Current Population Survey March 1995

User Notes 4/29/97

These notes cover the revised file released on CD-ROM by the Census in April 1997. There are several files on the CD, the major of which are:

Please refer to notes on page 6-12 of the original documentation about the health and migration data, and to User Note 7 page I-15 to put this into context.

1. The record size has changed from 744 to 756. New variables are in formerly padded fields or at the end of the record, so old formats will work.
   
2. The health variables issued with the last corrected file, as well as the new migration variables issued with this new file are now present in the machine-readable data dictionary file included on the CD.
   
3. Redesign of the Health Insurance items in 1995. Although the resulting data were recoded into categories compatible with 1994, the redesign makes the results non-comparable because the 1995 CPS was more accurate in identifying which dependents were covered by health insurance.
   
4. The 5 year migration data are now available in the person record columns 213-255 as well as 635-636. This is the only 5-year question that the CPS has had this decade, and it can be compared with the 1990 Census findings. Remember, though, that residents of institutions like dorms, barracks, and prisons are not included in the CPS.
   
5. The 1-year migration data have been included in this release in columns 744-754. Analysis of these data by the Census Bureau has shown them to be somewhat inconsistent in quality. Stick to the 5-year question if you want migration data.
   
6. Weights by race are off for 1994 and 1995 As an example of magnitude, the 1996 CPS documentation on page 5-6 shows what the race counts are before after Census changed the edit in July of 1995: Asians before changed edit—5.5 million; after the change—9.5 million. This error echos across the other race groups as well.
   
7. Compared with the 1994 CPS, more countries have been added to citizenship, immigration, nativity and parents' nativity questions. In the present release these variables are correct. There have been problems in previous releases. With this release, there is a new variable on country of previous residence, as opposed to country of birth.
   
8. There is a new subdirectory, DOCUMENT, that contains machine-readable versions of the codebook information beyond the data dictionary. Examples of useful items in this document directory are the occupation, industry, and country of origin codes.