IPUMS-International: quality of sample micro data for 25 African censuses (13 countries) available to researchers free of cost

Robert McCaa, University of Minnesota
Lara Cleveland, University of Minnesota
Matthew Sobek, University of Minnesota

IPUMS-Intenational disseminates census microdata for 62 countries to researchers world-wide at no cost. This paper evaluates samples for 25 censuses encompassing 13 African countries: Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda. While researchers are ultimately responsible for determining that the quality of data is suitable for specific applications, the IPUMS-International team is developing guidelines to assist researchers in evaluating the basic quality of microdata samples. This paper will summarize methodologies for analyzing quality as well as preliminary results for each of the African samples currently available in the database.