Description

PUMATYPE is an unrecoded variable that reports the nature of the 1990 Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) where a household was enumerated. PUMAs are geographic areas of at least 100,000 residents, defined by the Census Bureau. In the 1990 Metro sample, a PUMA follows the boundaries of a central city (the largest city within a metropolitan area), a Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (a large population center and its environs, which is near and economically linked to another large city), or a non-metropolitan place. (See METAREA for detailed definitions of these concepts.) PUMATYPE identifies which of these geographic entities define the PUMA where a household in the 1990 Metro sample was located. If the population of one of these entities exceeded 200,000, the Census Bureau split the area into as many PUMAs of 100,000+ residents as possible. In PUMATYPE, "part" indicates that such a split took place, and the PUMA does not include the whole geographic entity. For example, "Central city part" means the PUMA constitutes only a portion of the central city, and one or more other PUMAs would be needed to identify the entire central city.

In the 1990 State sample, a PUMA follows the boundaries of a single county, a group of counties, a municipality (such as a town or city), or other census-defined "place." For this sample, too, PUMATYPE identifies which of these geographic entities defined the PUMA where a given household was located. In the 1990 State sample, also, the Census Bureau split up these entities when defining PUMAs, if the population of the entity exceeded 200,000. In PUMATYPE, "part" (e.g., "Place-part") indicates that such a split took place, and the PUMA does not include the whole geographic entity.

The information contained in PUMATYPE is used to create the related METRO variable, which distinguishes households outside metropolitan areas from households inside or outside the central city of a metropolitan area.

Users interested in identifying the specific PUMA where a household was located, rather than the PUMA's general character, should use the PUMA variable and consult the Maps and Composition documentation on 1990 PUMAs.

Comparability

PUMATYPE is only available for 1990. For the 2000 census, PUMATY00 provides information similar to the codes for the 1990 Metro sample in PUMATYPE.

Universe

Availability

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• 1990: 5% state; 1% metro; 1% unwt; 3% elderly
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Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.