Description

HISPRULE reports why a person was coded as Spanish/Hispanic/Latino in the IPUMS variable HISPAN from 1850-1970. Hispanic origin was asked directly on the census forms from 1980 onward. In the earlier samples we inferred Hispanic origin from other variables. Users should note that race questions were not asked in the Puerto Rican censuses of 1970, 1980 and 1990. They were asked in the 1910 and 1920 Puerto Rican censuses, and in the 2000 Puerto Rican census and the PRCS. However, questions assessing Spanish/Hispanic origin were not asked in the Puerto Rican censuses prior to 2000.

The IPUMS established Hispanic origin in the pre-1980 samples according to eight basic rules. HISPRULE reports the number of the rule for each Hispanic person. If Hispanic origin could be assigned according to more than one rule, the lowest-numbered rule was applied. These rules are based the methods described in "Hispanics in the United States, 1850-1990: Estimates of Population Size and National Origin" by Brian Gratton and Myron Gutmann, in Historical Methods (2000) 33: 137-153. A future data release will apply these rules to the 1850-1930 samples.

The following codes are included in HISPRULE:

0 = Person is not Hispanic.

1 = Person was born in a Hispanic area (see BPL). This covers two possibilities. (1) The person was born in a Hispanic country. Hispanic countries are: Argentina, Bolivia, Canary Islands, Central America, Central America, n.s., Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, n.s., Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, South America, South America, n.s., Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela. General and detailed HISPAN codes reflect the country of birth. (2) The person was born in Arizona, California, New Mexico, or New Mexico Territory while the area was still under Spanish/Mexican jurisdiction (i.e., before July 1848). Country of origin was coded as Mexican in these cases.

2 = The person's father or mother was born in a Hispanic country (see FBPL and MBPL). In cases where FBPL and/or MBPL were not available and the person was living with his/her father or mother, IPUMS used POPLOC, MOMLOC, and BPL to impute FPBL and/or MBPL. Although FBPL and MBPL are available for sample-line respondents in 1940 and 1950, this rule was not applied in 1940 and 1950 because of comparability issues. If both the father and the mother were Hispanic, the person received the country-of-origin code of his/her father.

3 = The person's grandparent was born in a Hispanic country. Grandparent birthplace was imputed only in cases where father's birthplace (FBPL) and mother's birthplace (MBPL) were asked in the census and the person was living with his/her father and/or mother. Although FBPL and MBPL are available for sample-line respondents in 1940 and 1950, this rule was not applied in 1940 and 1950 because of comparability issues. If multiple grandparents were Hispanic, the person received the country-of-origin code of the Hispanic grandparent first on the following list: father's father, father's mother, mother's father, mother's mother.

4 = The person's spouse is Hispanic because of rule 1, 2, or 3; see SPLOC. The country of origin was coded to match the spouse.

5 = The person is a relative (detailed RELATE is less than 1100 or IMPREL is less than 11) of a householder who is Hispanic because of rule 1, 2, 3, or 4. The country of origin was coded to match the householder.

6 = The person has a Spanish surname (see SPANNAME) and the person was born in the United States and his/her father was born in the United States (or has a missing value for birthplace) and his/her father's father was born in the United States (or has a missing value for birthplace). This rule only applies to males or females with no spouse in the household. For people who were allocated to Hispanic using rules 6-8, country of origin was assigned based on the predominating country of origin (if any) among Hispanics (as defined by rules 1-5) in that state in that year; see Gratton and Gutmann (2000) for specific states and years.

7 = A woman whose spouse qualifies as Hispanic through rule 6; see SPLOC and SPANNAME.

8 = The person is a relative (detailed RELATE is less than 1100 or IMPREL is less than 11) of a householder who is Hispanic because of rule 6 or 7.

Comparability

Because of variation in the information available for assigning Hispanic origin (e.g., Spanish surname codes, detail on relationship to household head, parental birthplace), there are differences across years. See HISPAN for further discussion of comparability.

Universe

Availability

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• 1970: All samples
• 1960: All samples
• 1950: 1%
• 1940: All samples
• 1930: All samples
• 1920: All samples
• 1910: All samples
• 1900: All samples
• 1880: All samples
• 1870: All samples
• 1860: All samples
• 1850: All samples

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Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.