IPUMS International: A review and future prospects of a unique global statistical cooperation programme (original) (raw)
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Thanks to cooperative undertakings with national statistical agencies world-wide and to sustained funding by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health of the United States, over the next five years the University of Minnesota Population Center is extending the IPUMS-International project to 44 countries, including at least 7 Commonwealth nations. Presently, 28 anonymized, integrated census microdata samples for 8 countries, totaling more than 122 million unit records, are available at no cost to accredited researchers on a restricted-access basis from https://www.ipums.org/international. This paper briefly summarizes the confidentiality protocols, harmonization methodology, and uses of the database over the first 33 months of operation. Commonwealth producers and users of census microdata are invited to contribute to and benefit from this global initiative.
2010
In the last decade, a revolution has occurred in access to census microdata for social and behavioral research. More than 325 million person records (55 countries, 159 samples) representing two-thirds of the world’s population are now readily available to bona fide researchers from the IPUMS-International website: www.ipums.org/international hosted by the Minnesota Population Center. Confidentialized extracts are disseminated on a restricted access basis at no cost to bona fide researchers. Over the next five years, from the microdata already entrusted by National Statistical Office-owners, the database will encompass more than 80 percent of the world’s population (85 countries, ~100 additional datasets) with priority given to samples from the 2010 round of censuses. A profile of the most frequently used samples and variables is described from 64,248 requests for microdata extracts. The development of privacy protection standards by National Statistical Offices, international organizations and academic experts is fundamental to eliciting world-wide cooperation and, thus, to the success of the IPUMS initiative. This paper summarizes the legal, administrative and technical underpinnings of the project, including statistical disclosure controls, as well as the conclusions of a lengthy on-site review by the former Australian Statistician, Mr. Dennis Trewin.
Over the past decade a revolution has occurred in the dissemination and analysis of census microdata. This paper discusses the IPUMS-International initiative to liberate census data for researchers world-wide without cost. Academic researchers and policy makers may access as many as 238 anonymized samples representing 74 countries and totaling over one-half billion person records. The database expands with the addition of 20-30 samples each year. Data are downloadable as extracts from the project website. To facilitate good use, both metadata and microdata are integrated. The analysis of 450 citations in the project bibliography reveals patterns in publications by country and topic.
Integrated census microdata constitute a new resource for social science research and policy making. The IPUMS-International project (www.ipums.org/international) is a global initiative in cooperation with national statistical authorities world-wide to anonymize, integrate and disseminate samples of census microdata. Extracts adapted to the specific research needs of each user are distributed as ASCII text-files along with the corresponding metadata without charge via the Internet. Researchers analyze the data using their own software and hardware. This paper offers a brief over-view of the project and invites official statistical agencies in Africa to obtain additional information about participating in the IPUMS initiative by emailing the principal author of this paper. To illustrate one possible application for evidence-based policy making with respect to the Millennium Development Goals, microdata from the 1999 census of Kenya are used to measure progress toward the attainment of universal primary education and the elimination of gender inequities in access to primary education.
2006
A breakthrough in the tradeoff between privacy and data quality has been achieved for restricted access to population census microdata samples. The IPUMS-International website, as of June 2006, offers integrated microdata for 47 censuses, totaling more than 140 million person records, with 13 countries represented. Over the next four years, the global collaboratory led by the Minnesota Population Center, with major funding by the United States National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, will disseminate samples for more than 100 additional censuses. The statistical authorities of more than 50 countries have already entrusted microdata to the project under a uniform memorandum of understanding which permits researchers to obtain custom extracts without charge and to analyze the microdata using their own hardware and software. This paper describes the disclosure control methods used by the IPUMS initiative to protect privacy and to provide access to high precision census microdata samples.
The Census in global perspective and the coming microdata revolution
2002
On the two hundredth anniversary of the first census of Norway, Denmark, and Iceland it is important to recall the history of the census and of -what to many is a littleknown resource for population researchcensus microdata. The population census became universal only in the last half of the twentieth century. Now, anonymized census microdata is beginning to be recognized as a valuable new source for researchers and policy makers. From a review of practices in the United States and elsewhere, this paper argues that issues of statistical confidentiality and standards for the use of census microdata are rapidly being resolved and that a revolution in usage of these valuable data is already underway.
Interoperable and accessible census and survey data from IPUMS
Scientific Data
The first version of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) was released to users in 1993, and since that time IPUMS has come to stand for interoperable and accessible census and survey data. Initially created to harmonize U.S. census microdata over time, IPUMS now includes microdata from the U.S. and international censuses and from surveys on health, employment, and other topics. IPUMS also provides geo-spatial data, aggregate population data, and environmental data. IPUMS supports ten data products, each disseminating an integrated data collection with a set of tools that make complex data easy to find, access, and use. Key features are record-level integration to create interoperable datasets, user-friendly interfaces, and comprehensive metadata and documentation. The IPUMS philosophy aligns closely with the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and re-usability. IPUMS data have catalyzed knowledge generation across a wide range of social science and other disciplines, as evidenced by the large volume of publications and other products created by the vast IPUMS user community.
International Journal of Population Data Science
CIDACS' efforts towards an inclusive and dialogic data governance in Brazil: a focused literature review, 2024
The Centre for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health's (CIDACS) data governance efforts have primarily focused on legal, technical and operational procedures to provide high-quality linked administrative data for investigations on social determinants of health and the impact of social protection policies in low-income and vulnerable populations throughout Brazil. The Centre is moving towards an updated data governance model that incorporates the participation of, and consultation and dialogue with, data stakeholders, including groups covered by our linked data. To this end, this paper presents our procedures and challenges, outlining relevant considerations based on a focused literature review that aims to support the inclusion of societal participation in our revised data governance approach, which should be considered an ongoing process.