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MIGCOGRP5
County group of residence 5 years ago
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Description

MIGCOGRP5 identifies the county group where the respondent lived 5 years ago. 1980 county groups are (usually) contiguous areas of 100,000+ residents, consisting of single counties, groups of counties, or other census-designated "places," defined by the Census Bureau to meet confidentiality requirements.

For the most part, the same state-dependent codes were used for county group of current residence (in CNTYGP98) and county group of residence 5 years ago (in MIGCOGRP5). In six counties in Michigan (Genesee, Kalamazoo, Kent, Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne), there are discrepancies between the two. The differences arise because "county groups" are defined in terms of townships in CNTYGP98, but migration data were not coded to the township level in Michigan. For MIGCOGRP5, the original county groups are approximated in terms of designated places and the remainders of the affected counties outside of places. In some cases, the approximation is very close; at worst, county groups can be combined to achieve coincidence between areas for current and past residence (see Codes, below).

Responses to questions about migration in the 1980 census were coded for only half the persons included in the IPUMS. These cases provide accurate proportional distributions but not correct absolute numbers for the general population. For correct absolute numbers, users should select cases coded as 2 in MIGSAMP and multiply by 2 as well as by PERWT.