ACS Data Users Group

Hi,

Are income values in the ACS PUMS 5-Year data adjusted for inflation?

The PUMS 5-year data file contains an inflation adjustment variable (ADJHSG and ADJINC). Can someone confirm whether these values have been applied to the income variables (HINCP and FINCP) in the raw data?

Sorry for the basic question.

TIA

AB

I think that you just multiply ADJINC * FINCP to get constant dollars. As for which base year you come out with I'm not sure.

You might look in the 5-year PUMS codebook to get an idea of how this is done.

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/pums/data_dict/PUMS_Data_Dictionary_2018-2022.pdf

From the data dictionary it looks you just need to multiply by ADJINC. ADJINC varies based on which year the PUMS record came from (I think)

ADJINC
Character
7
Adjustment factor for income and earnings dollar amounts (6 implied
decimal places)
1184371 .2018 factor (1.013097 *
1.16905988)
1159866 .2019 factor (1.010145 *
1.14821714)
1140108 .2020 factor (1.006149 *
1.13314076)
1113261 .2021 factor (1.029928 *
1.08091182)
1042311 .2022 factor (1.042311 *
1.00000000)

extract:

FINCP Numeric
8
Family income (past 12 months, use ADJINC to adjust FINCP to constant
dollars)
bbbbbbbb
.N/A (GQ/vacant)
0
.No family income
-59999
.Loss of $59,999 or more
-59998..-1
.Loss of $1 to $59,998
1..99999999
.Total family income in dollars (Components

Adding to David's response, here is the information from the Census Bureau's technical documentation for the 2018-2022 5-year PUMS file:

Note on Income and Earnings Inflation Factor (ADJINC):

Divide ADJINC by 1,000,000 to obtain the inflation adjustment factor and multiply it to the PUMS variable value to adjust it to 2022 dollars. Variables requiring ADJINC on the Housing Unit file are FINCP and HINCP. Variables requiring ADJINC on the Person files are: INTP, OIP, PAP, PERNP, PINCP, RETP, SEMP, SSIP, SSP, and WAGP.

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/pums/2018_2022ACS_PUMS_User_Guide.pdf