U.S. Census and American Community Survey microdata from 1850 to the present. Learn More about the IPUMS USA project
Current Population Survey microdata including basic monthly surveys and supplements from 1962 to the present. Learn More about the IPUMS CPS project
World's largest collection of census microdata covering over 100 countries, contemporary and historical. Learn More about the IPUMS International Project
Health survey data for Africa and Asia, including harmonized data collections for Visit the IPUMS DHS site and Visit the PMA site. Learn More about the IPUMS Global Health Projects
Tabular U.S. Census data and GIS boundary files from 1790 to the present. Learn More about the IPUMS NHGIS Project
Tabular and GIS data from population, housing, and agricultural censuses around the world. Learn More about the IPUMS IHGIS Project
Historical and contemporary time use data from 1930 to the present. Learn More about the IPUMS Time Use Projects
Historical and contemporary U.S. health survey data from Visit the IPUMS NHIS site (1963-present) and Visit the IPUMS MEPS site (1996-present). Learn More about the IPUMS Health Surveys Projects
Survey data on the science and engineering workforce in the U.S. from 1993 to the present. Learn More about the IPUMS Higher Ed Project
As part of the IPUMS mission to democratize data, our user support team strives to answer your questions about the data. Over time, some questions are repeated. This blog post is an extension of an earlier series addressing frequently asked questions. Maybe you’ll learn something. Perhaps you’ll just find the information interesting. Regardless, we hope you enjoy it!
Here’s one of those questions:
How do I open IPUMS data in my stats package?
You have honed your research question and analytical approach, identified an IPUMS data collection that suits your needs, learned to navigate the IPUMS interface to create a custom data extract, and just received an email notification that your data file is ready to download. You put your favorite song on the stereo and open your data file in Stata (or whatever statistical software package makes your data analysis dreams come true), and…
record scratch! You see a “file not Stata format” error.