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CONSPUMA
Consistent PUMA, 1980-1990-2000
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Description

CONSPUMA identifies the most detailed areas that can be consistently delineated from the geographic codes available in PUMS files for 1980 through 2011.

In the source 1980 PUMS, the lowest-level geographic codes are for county groups (CNTYGP98), and in later PUMS, the lowest-level codes are for Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMA). The definitions of these areas change between censuses. Each CONSPUMA code corresponds to a distinct set of 1980 county groups and 1990 and 2000 PUMAs that collectively cover a consistent geographic area across time.

To construct CONSPUMA, we visually inspected PUMA and county group boundaries within a geographic information system. We identified where boundaries were coincident, or nearly coincident, across time, and, aiming to aggregate the smallest possible number of units and retain the highest possible level of geographic detail, we split the nation into 543 areas that can be consistently identified across samples.

Because all county groups and PUMAs nest within state boundaries, CONSPUMA units also nest within states. There is, however, substantial variation in how much aggregation is required to produce consistent areas within states, so CONSPUMA units vary greatly in size and population.

See the CONSPUMA Geographic Tools page for boundary files and detailed composition tables.

A separate variable, CPUMA0010, identifies sets of 2000 and 2010 PUMAs that comprise comparable populations for samples from 2000 forward.