Hey! IPUMS users! Read this!

IPUMS Research Award! Call for Nominations!

The Minnesota Population Center is pleased to announce the second annual award competition for research using the MPC’s microdata collection. The 2009 IPUMS competition has been expanded to include separate awards for research using the USA and international databases. Papers or publications submitted should utilize one or more of the IPUMS datasets for studying social, economic, and/or demographic processes.

To be eligible for the USA awards, papers must make significant use of data from the IPUMS-USA (decennial census and/or American Community Survey data) or IPUMS-CPS (Current Population Survey data). To be eligible for the INTERNATIONAL awards, research must make substantive use of at least one non-USA sample in the IPUMS-International (census microdata from the US and other countries).

Prizes will be awarded for:
• Best published work, and
• Best work by a graduate student, published or unpublished.

To be considered for the graduate student competition, the paper’s lead or sole author must currently be a graduate student. The award consists of a $250 cash prize, a plaque, and a prominent announcement on the IPUMS websites. Winners may also be invited to the Minnesota Population Center—at MPC expense—to present their research.

Deadline for nomination or submission: December 15, 2009.

Submission procedure: Papers or publications should be submitted in electronic form to ipums@pop.umn.edu by December 15, 2009. All submissions should include the submitting author’s name, institution, and contact information. Please indicate whether the lead author is currently a graduate student. Work that is already published should have a publication date of 2008 or 2009. Unpublished work should have been written within the last two years. Publications may be in any language but an English-language version must be provided.
Notification: Winners will be notified in late February, 2010.

Do you like working outdoors and meeting new people?

Then I've got a job for you! The US Census Bureau is looking for temporary, part-time employees for the 2010 Census. They are especially interested in bilingual speakers. Check out their website for more information!

Be Counted!: New website for Census 2010

The Census Bureau has launched a pretty new website for Census 2010. My fave page is the interactive sample form. More information below. Check it out, spread the word, and be counted!

The Census Bureau is working hard to reach every person living in America to inform them and their communities about the importance of the 2010 Census. As part of this larger integrated communications effort, today we launched a new website,2010census.gov. A Spanish language site will launch in November.

This website is the platform on which we will build a national dialogue about how each person’s participation helps paint a new “Portrait of America.” Share this site with your family, friends and neighbors to spread the word about why the 2010 Census matters. The census is now in your hands.

Site features:

• In the marquee, hear real people from all walks of life and from communities across America express their questions about the Census and get the real answers.
• In the Whole Story, learn the truth behind census myths.
• In Top Questions, easily find answers to even more questions.
• “How It Works” explains the census and walks you through the 10 questions on the form that you will receive next spring.
• Information on key census dates is just a click away.
• The multimedia center (videos, photos and audio) shares with you peoples' stories about how the census is easy, safe, and important.

Why is the OECD your new BFF?

Because the publishing arm of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is the most savvy and user-oriented data publisher around (beyond of course my other BFF SimplyMap). What has the OECD done to deserve my love? The OECD Factbook 2009 is now available as an iPhone and iTouch app. That's right dataheads, you can take your economic indicators out on the road with you. Below is a screenshot of the Total Population for the 30 OECD countries and OECD cooperation countries (Brazil, Russia, etc).



While the bar charts aren't visually interesting, it is still pretty nifty to have major indicators from 30 countries at your fingertips (Potentially useful for my bar trivia addicts). I would love to see a more interactive version at some point (e.g., be able to choose specific countries to display and compare). Nevertheless, this e-reference book is a great start. Thanks OECD!

Visualize It! with the IMF Data Mapper

Need a visual display of the Gross Domestic Product for a few countries? IMF to the rescue! The IMF Data Mapper lets you visualize data from some of the IMF’s major sources, including World Economic Outlook, Balance of Payment Statistics, Government Finance Statistics, AFR Regional Economic Outlook, and Joint IMF-OECD Statistics. You can choose from around 80 different indicators, such as GDP, inflation rate or unemployment rate. You can display data for specific countries, regions, or analytical groups, such as the Euro area or emerging and developing economies.

The display includes a zoomable map of the world. If you hover over a particular country, you will see the indicator’s value for that country, and if you click on the map, the display will zoom in. It also provides a line and a bubble chart displaying data points over time. The data for selected indicators can be exported to an excel file or you can export the map and chart as picture files (in .png formats).

The help screen is limited, so you may need to play around with the options to get comfortable with it. Overall, it is a good free source for creating visual displays of international economic data. Take a look at the IMF Data Mapper.

Newest kid on the block: data.australia.gov.au

The Australian government is getting into the act of making public information datasets available online through data.australia.gov.au. The portal provides access to a variety of government datasets with most concentrated in environmental, community, geographic and transportation areas at the moment. My favorite is a shapefile of all Austrialian World Heritage properties! Many of the datasets have Creative Commons licenses, so feel free to have fun with them.

In fact, the Government 2.0 Taskforce is encouraging Australian users to enter the Mashup Australia Competition. Submit your mashups between October 7th and November 6th. The US version, Data.gov, should take a cue from the Australians and have a mashup competition!

Health insurance stats now in the American Community Survey's 2008 data

Want to know how many people don't have health insurance in Guilford County? Check it out...


The Census Bureau released 2008 American Community Survey data on September 22. You can access the data through American FactFinder or from the American Community Survey page. This release includes health insurance coverage data for areas with populations over 65,000. Of course the margins of error are a bit high (the constant problem with ACS), but it is still useful information!

If you have questions about using these sources, please feel free to contact Lynda.