Description

RENT reports the amount of the household's monthly contract rent payment. For vacant units (included beginning in 1970), RENT reports the amount for which landlord expected to rent the unit. This amount includes utilities, fuels, etc. only if they were included in the rent contract. Respondents were to report the full contract amount, even if payments were delinquent or made by someone outside the household. See also RENTGRS.

Amounts are expressed in contemporary dollars, and users studying change over time must adjust for inflation. See INCTOT for Consumer Price Index adjustment factors. The exception is the ACS/PRCS multi-year files, where all dollar amounts have been standardized to dollars as valued in the final year of data included in the file (e.g., 2007 dollars for the 2005-2007 3-year file). Additionally, more detail may be available than exists in the original ACS samples.

User Note: The traditional unit of land area in Puerto Rico is the cuerda. The cuerda is equal to about 3930 square meters, 4700 square yards, or 0.971 acres. Because the cuerda and the acre are so close in size, they are often treated informally as being equal. Mainlanders sometimes call the cuerda the "Spanish Acre." The IPUMS has preserved the units for the mainland U.S. as acres and for Puerto Rico as cuerdas.

RENT is a 4-digit numeric variable that reports the amount of the household's monthly contract rent payment. For vacant units (included beginning in 1970), RENT reports the amount for which landlord expected to rent the unit. This amount includes utilities, fuels, etc. only if they were included in the rent contract. Respondents were to report the full contract amount, even if payments were delinquent or made by someone outside the household. See also RENTGRS. RENT specific variable codes for missing, edited, or unidentified observations, observations not applicable (N/A), observations not in universe (NIU), top and bottom value coding, etc. are provided below by Census year (and data sample if specified).

User Note: Amounts are expressed in contemporary dollars, and users studying change over time must adjust for inflation (See Description). The exception is the ACS/PRCS multi-year files, where all dollar amounts have been standardized to dollars as valued in the final year of data included in the file (e.g., 2007 dollars for the 2005-2007 3-year file). Additionally, more detail may be available than exists in the original ACS samples.

RENT Specific Variable Codes
0000 = N/A
0001 = No cash rent (1980-1990)
9998 = Missing (1940)
9999 = No cash rent (1940)

* Higher amounts are expressed as the state means of values above the listed Top Code value for that specific Census year (i.e. For Census Year 2000, any observed value greater than the Top Code value of $1,700 was coded as the mean value greater than $1,700 within that observation's state.).

Values Exceeding Top codes, by State: 2000 - onward

Comparability

A similar variable, RENT30, is available in the 1930 sample. These variables will be integrated in the future.

RENT yields similar information for 1960 onward. The 1940 figures include non-cash rent payments (labor, goods, etc.) converted to a dollar amount, as described below. Top codes differ significantly across years.

In 1940, 1970, 2000, the ACS, and the PRCS, amounts were recorded in exact dollars. In 1960, 1980, and 1990, amounts were recorded in intervals, and the IPUMS codes these as the midpoints of intervals. For example, the 1960 interval "$1-19" is coded as 10; the 1990 interval "$250-274" is coded as 262; and so on. For the 2000 census, the ACS, and the PRCS, the Census Bureau rounded amounts under $1000 to the nearest ten; amounts over $1000 are rounded to the nearest hundred.

For 1940, in addition to reporting the monthly cash rent, enumerators were instructed to estimate the full cash rental value if the unit was paid for by work or some other non-cash payment. Enumerators were to use known rental values of proximate units or, if this was not possible, they were to assume that the monthly rent equaled 1 percent of the unit's estimated total value. For tenant farmers, only the monthly rental value of housing-not rented farmland-was to be recorded.

For 1960 on, "contract rent" includes only the dollar amount agreed upon between the lessor and lessee, other considerations notwithstanding. It includes rent only for the unit in question, not rent paid for additional units or business premises. Note that the universe for 1960 excludes many farms that the other years include, and includes non-farm, single-unit dwellings on 10+ acres that are excluded in 1970-1980.

Universe

Availability

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: ACS; ACS 3yr; ACS 5yr
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2004: All samples
• 2003: All samples
• 2002: All samples
• 2001: All samples
• 2000: All samples
• 1990: All samples
• 1980: All samples
• 1970: All samples
• 1960: All samples
• 1950: --
• 1940: All samples
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --
• 1900: --
• 1880: --
• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

• 2023: All samples
• 2022: All samples
• 2021: All samples
• 2020: All samples
• 2019: All samples
• 2018: All samples
• 2017: All samples
• 2016: All samples
• 2015: All samples
• 2014: All samples
• 2013: All samples
• 2012: All samples
• 2011: All samples
• 2010: PRCS; PRCS 3yr; PRCS 5yr
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
• 2000: All samples
• 1990: All samples
• 1980: All samples
• 1970: All samples
• 1930: --
• 1920: --
• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

RENT (Monthly contract rent)
ACS Years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
ACS editing procedure:
First, the Census converts all reported rents into a monthly rent. If the rent was reported for a week, the amount is multiplied by 4.33. If the rent amount was reported for a daily value, it is multiplied by 30.4. Rents reported for a quarter of a year are divided by 3.
Among units that are rented for cash (OWNERSHP), if the household income (HHINCOME) is greater than 1000, the reported rent is greater than 2200, and the reported rent is more than 70% of the reported income, the value of RENT will be allocated. The allocated value is the reported rent from another unit of the same type of building (UNITSSTR, which shows if a building is a mobile home, detached single family, or attached single family) and in the same geographic unit (it is not specified what level of geography is used). When this happens, the flag will show that the value is allocated (QRENT).
Among units that are rented for cash (OWNERSHP) or are vacant but rented or for rent (VACANCY), if the reported rent is more than $4000, is $0, or is "Blank, Don't Know, Refused, or Bad Value", the value of RENT will be allocated. The allocated value is the reported rent from another unit of the same type of building (UNITSSTR, which shows if a building is a mobile home, detached single family, or attached single family) and in the same geographic unit (it is not specified what level of geography is used). When this happens, the flag will show that the value is allocated (QRENT).
Among units that are owner-occupied unit (OWNERSHP) or vacant units that are not rented or for rent, if the reported rent (RENT) is not blank, it will be replaced with a "Not in universe."
Internal ACS variable : RNT