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PSLmodels / scf

Extract US Survey of Consumer Finances microdata
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Add function to calculate number of people in each household record #5

Open MaxGhenis opened 3 years ago

MaxGhenis commented 3 years ago

This can't be calculated from the summary dataset only, since it lacks a column for adult dependents: it only has the presence of a spouse and number of kids. The current number of people accounted for in the data in the 2019 dataset is 293 million, vs 328 million total US population.

This will therefore require merging to the raw SCF, which contains more information on number of adults (https://www.federalreserve.gov/apps/scfcb/detail/2974/5928/adults). The full microdata is at https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/files/scf2019s.zip (linked from https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm), which can be merged on CASEID.

Thanks @ngpsu22 for identifying the issue and pointing to the potential solution.

MaxGhenis commented 3 years ago

Adding an extra person to the household for each of the cases of (a) another relative being present during the survey, and (b) another adult being present during the survey, produces a total population of 305 million (notebook).

@ngpsu22 will email the Fed to see if there's another way.