Hi all! I have a lot of experience using ACS data through data.census.gov and have recently started trying to learn how to use microdata to answer some more detailed research questions. I can do basic tabulations through MDAT (e.g., finding the number of 3-year-olds who live in poverty) but am getting a little stumped at how to answer more detailed questions that have both household-level characteristics and person-level characteristics. (For example, how many households in X state have both an infant under age 1 AND a 3-year-old?). Is this type of question answerable through MDAT or through microdata in general? If so, are there resources you would recommend to build more sophisticated skills in using ACS microdata?
Thanks so much for any insights you can offer!
Sarah
This is answerable with microdata but I am finding MDAT very hard to manipulate with questions that have a mix of household level and person-level questions. I would suggest trying http://usa.ipums.org. First, they have their own calculators. Second, you can download the data and work with the microdata directly -- although that would require knowledge of a statistical package like R or Stata, and at least minimum understanding of how weighted survey estimates can be obtained in these packages.
Thank you, Stas!