What's New - April 2002

Site of the Month: IRS Migration Data

In honor of the upcoming tax filing deadline, April's Site of the Month is the Internal Revenue Service's migration data.  Not only do the tax returns we fill out each year provide the basis for the single largest source of federal tax, they also provide a handy way to track the county-to-county and state-to-state migration of American households from one year to the next.  The IRS identifies the households with an address change from the previous year, and then totals migration to and from each county in the U.S. to every other county.

If you're used to using Census Bureau migration data that estimate the "net migration" into or out of a particular jurisdiction, the IRS migration data present a cornucopia of new information.  Not only can you see the gross flows of households into and out of any county (or state) in the U.S., you can also see where they move to and from.  

Getting and using the data isn't easy, or, for that matter free.  While our general policy at EconData.Net is to focus only on free, web-based data, in the spirit of April Fools, this site of the month actually requires you to get out your wallet and contact the IRS to order the data. We highly recommend the IRS migration data:  it's a rich, detailed source of data, unlike what you'll find anywhere else, and well worth the $10 per state for county-level information, and $5 per state-for-state information.  You can get all of the county-level information for the U.S. for any year from 1984 to 2000 for $200, or get all the state level information for all the years from 1989 to 2000 for  $500. For samples of IRS migration data, see:
    -counties (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/cntycnty.xls) 
    -states at (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/statstat.xls).   

Unfortunately you can't order IRS data through the web.  Instructions for ordering are available here:  
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/prodserv.pdf

New Links Added

For April, we offer a range of links on various aspects of education.  You can get everything  from detailed information about individual schools and school districts, to links to state education agencies, and data on variations in literacy levels among counties and cities.  We also have state-level data on career plans and the classification of every accredited university and college in the U.S.

Fast Forward, Inc.
School Statistics
Query-based access to profiles of 85,000 public schools in over 15,000 districts. Based primarily on Common Core of Data from National Center for Education Statistics.
http://www.bestplaces.net/html/schools.html

National Center for Education
State Education Agencies
Links to the web sites of the 50 state education agencies, each of which offers data.
http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ccseas.html

National Institute for Literacy
State of Literacy in America
Estimates of adult literacy proficiency at the state and local levels, based on algorithms using data from 1990 Census and 1992 Survey of Adult Literacy. Local areas include counties, Congressional districts, and cities with more that 5,000 adults.
http://www.nifl.gov/reders/reder.htm

National. Research Center for College and University Admissions
High School Student Academic and Career Preferences
Annual survey of high school juniors regarding academic and career plans, by state, 2000-latest year.
http://www.nrccua.org/hsrpt/nttl-rpt-intro.asp  

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Carnegie Classification of Institutes of Higher Education
The 2000 Carnegie Classification classifies all colleges and universities by the type and size of their degree-granting activities (doctoral, masters, baccalaureate, associate, specialized).
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/ 

Focus:  Science and Technology Education

Keeping with this month's education theme, we offer a set of links to sources of data on science and technology education.  The sources listed below offer a wide range of data on numbers of students and faculty by state, federal and private sector spending on research and development, numbers of various degrees awarded, and related information.  Data come from the National Science Foundation, and from compilations of other data prepared by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the University of Florida, and the American Electronics Association (AeA).

National Science Foundation
State Science and Engineering Profiles 1998-99
Data on science and engineering personnel, students and degrees; federal and industrial R&D obligations, academic R&D expenditures, and other technology indicators, by state. 
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf01317/start.htm

AAAS  Science and Engineering Indicators
The American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences R&D Budget and Policy Program has launched a series of state profiles on the impact of federal R&D on states.  You'll find this information at:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/rd/states.htm

The Center, University of Florida
American Research Universities
Annual data and rankings for over 600 U.S. research universities, including research expenditures, endowment assets, faculty awards, doctoral degrees awarded, and SAT scores.
http://thecenter.ufl.edu/index.html

American Electronics Association
CyberEducation
The AeA's new Cyber Education report ranks a number of state's according to a series of high tech-related education indicators.  While the full publication is available only for a fee, press releases for a number of state's lay out pertinent findings. You'll find individual data for 13 states on the AeA site:  Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
http://www.aeanet.org/publications/idmk_cyed2002_brochure.asp

Consider this Newsletter

While we're on the subject, if you are interested in science and technology issues at the state and local levels, particularly as they relate to economic development, you'll want to consider subscribing to the State Science and Technology Initiatives weekly newsletter.  This clearly-written and well organized newsletter provides a wealth of current information on state economies and economic development programs, as well as links to data of interest to those in science and technology.  The site also provides notice of relevant funding opportunities.  You can peruse their archives on-line, as well.
http://www.ssti.org/

Census Releases Voter Turnout Data

One indicator of social engagement and civic participation is voter turnout.  The Census Bureau has just released its estimates of voter turnout for the November 2000 election.  Data are available by age, by sex, race, and Hispanic origin by states.  There are comparative data for the 1996 and 1998 elections as well.  
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting/p20-542.html