ACS Data Users Group

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  • 1.  Calculating median earnings in PUMS

    Posted 02-17-2014 06:16 AM
    Does anyone know how to do this? I am looking at a specific subgroup, and I want to know the median earnings. I'm using WAGP (wages or salary income) and SEMP (self-employment income), but DataFerrett automatically calculates averages instead of medians, and I'm not sure how to sum these two variables to arrive at total earnings. Any help is appreciated!


  • 2.  RE: Calculating median earnings in PUMS

    Posted 02-17-2014 06:23 AM
    Update: There is a value for earnings (PERNP), but I don't know how to find the median using DataFerrett. Thanks.


  • 3.  RE: Calculating median earnings in PUMS

    Posted 02-18-2014 03:21 AM
    Do you have access to statistical software (R, SAS, Stata)? If you do, you would want to download the PUMS data the way you need them (ipums.org, in my opinion, provides the best customizable environment to do this: you can easily select just the variables, the samples and the geographies that you need), and estimate the median earnings using the survey commands in these packages. A few years ago I developed a Stata package for estimation of percentiles and their standard errors.


  • 4.  RE: Calculating median earnings in PUMS

    Posted 02-20-2014 07:49 AM
    Thanks! Yes, I will go through iPUMS.