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== | ===Census errors== | ||
[http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/can-you-trust-census-data/ Can you trust Census data?]<br> | |||
Freakonomics blog, New York Times, 2 February 2010<br> | |||
Justin Wolfers | |||
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704533204575047241321811712.htmlCensus Bureau obscured personal data—Too well, some say]<br> | |||
Numbers Guy blog, Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2010<br> | |||
Carl Bialik | |||
These stories describe problems with the Census Bureau' [http://usa.ipums.org/usa/ IPUMS] (Integrated Public Use Mircodata Series) data, which provides subsamples of Census data to outside researchers. In order to protect the privacy of citizens, the records are altered slightly. For example, incomes may be rounded and ages may be tweaked by a small amount. Ideally this would make it impossible to identify any particular individual, while at the same time not introducing any important distortion in the overall demographic profile. | |||
[ | |||
Unfortunately, it appears that serious distortions have resulted. | |||
Submitted by Bill Peterson | |||
Revision as of 01:29, 26 February 2010
=Census errors
Can you trust Census data?
Freakonomics blog, New York Times, 2 February 2010
Justin Wolfers
Bureau obscured personal data—Too well, some say
Numbers Guy blog, Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2010
Carl Bialik
These stories describe problems with the Census Bureau' IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Mircodata Series) data, which provides subsamples of Census data to outside researchers. In order to protect the privacy of citizens, the records are altered slightly. For example, incomes may be rounded and ages may be tweaked by a small amount. Ideally this would make it impossible to identify any particular individual, while at the same time not introducing any important distortion in the overall demographic profile.
Unfortunately, it appears that serious distortions have resulted.
Submitted by Bill Peterson