5-Yr PUMA Geography

Yes, in MDAT, for the 2022 5-year PUMS, you'll find PUMA information through two _variables_, not geographies. The PUMA10 variable identifies 2010 PUMA codes for respondents from 2018 through 2021. PUMA20 identifies 2020 PUMA codes for respondents from 2022. This two-variable system will most likely continue for 5-year PUMS until the 2026 release when, once again, the 5-year PUMS will use only one set of PUMA definitions for the entire 5-year period. (MDAT uses the same setup for the 2012 through 2015 5-year PUMS releases, which also used two sets of PUMA definitions.)

For IPUMS USA, we're working on providing PUMA codes for the 2022 5-year sample through a single "PUMA" variable (as we already do for the 2012 through 2015 5-year samples). We aim to release that update sometime in the next couple weeks. We have several other resources related to PUMAs and PUMA changes through our Geographic Tools & Resources page.

Hi Jonathan, 

I''m curious why the Census Bureau does not simply regeocode the 2018 to 2021 respondents into the 2020 PUMA boundaries? This way all respondents would be in the same geographies. This would take very little time and would make the dataset much easier to use. 

Thanks,
Charles

Geocorr (Glenn Rice) has cross-walks between various vintages of tracts and pumas.  Between decennial census' the tract boundaries may change as well as the PUMA boundaries.  Again Geocorr has cross walks between the "new 2020" boundaries (put into effect in 2022 for PUMAs).

https://mcdc.missouri.edu/applications/geocorr.html

For tracts or pumas or counties or any combination of geos and vintages, when the boundaries split another geography (such as 2019 tracts and 2022 tracts), geocorr gives an "allocation factor" based on the populations in the split geographies.  I think that geocorr disaggregates down to the block level and then regroups up to the higher geography to get the allocation factors.  I'm not sure how geocorr works when the block boundaries change between vintages. For example when a block is split between vintages.

Hope this helps.  I use R to download and analyze PUMS data (including the geocorr files).

The short answer is that I use a GIS to intersect the older geography boundaries with the current block boundaries.

All geographies within in a single vintage of Geocorr must use the same "atoms" (e.g. 2020 blocks for Geocorr 2022). In order to add an earlier vintage of geography (e.g. 2010-vintage PUMAs) to Geocorr 2022, I have to redefine it in terms of 2020 blocks.

This is tedious, as you might expect, so I do this only for geo types that I consider most useful to compare across decennial vintages.

Thank you very much David, I'll check this out. 

I'm still curious as to why the respondents in 2010 PUMAs are not geocoded to 2020 PUMAs in this latest file. 

Thank you very much David, I'll check this out. 

I'm still curious as to why the respondents in 2010 PUMAs are not geocoded to 2020 PUMAs in this latest file.