You are here
Home › Cohorts › NLSY97 › Topical Guide to the Data › Household, Geography & Contextual Variables ›Geographic Indicators

Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
Geographic Indicators
Created Variables
CV_URBAN-RURAL. Indicates whether respondent lives in an urban or rural area
CV_MSA. Indicates whether or not the respondent lives in a Metropolitan Statistical Area
CV_CENSUS_REGION. Provides Census region where the respondent resides (Northeast, North Central, South, or West)
CV_MIGRATE.XX. Describes moves made by the respondent within a county, within a state to a different county, between states, and to and from a foreign country. Available for rounds 2 and up.
CV_DISTANCE_MOM_COL and CV_DISTANCE_DAD_COL. Provide the distance in miles between the respondent's address and the reported address of the respondent's mother and father. Available for rounds 7 and up. Note: Addresses that were not full street addresses were given the longitude and latitude of the centroid of their zipcodes. Data quality variables (CV_DISTANCE_MOM_QUALITY, for example) were created to indicate whether or not the addresses were zip centroided.
CVC_TTL_RESIDENCES. Provides total number of different residences since age 12.
The geographic indicator variables are created to describe the respondent's area of residence. A software package that assigns latitude and longitude information to respondent addresses is used. Latitude and longitude are then used to link respondent addresses to standard geographic information such as state, county, and metropolitan statistical area. See the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement introduction for more information about the use of programs used to assign latitude and longitude.
Figure 1. Number of NLSY97 Respondents and States by Census Region
Census Division | # of Respondents | ||||||||||||||||
Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Rnd 6 | Rnd 7 | Rnd 8 | Rnd 9 | Rnd 10 | Rnd 11 | Rnd 12 | Rnd 13 | Rnd 14 | Rnd 15 | Rnd 16 | Rnd 17 | |
Region 1, Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont) |
1585 | 1451 | 1403 | 1391 | 1336 | 1333 | 1282 | 1219 | 1182 | 1187 | 1131 | 1162 | 1160 | 1157 | 1140 | 1079 | 1089 |
Region 2, North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) |
2050 | 1903 | 1835 | 1772 | 1734 | 1741 | 1727 | 1641 | 1600 | 1628 | 1581 | 1564 | 1576 | 1546 | 1515 | 1487 | 1440 |
Region 3, South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) |
3359 | 3160 | 3116 | 3074 | 3004 | 3032 | 3004 | 2927 | 2883 | 3002 | 2975 | 3019 | 3061 | 3035 | 3020 | 2913 | 2901 |
Region 4, West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming) |
1990 | 1846 | 1834 | 1808 | 1770 | 1736 | 1701 | 1676 | 1638 | 1698 | 1676 | 1688 | 1713 | 1684 | 1682 | 1594 | 1603 |
Reside abroad | -- | 22 | 18 | 14 | 17 | 27 | 23 | 38 | 35 | 39 | 47 | 51 | 49 | 54 | 66 | 65 | 68 |
Data missing | -- | 4 | 2 | 21 | 21 | 27 | 17 | 1 | -- | 5 | 8 | 6 | -- | 3 | -- | 3 | 2 |
Note: Table based on CV_CENSUS_REGION. |
In addition, variables were created in round 1 to describe the respondent's residence as of his or her 12th birthday; another counts the number of residences in which the respondent has lived from his or her 12th birthday until the survey date (all rounds). See Youth Residential History for more details on these variables.
Geocode CD. The NLSY97 Geocode CD provides a variety of statistics for the counties where respondents lived at each interview date. From rounds 1-5, most of these data are based on the 1994 edition of the U.S. Census Bureau's County and City Data Book (the most recent edition available). The first group of geocode variables lists basic demographic information for respondents' counties. These data include land area in square miles; population by race, age, and gender; and birth and death rates. Another variable reports the percent of persons in that county who lived in a different house and/or state in 1990 compared to their residence in 1985, providing information about migration rates for the respondent's area. Also included are the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes for state and county (see Attachment 100 of the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement).
