The 1880 United States Population Databasae

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

SES-9910961 Steven Ruggles This award provides funding to make available a new data source for social and economic research-information from the 1880 U.S. Census of Populations. The database covers the entire U.S. population and is an important resource for the study of the economic and social organization of late-nineteenth century American society. The late nineteenth century is a critical period in the study of fertility decline, urbanization, immigration, household composition, and occupational structure. The 1880 database includes a wealth of information on these topics that will be fully explored through the creation of this new microdata set. The microdata set will be an improvement over the extant 1880 IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata set) sample, allowing for the cross-tabulation of a wide range of topics that were not covered by census publications or incompletely tabulated, filling a gap in aggregate data series for counties and cities. More importantly, this availability of this data set opens up the potential for longitudinal and multi-level multivariate analyses. The database will be distributed via the "International Integrated Microdata Access System," an infrastructure project funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as through conventional data archives. To ensure long-term preservation, the database will be transferred to stable media and permanently archived in the new long-term digital storage facility of the University of Minnesota Library. In addition, the completed database and machine-readable documentation will be deposited in the Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives and Records Administration land the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social (ICPSR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.