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.

CONSPUMA is a 5-digit numeric variable identifying the most detailed geographic areas that can be consistently identified across samples from 1980 to 2011. Its values range in consecutive sequence from 1 to 543, and each code is unique for the entire U.S. Therefore, unlike PUMA and county group codes, CONSPUMA codes are not state-dependent.

CONSPUMA boundary files and detailed composition tables are available via the Geographic Tools page.

Comparability

IPUMS staff generated CONSPUMA codes by selecting sets of consistent county groups and PUMAs through visual inspection. We allowed for a small degree of mismatch along some boundaries in order to avoid over-aggregation and thereby maintain a high level of geographic detail. Although these boundary mismatches all appeared to be insignificant in size, it is possible that some mismatches involved a substantial population. If so, then for some CONSPUMA codes, some portion of the change in population characteristics across samples may be due to changes in the boundaries of the associated county groups and PUMAs.

Inconsistency in New Orleans area before/after Hurricane Katrina: Due to significant population losses in the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina, the Census merged 3 PUMAs (Louisiana 01801, 01802, and 01905) into 1 PUMA (77777) for the 2006 and later ACS samples.

For samples prior to 2006, PUMAs 01801 and 01802 are allocated to CONSPUMA 172 and PUMA 01905 is allocated to CONSPUMA 173. In 2006 and later samples, the combined PUMA 77777 is allocated wholly to CONSPUMA 172. In effect, the entire area of PUMA 01905 switches from one CONSPUMA to another between 2005 and 2006.

Any analysis that uses CONSPUMA and includes samples from before and after 2005-2006 should recode CONSPUMA codes 172 and 173 to a single code in order to achieve comparability.

Universe

Availability

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• 2011: All samples
• 2010: ACS; ACS 3yr; ACS 5yr
• 2009: All samples
• 2008: All samples
• 2007: All samples
• 2006: All samples
• 2005: All samples
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• 2000: 5%; 1% unwt
• 1990: 5% state; 1% unwt
• 1980: 5% state
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• 1990: --
• 1980: --
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• 1930: --
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• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.