Factors that might influence the respondent's education and employment outcomes are the focus of several other geocode variables. These provide the number of serious crimes, households with children, female householders with no spouse present, persons with high school or college degrees, and families below the poverty level. A pair of variables summarizes medical availability for each county, reporting the number of active nonfederal physicians and community hospital beds.
Geocode variables associated with economic and labor force issues include the size of the county's civilian labor force, the percent employed in various industries, and the percent of workers age 16 and older with jobs outside their county of residence. Income variables include per capita money income for the respondent's county, per capita personal income, and median family money income. County and City Data Book information is not included in the Geocode CD for rounds 6 and later. Information on obtaining the most recent County and City Data Book data is available at www.census.gov/statab/www/ccdb.html. The unemployment rates for the respondent's metropolitan areas or for the portions of the state not in an MSA (for non-MSA respondents) are calculated from other sources for all rounds.
Other geocode variables involve colleges attended by respondents. Survey staff use information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS) to provide users with a code identifying each college attended by the respondent and its location. These codes can be used to associate the NLSY97 respondent's college with various characteristics of the institution contained in the IPEDS database. More information is located in Attachment 102 of the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement.
In addition, to support research on respondent mobility, survey staff created series of geocode variables for the distance between respondent addresses at each interview round. The data do not provide a location for the respondent's residence; rather, these variables provide distances between the various places the respondent has lived. Staff also created indicators of the quality of the geographic data. More information is located in Attachment 103 of the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement.
Due to the detailed nature of the information found on the Geocode CD, use of this data set is restricted to those meeting confidentiality requirements. The Geocode CD is released only to those who satisfactorily complete the Bureau of Labor Statistics geocode agreement procedure. The application for this geocode agreement is now available online at www.bls.gov/nls/geocodeapp.htm. Researchers interested in the geocode data can view a complete set of codebook pages in Attachment 104 of the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement. These codebook pages show frequency distributions and answer categories for the restricted-use geocode variables and may help users to determine whether the NLSY97 geocode data and sample sizes will be appropriate for their research interests.
Comparison to Other NLS Surveys: Data on the respondent's area of residence are available for all cohorts. For the NLSY79, information on the respondent's region of residence and geographic mobility is available to all users on the main public data file; more detailed information (e.g., state and county of residence) is available on the restricted-use Geocode CD. Data on NLSY79 Children are available through the mother's record. Region of residence and geographic mobility of Original Cohort respondents are provided for most survey years. For more complete information, refer to the appropriate cohort's User's Guide.
Main Area of Interest | Geographic Indicators |
Cohorts
- NLSY97
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Get Data
- NLSY79
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Asterisk Tables
- Education
- Employment
- Employment: An Introduction
- Work Experience
- Jobs & Employers
- Class of Worker
- Discrimination
- Fringe Benefits
- Industries
- Job Characteristics Index
- Job Satisfaction
- Job Search
- Labor Force Status
- Military
- Occupations
- Time & Tenure with Employers
- Wages
- Work History Data
- Employer History Roster
- Business Ownership
- Retirement
- Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
- Family Background
- Marital History, Childcare & Fertility
- Income
- Health
- Attitudes
- Crime & Substance Use
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- NLSY79 Attachment 3: Industrial and Occupational Classification Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 4: Fields of Study in College
- NLSY79 Attachment 5: Index of Labor Unions and Employee Associations
- NLSY79 Attachment 6: Other Kinds of Training Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 7: Other Certificate Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 8: Health Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 100: Geographic Regions
- NLSY79 Attachment 101: Country Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 102: Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
- NLSY79 Attachment 103: Religion Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 106: Profiles of American Youth (ASVAB Data/AFQT Scores)
- NLSY79 Appendix 1: Employment Status Recode Variables (1979-1998 and 2006)
- NLSY79 Appendix 2: Total Net Family Income Variable Creation (1979-2014)
