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Identifying Rural Communities with 2012-2015 ACS PUMS data

shondelle
over 7 years ago

I am interested in performing a national rural analysis with 2012-2015 ACS PUMS data. The ACS PUMS documentation recommends using data from the Missouri Census Data Center (MCDC) <http://mcdc.missouri.edu/websas/geocorr14.html> to identify other geographies. The national level data downloaded from the MCDC includes state, county 2010, CBSA 2010, CBSA type, urban-rural portion. These data are then merged with 4 years of ACS data by state and puma.

Tabulations of rural areas, using CBSA type variable or the urban-rural portion, results in over 2 million missing observations. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I realize that the PUMA represents areas with populations of 100,000 or more people and a 1:1 match between PUMA:rural areas may be limited- I just didn't expect so much missing data.  

While, iPUMS is a great resource, I would like to work directly with ACS data from the Census Bureau. Do any of you have other recommendations for identifying rural areas with the ACS PUMS?

Regards,

Shondelle Frederick

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  • over 7 years ago
    What spatial scale are you interested in analyzing?
    The Economic Research Service at USDA provides urban-rural continuum codes by county. We (at PRB) often use those to do county-level analysis of urban/rural.

    As you noticed with the MCDC files, PUMAs cannot all be classified as urban or rural because some PUMAs contain elements of both. The reason you are finding missing observations is that MCDC does not code PUMAs that are ambiguous (i.e. not entirely urban nor entirely rural). That is one of the reasons we often work with the ERS county-level urban/rural classifications.
  • over 7 years ago in reply to Beth Jarosz
    Thank you Beth for responding to my inquiry. I am familiar with the ERS USDA resource. Can you provide an example of what is meant by 'spatial scale'. I am interested in performing an analysis of U.S. rural communities. Is that what you are asking regarding 'spatial scale'?
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  • over 7 years ago in reply to Beth Jarosz
    Thank you Beth for responding to my inquiry. I am familiar with the ERS USDA resource. Can you provide an example of what is meant by 'spatial scale'. I am interested in performing an analysis of U.S. rural communities. Is that what you are asking regarding 'spatial scale'?
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