COMPARABILITY MATRIX FOR MARITAL STATUS DATA:
| Topic | ACS | CPS | SIPP | Decennial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geography | County, places | Nation and regions | National estimates | Nations, states, and track level data for census 2000 |
| Timeliness | Released year after collection cycle | Released year after March collection | Once every panel from data collected in wave 2 marital history module | Usually produced 2 years after each census collection |
| Historical data | Marital status from 2000 and annual marriage and divorce data beginning in 2008 | Marital status from 1960-marital history every 5 years between 1971-1995 | Retrospective time series produced from each wave | Data shown for 1950-2000 No marital status data collected in 2010 census |
| Electronic Access | Ferret-file Tables-American Fact Finder |
Ferret-file Tables-home page |
Ferret-file Tables-none |
Ferret-file Tables-American Fact Finder |
| Public Use Files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Detail of tables | Race and geography by one way distribution | Most detail in CPS Characteristics of spouses and unmarried partners | Detail tables showing intervals between marriage and divorce--also shows basic marital distributions | Race and geography by one way distribution |
| Technical issues | Annual marriage and divorce estimates, times married and year of last marriage collected in addition to basic marital status item | Marital history data collected between 1971 and 1995 in June surveys. Basic marital status item collected in every month of the CPS | Data on marital history collected for men and women for up to three marriages in addition to basic marital status item | Only estimates of married couples and unmarried partners available from house-hold relationship item |
| Periodicity of data collection | Every year | Every year | Once every panel: 3-4 years | Once every 10 years |
| Standard errors available | Only for published tables | Can be computed by data user | Can be computed by data user | Can be computed by data user |
