Race of the householder for PUMS data before 2021

I am working on a project that I need to determine number of owner/renter households by race and income using PUMS data. I noticed in 2021 HHLDRRAC1P (race of the householder variable) was added to the PUMS housing file. I need to work with 2019 PUMS data. I am not sure how to create a "householder race" variable using persons and housing files. Did anyone work with a task like this? 

Thank you

Hulya Arik

  • I think that the Householder is the SPORDER==1 person. You can then subset the PUMS file on SPORDER==1 and then I think all the person variables will apply to the Householder alone. To check that the subset file of SPORDER==1 works correctly match on SERIALNO to the Household file (if you use the FTP site)  You should have a 1:1 match. There will probably be some issue but give it a try. Note be careful to handle vacant households in the Household file.  You may have to do something special for group quarters records as well.

    Best,

    Dave Dorer

  • Thank you for the response.

    I actually ended up using "relshipp" variable and filtering only for 20. SPORDER could also worked, but when I checked I noticed that SPORDER == 1 is still including RELSHIPP == 37 and 38, which are individuals in group quarters. 

    Since I was using owner households with a mortgage, I did not have an issue with vacant units.

    Thank you

    Hulya