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Getting at Counties in PUMS

Ani
over 6 years ago

I am measuring disconnected youth (ages 16-24 neither in school nor working) in each state and working with the ACS 1-year PUMS to generate these estimates by state by year. No problem there; I can match state-level estimates reported by Measure of America http://www.measureofamerica.org/DYinteractive/ But the goal is to generate county-level estimates. 

Now if I have read the documentation correctly, PUMAs are the smallest geography I can get at with the PUMS. This is probably why Measure of America relied on  "custom tabulations provided by special arrangement with the US Census Bureau" to generate their county estimates of disengaged youth.  

What would requesting custom tabulations such as this entail? I imagine there is a fee and a process to request such a tabulation. Has anyone had any experience with such requests and if yes, would be willing to share the essential steps? I suppose I am really looking for someone to tell me it can't be done without a hefty fee but do lie to me :)

thanks!!

Ani

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  • over 6 years ago
    Hi Ani, I recently recreated the Measure of America estimate for opportunity youth in the Austin MSA using the Puma areas. You could use the Missouri State Data Center's Mabel tool to identify which PUMAs fall into each county. Seems like a large undertaking for the nation, but I think it's possible without paying for custom tables.
  • over 6 years ago in reply to BAyres
    Thanks Stas and Brittain; I'll look into both options. I'll start with Mabel and run a request through our RDC

    Ani
  • over 6 years ago in reply to Ani
    Hi Ani,

    You won’t get far with the RDC request. County level tabulations are a no-no as the Census Administrator at your RDC will tell you.

    Counties with fewer than 100,000 residents are going to be combined with a neighboring county to form a PUMA in order to get to the 100,000 threshold. Can you live with PUMA’s that combine two or more smaller (less than 100,000 residents) counties?

    Best,
    Warren

    Warren A. Brown, PhD
    Senior Research Associate, Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research
    Director, Cornell Program on Applied Demographics
    Research Director, Cornell Federal Statistical Research Data Center
    E: wab4@cornell.edu
  • over 6 years ago in reply to Warren Brown
    Thanks Warren, that is useful to know! I imagined it would be difficult to get at county estimates and that expectation is borne out by both your and Stas' feedback. I I have to, then I'd rather stay with PUMAs and skip the county-level estimates altogether.

    Since Brittain's pointer re: Mabel I have pulled the PUMA to county crosswalk and am going to tinker with it in the next few days to try and generate pseudo-county estimates. There are a few kinks I know I have to work out with the weighting once the crosswalk is used. I'll wrestle with it and then likely have some questions for the group.

    Once more, thanks everyone for your invaluable feedback.

    Ani
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  • over 6 years ago in reply to Warren Brown
    Thanks Warren, that is useful to know! I imagined it would be difficult to get at county estimates and that expectation is borne out by both your and Stas' feedback. I I have to, then I'd rather stay with PUMAs and skip the county-level estimates altogether.

    Since Brittain's pointer re: Mabel I have pulled the PUMA to county crosswalk and am going to tinker with it in the next few days to try and generate pseudo-county estimates. There are a few kinks I know I have to work out with the weighting once the crosswalk is used. I'll wrestle with it and then likely have some questions for the group.

    Once more, thanks everyone for your invaluable feedback.

    Ani
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