- NLSY79 Appendix 3: Job Satisfaction Measures
- NLSY79 Appendix 4: Job Characteristics Index 1979-1982
- NLSY79 Appendix 5: Supplemental Fertility and Relationship Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 6: Urban-Rural and SMSA-Central City Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 7: Unemployment Rate
- NLSY79 Appendix 8: Highest Grade Completed & Enrollment Status Variable Creation
- NLSY79 Appendix 9: Linking Employers Through Survey Years
- NLSY79 Appendix 11: Round 12 (1990) Survey Administration Methods
- NLSY79 Appendix 12: Most Important Job Learning Activities (1993-94)
- NLSY79 Appendix 13: Intro to CAPI Questionnaires and Codebooks
- NLSY79 Appendix 14: Instrument Rosters
- NLSY79 Appendix 15: Recipiency Event Histories
- NLSY79 Appendix 16: 1994 Recall Experiment
- NLSY79 Appendix 17: Interviewer Characteristics Data
- NLSY79 Appendix 18: Work History Data
- NLSY79 Appendix 19: SF-12 Health Scale Scoring
- NLSY79 Appendix 20: Round 20 (2002) Early Bird and Income Recall Experiments
- NLSY79 Appendix 21: Attitudinal Scales
- NLSY79 Appendix 22: Migration Distance Variables for Respondent Locations
- NLSY79 Appendix 23: Revised Asset and Debt Variables and Computed TOTAL Net Wealth Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 24: Reanalysis of the 1980 AFQT Data from the NLSY79
- NLSY79 Appendix 25: Attitudinal Scale Scoring
- NLSY79 Appendix 26: Non-Response to Financial Questions and Entry Points
- NLSY79 Appendix 27: IRT Item Parameter Estimates, Scores and Standard Errors
- NLSY79 Appendix 28: NLSY79 Employer History Roster
- NLSY79 Appendix 29: Date of Interview Current Status Variables
- NLSY79/97 Cross-Cohort Data
- Geocode Codebook Supplement
- Appendix 7: Unemployment Rates
- Appendix 10: Geocode Documentation
- Attachment 100: Geographic Regions
- Attachment 101: Country Codes
- Attachment 102: State FIPS Codes
- Attachment 104, Part A: 1981 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part B: 1983 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part C: 1983 Consolidated MSAs and Associated Primary MSAs (CMSAs and PMSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part D: 1983 PMSAs and Associated CMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part E: 1988 MSAs, CMSAs, and Associated PMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part F: 2004 MSAs, CMSAs, and Associated PMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part G: 2006 Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs)
- Attachment 105: Addendum to FICE Codes
- Attachment 106: Codebook Pages for Geocode and Zipcode Variables
- Questionnaires
- Tutorials
- Errata
- Errata for 1979-2016 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2014 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2012 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2010 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2008 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2006 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2004 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2002 Data Release
- Errata for 1979-2000 Data Release
- Technical Sampling Report
- School & Transcript Surveys Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- Get Data
- Topical Guide to the Data
- NLSY79 Child/YA
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- Appendix A: HOME-SF Scales (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix B: Composition of the Temperament Scales (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix C: Motor & Social Development (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix D: Behavior Problems Index (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix D, Part 1: Composition of the BPI subscales
- Appendix D, Part 2a: BPI Anxious/Depressed Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2b: BPI Antisocial Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2c: BPI Dependent Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2d: BPI Headstrong Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2e: BPI Hyperactive Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2f: BPI Peer Conflicts/Withdrawn Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2g: BPI Full Scale
- Appendix D, Part 3a: BPI Internalizing Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 3b: BPI Externalizing Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 3c: BPI Total Scores
- Appendix E: Sample SPSSx Program for Merging NLSY79 Child/YA & Mother Files
- Appendix F: Sample SAS Program for Merging NLSY79 Child/YA & Mother Files
- Appendix G: NLSY79 Child Assessment Scores, Reference Numbers (2010-2014)
- Appendix H: Identification Codes in the Child and Young Adult Database
- Attachment 100: Codebook Pages for Young Adult Geocode Data
- Questionnaires
- Errata
- Errata for 2016 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2014 Child/Young Adult Release
- Data Addition: New Work and School Status Variables Created
- Errata for 2012 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2010 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2008 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2006 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2004 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2002 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2000 Child/Young Adult Release
- Research/Technical Reports
- Codebook Supplement
- Get Data
- NLS Mature and Young Women
- NLS Older and Young Men