MEMO #7 Geographic Coding of Selected Addresses for 1957-1977 WLS Follow- up Studies We decided to use the MEDList (Master Enumeration District List) geographic coding scheme as prepared for the 1970 Census. This list provides codes for states, counties and places corresponding to the geographic identification codes used on the census summary tapes; these codes can be found in the GEOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION CODE SCHEME, PHC(R)-3. The advantage of this coding scheme is that it provides direct access to the data contained on any of the six 1970 Census summary tapes. The summary takes certain population data (e.g. age, sex, marital status, income, occupation, etc.) and housing data (e.g., telephone availability, housing value, number of units per structure, etc.) by geographic area. See 1970 CENSUS USER'S GUIDE, Part 1, pp. 38-47 for more detailed descriptions of either the coding scheme or the summary tapes. The goal was to code the following addresses for all respondents in the one-third sample: 1. respondent's home address, 1957; 2. respondent's mailing address, 1964; 3. respondent's home address, 1970; 4. respondent's home address, 1975. Other available addresses which we decided not to code were: 5. respondent's parents' residence, 1964; 6. respondent's high school, where enrolled spring 1957; 7. college or university attended (if attended less than one year); 8. college or university attended (where earned highest degree); 9. college or university attended (where completed additional years of schooling); 10. college or university attended (where earned bachelor's degree); 11. current place of employment or last place worked if employed; 12. high school of selected sib; 13. residence of sib, 1975 (already coded). Coding addresses for the WLS data began on Tuesday, October 25, 1977. The following addresses have codes: l) GEOG57- CAUTION--This variable reflects the location of R's high school, where R was enrolled in spring, 1957. This may be problematic if the location of R's high school and his/her 1957 residence were not the same. It is coded according to l970 Census codes (GICS). 2) GEOG64--This variable was coded from the 1975 cover sheet and reflects R's 1964 mailing address. It was coded according to the 1970 Geographic Identification Code Scheme (GICS). This may be problematic since over time (between 1964 and 1970) annexation may have occurred. 3) GEOG70--Respondent's home address in March 1970 did not need to be recoded since it was coded by WSRL if it was different from R's 1975 address. There was a slight problem in WSRL's coding, however. Instructions to WSRL were as follows. A. Most state, county, and place codes were taken from U.S. Bureau of the Census Publication,Census of Population and Housing: 1970; Final Report PHC(R)-3; Geographic Identification Code Scheme Northeast, North Central, South, and West (April,1972) (GICS). B. If a code could not be found in the above publication (foreign places and place codes for locations in the United States that are not assigned place codes by the Census, that is, locations with less than 5,000 population if in an urbanized area, or less than 1,000 population if not in an urbanized area) the codes for state (or continent), county (or country),and city was checked with MEDList (Master Enumeration District List) which is a hierarchial code list of each state, county and place. 4) GEOG75--Respondent's home address at date of interview was coded from the 1975 cover sheet. Coding operations for GEOG64 and GEOG75 proceeded as follows: 1) Codes eventually were obtained for all 10,317 individuals. Four work study students coded 1975 respondents from 1975 cover sheets stored in 8102C. The rest (N=1179) involved pulling contact records. 2) A 5% reliability check was built into the coding operations. 3) Codes were obtained from the Geographic Identification Code Scheme,PHC(R)-3 (April, 1972). Coding was done for state, county, place and MCD (minor civil division). 4) If there was no place code listed, code 0000 for place. Look up the county on a map. 5) WHERE R LIVED at the time of the 1975 survey was coded for the 1975 address. 6) If it was necessary to recode 1970 addresses, this was accomplished by pulling the 1975 questionnaire. 7) Foreign address were coded from the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Finance publication, Geographic Location Codes (September,1969). This gave us continent, country, and city. 8) If there was no known 1964 or 1975 address, 0's were coded in state, county, MCD and place. 9) If a city falls in two counties, the 1970 Census of Population was referred to and we coded the county which has the larger population for that city. 10) When the only address is an APO or FPO, the correct codes were:00 995 995 9995. If you know where the respondent was stationed (e.g.,England or Ft. Hood, Texas), the appropriate codes for that location were used rather than 00 995 995 9995. 11) Cities having multiple counties or MCD's were allocated to the code which had the largest population according to the 1970 Census of Population, Table 10. 12) References to help locate small towns (those without place coded were most often problematic): A. Rand McNally Road Atlas of the United States B. The Atlas of Wisconsin - General Maps and Gazetteer, The University of Wisconsin Press. C. Detailed street maps of Milwaukee (to distinguish suburbs) D. U.S. Postal Service, National Zip Code Directory '75-'76 Once a small town is located, it can be found on the large maps of 1970 Census County Divisions by state and coded. 13) All keypunching was verified.