U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

Two Demographic Surveys:
Current Population Survey
(CPS)
~
Survey of Income and Program Participation
(SIPP)

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

Current Population Survey – Some History

The 1930’s – The Great Depression – Record levels of unemployment….? How bad was it?
- Policy makers knew that it was bad, but had no data to base policy on.
- Trends: Was it getting better or worse, were the policies working?
By the early 1940’s, a Monthly National Labor Force Survey was initiated jointly with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau. This was the foundation for the CPS, still run jointly with the Census Bureau and BLS.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

Household addresses are sampled (not people). Each address is in sample for 8 rotations, and overlapping samples ensure consistent monthly national cross-sections of the non-institutional household population.
The ‘core’ information used to measure unemployment, poverty, and other labor force characteristics were supplemented in the late 1940s with additional topical questions. Some of the supplements occur yearly and some less often:
- February (biennially) – Supplements about displaced workers, job tenure, and occupational mobility
- March (yearly) – The annual demographic supplement used for the income and poverty reports as well as reports on demographic characteristics
- June (biennially) – A fertility supplement
- October (yearly) – The school enrollment supplement
- November (biennially) – A voting supplement

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

During the 1960’s the survey was expanded, both in content and in sample size.
The survey is now seen by many users as a social survey, but it’s real purpose remains the generation of monthly labor force data and economic indicators data.
Currently upwards of 70,000 households per month are surveyed – many recurring supplements and reports have been created on many topics. This is the only large nationally representative monthly data collection available from the Census Bureau.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

In 1984 the first ‘panel’ of the Survey of Income and Program Participation was developed and fielded. The SIPP was designed as a tool for measuring family and individual transitions into and out of assistance programs.
The data available could not answer the questions of the period – what are the federal transfer programs doing for a family? Are people/families chronic receivers or do they enter and exit programs? “Cross-sectional” data such as that from the CPS are not able to answer these questions about program dynamics. A new “Longitudinal” survey was developed.
This survey continues to be a significant source of data to aid in understanding the impact of welfare reform, labor market dynamics, program dynamics, and other aspects of family change.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

Households are sampled and the respondents in these households are interviewed at 4 month intervals (waves) for the life of the panel (3-4 years). At each interview detailed household, family and economic information is collected for the previous four months (reference period).
Current panels include responses from approximately 35,000 households, and are 3 year panels with 9 waves of data collection.
The SIPP ‘core’ information is used to measure poverty, program receipt, and other labor force and family characteristics. As in the CPS the core information in the SIPP is supplemented with Topical Modules.
- Child care -- Child well-being
- Returns to school -- Marriage history
- Fertility history -- Migration history
- Work history -- Taxes
- Child support -- Recipiency History
- Household Relationships -- Functional Limitations and Disability
- and more….

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

While the SIPP data is more complex due to the amount of data collected it provides much more detail, and the ability to measure change. The CPS, a cross-sectional survey (snapshot in time) can not reflect these dynamics.
- For example – If the poverty rate remained at 8 percent for two years…
  - The CPS would say that the rate was constant for those two years, giving cross-sectional characteristics about the population in poverty and those receiving assistance.
  - The SIPP could add that it was different people making up that 8 percent and that most of the population in poverty received aid in short spells, but a small group was receiving assistance for the entire period. Additionally, adding information about job spells, family changes, and changes in other household characteristics.
At this point the SIPP is the most detailed source of information about the family economy and dynamics, the only source for a detailed marital history for the population over 15, and one of the best sources for looking at family, labor force, and program dynamics.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

Data products:
- Many researchers in academics, the public sector, and private sector use the data files themselves to produce exactly the type of table or run the type of analysis that they need. There are support services for data users, like users groups, as well as additional documentation on the way data are coded and prepared.
Reports and Tables:
- The written products are usually intended to address a topical area such as Income and Poverty, Families and Living Arrangements, Child Support, etc, and to relate current information about these topics to a general audience and to assist in the dissemination of information.
- Tabular products are intended as reference material for the many audiences. The tables that are produced contain some of the most often needed tabulations and are made available to the public. Tabulations not presented in the detailed tables would require independent analysis of the data by the data users.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions

The detailed tables contain a lot of additional information often iterated by race, and showing more detailed characteristics.

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U Helping You Make Informed Decisions