Recovery of Restricted Decennial Census Microdata for Puerto Rico and Island Areas, 1970, 1980, 1990

John W. Sullivan, US Census Bureau
Gina A. Erickson, University of Minnesota
Todd K. Gardner, U.S. Census Bureau

Modern data production often must contend with challenges related to measuring the characteristics of varied groups and disseminating complex data. These challenges are present in the data collection and dissemination for Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The U.S. Constitution mandates that the Census Bureau conduct a census of the population every ten years. This includes enumerating the population of US territories (commonly referred to as Island Areas by the Census Bureau) and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been enumerated in each Decennial Census since 1910 with U.S. Territories and Commonwealths following in 1920 (Guam and American Samoa), 1940 (U.S. Virgin Islands) and 1970 (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). However, research-ready restricted use decennial microdata have not previously been produced for Puerto Rico and the Island Areas for 1970, 1980 and 1990. We discuss the process to produce these data and highlight differences between decennial data for Puerto Rico and the mainland U.S.

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 Presented in Session 193. Building and Interpreting Censuses III