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Error in the MV variable on ACS PUMS Files

Original Revised Date: January 22, 2015.

An error was discovered that affects the variable MV (When the householder moved into this house or apartment) in the ACS Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files for data years 2006 through 2013. This error only affected Group Quarters (GQ) records in the housing unit (HU) files, which are placeholder records. These placeholder GQ records are left blank ("") for all data variables except for the food stamp variables. However, in some cases, nonblank values of MV were copied erroneously to GQ records for data years 2006 through 2013.

The 2013 ACS 1-year PUMS and 2011-2013 ACS 3-year PUMS contained these errors when first released in 2014, but they were corrected in February 2015. The 2009-2013 ACS 5-year PUMS does not contain these errors. All PUMS HU files previous to 2013 that include GQ placeholder records have this error. Users may work around the errors by setting the MV variable to blank ("") on all records having TYPE equal to "2" (institutional group quarter) or "3" (noninstitutional group quarter). These errors do not affect HU records.

Page Last Revised - October 20, 2021
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