PLACEFIPS

PLACEFIPS is a five-digit numeric variable that identifies the central/principal city of residence for households located within a metropolitan area. INDIVIDCC must be used along with METFIPS to uniquely identify cities. In some cases, COUNTY or STATEFIP must also be used to uniquely identify cities.

For detailed information about PLACEFIPS codes and their associated place labels, METFIPS codes, INDIVIDCC codes, STATEFIP codes, and COUNTY codes, see the PLACEFIPS Crosswalks file and the following pages:

• For samples from October 1985 through May 1995, the PLACECENSUS variable should be used (see the PLACECENSUS codes page for detailed information).

• From June through August 1995, no METFIPS or INDIVIDCC codes were reported in CPS samples, so no PLACEFIPS or PLACECENSUS codes are available.

• For samples from September 1995 through April 2004, PLACEFIPS codes are based on the 1993 OMB delineation.

• For samples from May 2004 through April 2014, PLACEFIPS codes are based on the 2003 OMB delineation.

• For samples from May 2014 through April 2025, PLACEFIPS codes are based on the 2013 OMB delineation. There are some variations in codes among these samples, outlined in the following tables:

• May 2014 through June 2015 samples use the 2013 OMB delineation, 2014 version

• July 2015 through February 2016 samples use the 2013 OMB delineation, 2015 version

• March 2016 through April 2025 samples use the 2013 OMB delineation, 2016 version

• For samples from May 2025 onward, PLACEFIPS codes are based on the 2023 OMB delineation.

• Note: 2013 and 2023 OMB delineations of PLACEFIPS codes are identical according to the data.

Description

For households that reside in a central/principal city of a metropolitan area, PLACEFIPS gives the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Series) code for the central/principal city of residence. In the official metropolitan area definitions produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), every metropolitan area contains one or more "central cities" (in pre-2003 definitions) or "principal cities" (in definitions since 2003). The central/principal cities include the largest city in each metropolitan area by population along with certain other large cities that meet requirements stipulated by the OMB protocols in use at the time. Not all central/principal cities are identified.

While INDIVIDCC also identifies the central/principal city of residence, PLACEFIPS adds a FIPS coding scheme to support linking central/principal city-level data to CPS respondents. FIPS codes were developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the 1980s and have been used by the Census Bureau for decennial censuses since 1990 and in many other datasets published by the United States government (e.g., American Community Survey). FIPS codes are assigned to each place in alphabetical order within a state.

PLACEFIPS codes are state-dependent; they must be combined with state codes (see STATEFIP and STATECENSUS) to uniquely identify cities located in different states. To determine which metropolitan area the PLACEFIPS unit is located within, users should inspect the METAREA code associated with a specific PLACEFIPS code.

The CPS typically updates its list of identified metropolitan areas and central/principal cities once per decade, usually following OMB's release of metropolitan areas based on the prior decennial census. PLACEFIPS codes are available for CPS samples from September 1995 to the present. The IPUMS team examined PLACEFIPS codes based on METFIPS, INDIVIDCC, COUNTY, and STATEFIP and determined that the documentation about individual city assignments provided by the BLS is inconsistent with the data in many cases. PLACEFIPS codes for this variable are more accurately represented by the data, not the documentation. See the codes tab for more information about PLACEFIPS codes by OMB delineation.

Comparability

This variable is comparable across years, but city boundaries change over time. IPUMS does not impose a uniform city boundary on the data, so the central/principal city listed in a given sample should be assumed to have the boundaries it had in that year.

PLACEFIPS codes are based on OMB delineations that are updated every 10 years, with some variation in between. For lists of PLACEFIPS codes with labels by OMB delineation, see the codes tab.

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Unharmonized Variables