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The Person Identification Validation System (PVS): Applying the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications’ (CARRA) Record Linkage Software

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Working Paper Number CARRA WP 2014-01

Abstract

The Census Bureau’s Person Identification Validation System (PVS) assigns unique person identifiers to federal, commercial, census, and survey data to facilitate linkages across and within files. PVS uses probabilistic matching to assign a unique Census Bureau identifier for each person. The PVS matches incoming files to reference files created with data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) Numerical Identification file, and SSA data with addresses obtained from federal files. This paper describes the PVS methodology from editing input data to creating the final file.

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021
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