1 Includes other characteristics not shown separately.
2 Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
3 For compostion of regions, see table 27.
4 Persons 18 years old and over.
5 Persons 15 to 69 years old.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P70-42 (revised after publication) and P70-45and unpublished data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html

*Overview of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

Purpose: To collect source and amount of income, labor force information, program participation and eligibility data, andgeneral demographic characteristics to measure the effectiveness of existing federal, state, and local programs; to estimatefuture costs and coverage for government programs, such as food stamps; and to provide improved statistics on thedistribution of income in the country.

Survey design and sample size: The survey design is a continuous series of national panels, with sample size ranging fromapproximately 14,000 to 36,700 interviewed households. The duration of each panel ranges from 2 1/2 years to 4 years. TheSIPP sample is a multistage-stratified sample of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. For the 1984-1993 panels,a new panel of households was introduced each year in February. A new 4-year 1996 panel was introduced in April 1996.

The SIPP content is built around a "core" of labor force, program participation, and income questions designed to measurethe economic situation of persons in the United States. These questions expand the data currently available on thedistribution of cash and noncash income and are repeated at each interviewing wave. The survey uses a 4-month recallperiod, with approximately the same number of interviews being conducted in each month of the 4-month period for eachwave. Interviews are conducted by personal visit and by decentralized telephone.

The survey has been designed also to provide a broader context for analysis by adding questions on a variety of topics notcovered in the core section. These questions are labelled "topical modules" and are assigned to particular interviewingwaves of the survey. Topics covered by the modules include personal history, child care, wealth, program eligibility, childsupport, disability, school enrollment, taxes, and annual income.

Type of respondent: All household members 15 years old and over are interviewed by self-response, if possible; proxyresponse is permitted when household members are not available for interviewing.

Sponsoring agency and legal authority: The Census Bureau sponsors the survey under the authority of Title 13, UnitedStates Code, Section 182.

Periodicity: A continuing survey with monthly interviewing.

Release of results: We release the data periodically in cross-sectional, topical module, and longitudinal reports. We alsorelease public use files containing the core data on income recipiency and program participation. These files are availablecurrently for all waves of the 1984 through 1993 panels and Wave 1 of the 1996 panel. Topical module files containing coreand topical module data also are available for these panels for 1984 through 1988 and 1990 through Wave 8 of the 1993panel. Longitudinal files are also available for the 1984-1993 panels as well as for Waves 1-5 of the 1990 panel and forWaves 1-7 of the 1992 panel.

Historical background: Considerable efforts and funding were invested in developmental work leading to the SIPP. TheIncome Survey Development Program, conducted between 1977 and 1981, developed survey data collection strategies andinstruments as well as data processing strategies for the SIPP. The survey was originally envisioned as a jointly fundedeffort by the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Work was well underway for aFebruary 1982 start of the survey when HHS had to withdraw its support due to funding problems. As a result, the surveywas postponed until the Census Bureau received adequate funding from Congress to conduct the survey. Interviewing for thefirst panel, the 1984 panel, began in October 1983 with a sample size of approximately 26,000 designated householdsselected from 174 current survey PSUs.

As part of our transition to the redesigned SIPP, the 1992 panel was extended to ten waves, and the 1993 panel wasextended to nine waves. We did not introduce new panels in 1994 and 1995. Before the redesigned SIPP questionnaire wasintroduced in the 1996 panel, a dress rehearsal was conducted between February 1995 and September 1995. The dressrehearsal consisted of a Wave 1 and a Wave 2 interview in approximately 9,000 households.

Current operations: The SIPP questionnaire was redesigned, and a new sample design was introduced starting with the1996 panel. The new 1996 panel consists of 36,700 sample units (households). Households will be interviewed 12 timesfrom April 1996 through March 2000. The 1996 panel SIPP interviews are conducted using a computer-assisted interviewon a laptop computer.

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