MISH is a 1-digit numeric value.

Description

MISH indicates the number of times (from 1 to 8) occupants of a housing unit have been interviewed for the CPS. Household members are interviewed for four consecutive months, excluded for eight months, and then included for four more consecutive months. On first interview, a household has a value of 1 for MISH. Households returning to the sample after an 8-month hiatus have a value of 5, and those which have completed their last interview have a value of 8. Persons with codes of 4 or 8 in MISH are said to be in "outgoing rotation groups," because they will not be interviewed during the following month. For 1962-1967, the same information is given in ROTATE, a person-level variable.

IPUMS CPS has identified an error in the month-in-sample values in the original data in the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 CPS-ASEC files. Records in the Census Bureau CPS-ASEC PUMS files in these years have month-in-sample values that do not correspond to these record's values in the March basic file. IPUMS CPS corrects the March basic monthly respondent's month-in-sample values in the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 CPS-ASEC to match the March basic monthly file values. Month-in-sample values for ASEC oversample records are not adjusted. The fix is as follows:

Original month-in-sample of 1 become MISH of 5
Original month-in-sample of 2 become MISH of 6
Original month-in-sample of 3 become MISH of 7
Original month-in-sample of 4 become MISH of 8

Original month-in-sample of 5 become MISH of 1
Original month-in-sample of 6 become MISH of 2
Original month-in-sample of 7 become MISH of 3
Original month-in-sample of 8 become MISH of 4

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_MIS_A1
• UH_MIS_B1
• UH_ZMIS_A1