I just received this and I posting it for those following the PUMS issue. ====================== Subject: News on 2000 PUMS From: "Steve Ruggles" <ruggles(a)hist.umn.edu> Dear PUMS Users: I am happy to report success in our efforts to preserve needed detail in the 2000 PUMS. Over 1,000 of you voiced your concerns to the Census Bureau by completing the Task Force on the 2000 PUMS survey and over a hundred also directly contacted the Census Bureau Director and Principal Associate Director for Programs. The Census Bureau took our concerns seriously. In a report dated October 19, the Bureau has adopted all the principal recommendations of the Task Force. Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs) of 100,000 population will be identified in the 5% sample; in the 1% sample, however, PUMAs will have a minimum threshold of 400,000. As recommended in the Task Force report, subject categories with at least 10,000 persons nationally will be identified in the 5% sample; even greater detail, closely comparable to the 1990 PUMS, will be available in the 1% sample. In both the 5% and the 1% files, individual ages will be preserved through age 90. By taking these steps, the Census Bureau has confirmed its reputation for scientific integrity and resisted the pressure to compromise the PUMS files. While taking measured and responsible steps to ensure respondent confidentiality, the Bureau has also preserved the usefulness of the data for essential scientific and policy research applications. For full details, the complete report is available at http://www.ipums.org/~census2000/. Please note that some of the issues addressed in the memo--particularly regarding the race variables--are not yet finalized and may change in the upcoming weeks. My thanks to Barry Edmonston for a copy of the report, and to the Bureau for giving us permission to post it. Steve Ruggles Chair, Task Force on Census 2000 Steven Ruggles Minnesota Population Center http://www.pop.umn.edu 537 Heller, University of Minnesota 271 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 FAX: (612) 624-7096 PHONE: (612) 624-5818 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~