Overview
The Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) is
the source of national and State-level statistics on food insecurity
used in USDA's annual
reports on household food security. The CPS is a monthly labor
force survey of about 50,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau
for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once each year, after answering
the labor force questions, the same households are asked a series
of questions (the Food Security Supplement) about food security, food
expenditures, and use of food and nutrition assistance programs. Food
security data have been collected by the CPS-FSS each year since 1995.
Data Files
Public-use household-level CPS-FSS data files are available
for each year, beginning in 1995. The DataFerrett
system at the U.S. Census Bureau may be used to download
data or to carry out tabulations on-line. Alternatively,
these data may be purchased from the U.S. Census Bureau
on CD-ROM by calling the Customer Service Center at (301)
763-4636. Four data sets that complement those available
from the Census Bureau are available here on the ERS website:
1) CPS 1995 Revised Food Security Status dataThis file
provides household food security scores and food security status
categories that are consistent with procedures and variable naming
conventions introduced in 1996. This includes the "common screen"
variables to facilitate comparisons of prevalence rates across years.
This file must be matched to the 1995 CPS Food Security Supplement
public-use data file.
2) CPS 1998 Children's and 30-day Food Security dataSubsequent
to the release of the April 1999 CPS-FSS public-use data file, USDA
developed two additional food security scales to describe aspects
of food security conditions in interviewed households not captured
by the 12-month household food security scale. This file provides
three food security variables (categorical, raw score, and scale
score) for each of these scales along with household identification
variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file
to the CPS-FSS April 1998 data file.
3) CPS 1999 Children's and 30-day Food Security dataSubsequent
to the release of the April 1999 CPS-FSS public-use data file, USDA
developed two additional food security scales to describe aspects
of food security conditions in interviewed households not captured
by the 12-month household food security scale. This file provides
three food security variables (categorical, raw score, and scale
score) for each of these scales along with household identification
variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file
to the CPS-FSS April 1999 data file.
4) CPS 2000 30-day Food Security dataSubsequent to
the release of the September 2000 CPS-FSS public-use data file,
USDA developed a revised 30-day CPS Food Security Scale. This file
provides three food security variables (categorical, raw score,
and scale score) for the 30-day scale along with household identification
variables to allow the user to match this supplementary data file
to the CPS-FSS September 2000 data file.
Note that all downloaded files, either from the Census Bureau or
the ERS website, are large raw data filesone record per interviewed
household or personnot tables of statistics. Knowledge of
the subject matter, survey methods, survey data format, and data
analysis is required to use the files. For statistical summaries
and technical reports that are based on these data, see the
recommended readings of the Food
Security in the United States Briefing Room. The technical documentation
and user notes section below will facilitate the appropriate use
of the data for each of the years.
Instructions
Technical documentation/user notes and questionnaires are available
for each file of the CPS-FSS. The notes and questionnaires are not
identical across years.
April 1995 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
September 1996 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
April 1997 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
August 1998 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
April 1999 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
September 2000 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
April 2001 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
December 2001 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes,
questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire
(doc)
December 2002 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
December 2003 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
December 2004 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
December 2005 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
December 2006 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
December 2007 CPS-FSS:
Technical notes, questionnaire (pdf), questionnaire (doc)
Media
Data files are available through the web-based DataFerrett
system of the U.S. Census Bureau, or on CD-ROM from
the U.S. Census Bureau in ASCII format. Files on the ERS
website are available as ASCII uncompressed or zipped.
Release Dates
Data are released approximately one year after the survey is completed (currently in early December) following quality assurance checks by the Census Bureau and ERS.
Related Resources
Information and links to other national surveys that collect food
security data can be found through the Food
Security in the United States data page.
|