fathers, and household heads.  New online help for the Case Selection and Attach Variables features is also available via hyperlinks from the data extract system.

In addition, we have improved the look and functionality of our variable descriptions and codes pages.

October 24, 2007.  Posted new data for 2005, 2006, and 2007:

2005: In April 2007, the Census Bureau released a new 2005 data file, with revisions to the health insurance variables. The Census Bureau documents this in a User Note.  The new data are part of the current IPUMS-CPS release.

The most significant changes are to the following employment-based insurance variables: GROUPWHO1 and GROUPDEP (1.3% of cases modified); and GROUPTYP (.9% of cases modified).    Another group of health insurance variables (PHINSUR, PHIOWN, VERIFY, COVERGH, COVERPI, and EMCONTRB) had approximately .7% of their values changed.  The rest of the changes to the health insurance variables in 2005 amount to less than .5% of cases modified, except for PAIDGH and GROUPOUT, which were not changed at all. 

In addition, the Census Bureau modified the following variables (the percent of cases changed to the 'Not applicable' category appears in parentheses after each variable name): UNION (3.7%), EARNWEEK (3.7%), and HOURWAGE (35.3%).  Additional information on these changes will appear in a future revision note.

2006: In the initial 2006 CPS release, several variables were withheld until the release of official reports on alternative income and poverty measures.  These variables have since been released by the Census Bureau and are included in the current IPUMS-CPS release. Newly-released household variables are STAMPVAL, HOUSRET, and PROPTAX. Person variables are ADJGINC, CAPGAIN, CAPLOSS, DEPSTAT, EITCRED, EMCONTRB, FEDRETIR, FEDTAX, FEDTAXAC, FICA, FILESTAT, MARGTAX, PMVCAID, PMVCARE, STATETAX, STATAXAC, and TAXINC.

In addition, the latest release of the 2006 CPS includes revisions to the health insurance variables (see the Census Bureau's User Note).  The largest changes are to the following employment-based insurance variables: GROUPWHO1 and GROUPDEP (1.3% of cases modified); and GROUPTYP (1% of cases modified).  Another group of health insurance variables (PHINSUR, PHIOWN, VERIFY, COVERGH, and COVERPI) had approximately .7% of their values changed.  The rest of the changes to the health insurance variables in 2006 amount to less than .5% of cases modified, except for PAIDGH, GROUPOUT, CHAMPVA, and MOCAID, which were not changed at all.

The Census Bureau also modified the following variables (the percent of cases changed to the 'Not applicable' category appears in parentheses after each variable name): UNION (3.7%), EARNWEEK (3.7%), and HOURWAGE (35.3%).  Additional information on these changes will appear in a future revision note.

2007: For the 2007 March CPS, the Census Bureau dropped the Hurricane Katrina questions from the survey (IPUMS-CPS variables KATEVAC, KATEVAC2, and KATPRIOR) as well as the variable indicating country of previous residence (COUNTRY). All other variables for the 2007 CPS are the same as those available in the 2006 CPS, except for the non-cash benefits and after-tax variables mentioned above, which are again being withheld for several months.  These will be released in the IPUMS-CPS shortly after the Census Bureau releases them.

May 1, 2007. Posted new version of the 1994 sample: a correction was made to the MBPL variable.

February 2, 2007. Posted new versions of the 2005 and 2006 samples: a correction was made to the CUTOFF variable.

December 1, 2006.  Posted new data for 1963, 1966, and 1967. All weighting variables in these samples were adjusted by a constant. The samples now produce accurate population estimates. More information is available on the sample notes page.

October 19, 2006.  Posted new data for 2004, 2005, and 2006:

2004: In the initial March 2004 release, several variables were withheld until the release of official reports (see User Note #1 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPS downloads page). These variables have since been released by the Census Bureau and are included in the October 2006 IPUMS-CPS release. Newly-released household variables are STAMPVAL, HOUSRET, and PROPTAX. Person variables are ADJGINC, CAPGAIN, CAPLOSS, DEPSTAT, EITCRED, EMCONTRB, FEDRETIR, FEDTAX, FICA, FILESTAT, MARGTAX, PMVCAID, PMVCARE, STATETAX, and TAXINC.

In addition, the Census Bureau released alternative weight variables, which have been included in the IPUMS-CPS as HHWT04 and PERWT04 (see our CPS Weights note for more information).

2005: In August 2006, the Census Bureau released a new 2005 data file. The new dataset includes all variables listed above, plus FEDTAXAC and STATAXAC. In addition, changes were made to the weight variables and several health insurance variables. The Census Bureau documents this along with their March CPS downloads (Endnote 16). The IPUMS-CPS variables affected by these changes are HHWT, PERWT, PAIDGH, HIMCAID, HIMCARE, HICHAMP, PHINSUR, PHIOWN, CAID, CHAMPUS, CHAMPVA, MILITVA, GROUPOWN, GROUPDEP, PRIVOWN, PRIVDEP, GROUPTYP, PRIVTYP, GRPWHO1, GRPWHO2, PRIVWHO1, PRIVWHO2, SCHIP, VERIFY, GROUPOUT, PRIVOUT, OUT, COVERGH, COVERPI, KIDPRIV, and KIDCAID. The weight variables were recalculated for the entire sample. For PRIVTYP, about 25% of people who were coded 'Family plan' or 'Self only covered' in the previous version of the dataset are coded 'NIU' in the new data. Aside from the weights and PRIVTYP, the changes to any given variable affect less than 1 percent of person records in the 2005 CPS.

2006: For the 2006 March CPS, several migration questions were added to the survey in order to assess the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The new IPUMS-CPS Katrina variables are KATEVAC, KATEVAC2, and KATPRIOR. In addition, several new veteran variable were introduced. These variables expand the information collected on a veteran's period(s) of service. For more information, see the variable descriptions for the new veteran variables: VET1, VET2, VET3, VET4.