Record Linkage of the 1990 U.S. Census

Sophie Schafer, U.S. Census Bureau
John W. Sullivan, US Census Bureau
Katie Genadek, University of Colorado Boulder
Trent Alexander, University of Michigan

We describe the techniques used to create the new linked data file from the 1990 U.S. Census. Our processes are based on the Census Bureau’s Person Validation System (PVS). PVS works by linking records to a composite of already-held administrative records, in this case mainly from the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service. When a link is made, PVS assigns an anonymous persistent identifier known as a Protected Identification Key (PIK). Researchers can use PIKs to link individual records across a broad range of census data, survey data, and administrative records included in the Census Bureau’s linked data infrastructure. We provide an overview of PVS and describe steps we have taken to optimize PVS for use with the limited set of linkage variables available in the 1990 Census.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 203. Digitization and Linkage of the 1990 United States Census