Jingchen (Monika) Hu, Terrance Savitsky, and Matthew Williams

Microdata Dissemination and Data Synthesis

Statistical agencies collect respondent-level data from surveys and censuses, and make the collected information available to the public. To satisfy various user needs, the data release comes in many formats: respondent-level microdata, tabular data, and online applications (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau’s app gallery).

There are huge benefits to microdata dissemination, where respondent-level data files are made available online for downloading. Microdata contain rich information, which can satisfy many kinds of research needs from data users. For example, data tables can be constructed from microdata by tabulation. Moreover, in-depth statistical analysis, such as a regression analysis, can only be conducted when microdata are available. From the perspective of statistics and data science education, microdata are essential; indeed, many educators use publicly available data sets in their classrooms to teach important statistical techniques.

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