Crosswalks from ‘County Groups’ to Counties
for the 1970 and 1980 U.S. Decennial Census Metro Samples
Updated: September 2021
DOWNLOAD CROSSWALKS
1970 Census county groups to 1970 counties: [csv] [dta]
1980 Census county groups (metro 1% sample) to 1970 counties: [csv] [dta]
Abstract: County of residence is not observed in the public-use 1970 and 1980 Decennial Census data, to preserve respondent confidentiality. Instead, the metro 1% samples delineate ‘county groups’ for each year. This prevents researchers from conducting research with the these Decennial Census data at the level of any time-consistent geographic unit smaller than commuting zones—and that is only possible using probabilistic crosswalks written by other researchers (Autor and Dorn, 2013). I provide and detail new population-based crosswalks which allow researchers to probabilistically distribute individuals to their counties-of-residence, enabling research with these data at the county level. To demonstrate the accuracy of the crosswalks, I compare the results to a variety of county-level data from the Census Bureau.