Baseline Microdata for Analysis of U.S. Demographic Change

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请寻求资金，以利用一个非凡的机会创建一个包含1850年美国所有居民的人口统计数据库。这个庞大的新数据库将填补美国人口数据基础设施的关键空白。1850年的数据收集将为美国在刻意控制生育和死亡率下降之前的生育率和死亡率研究提供基线。作为最早的国家微数据资源，该数据库也将成为研究移民、劳动力市场、财富分配、残疾、教育以及许多其他经济和人口问题的初步观察资料。包含整个1850年人口普查的数据库将为研究长期人口变化开辟一系列新的研究课题和方法方法，范围从最老的研究到多层次的分析。完整统计1850年的数据库是可行的，因为耶稣基督后期圣徒教会（LDS）在数据收集方面做出了非凡的努力。这项倡议涉及大约50,000名摩门教志愿者，他们投入了超过一百万小时，转录了2,300万1850年人口普查记录，描述了人口普查前一年的自由人口、奴隶和死亡人数。摩门教同意免费提供这些非凡的资源，以创建和传播一个数据库，用于科学研究和教育目的。该项目的第一个目标是扩充和清理1850年人口普查的原始记录，增加遗漏的变量并提高数据质量。第二个目标是将这些增强的转录转化为适合统计分析的数据，并将其与明尼苏达州人口中心传播的现有数据收集相结合。旧的人口普查数据并非纯粹具有历史意义；它们是基础社会研究和政策分析的重要工具。基于历史经验的模型和描述是过去变化理论和对未来预测的基础。这些数据为研究经济和人口进程提供了一个独特的实验室。这种实证基础对于检验社会经济理论是必不可少的。这个数据库与美国国立卫生研究院作为国家医学和行为研究的管理者的中心任务直接相关：新的数据将推进关于人口动态的本质和行为的基本知识。这一基本基础设施将促进有关人口增长和流动、生育率、死亡率和结婚率以及人口行为的经济和社会关联的与健康有关的研究。公共卫生相关性：基线微数据基础设施与NIH作为国家医学和行为研究的管理者的中心任务直接相关：新数据将推进关于人口动态的性质和行为的基本知识。这一基础设施将促进有关人口增长和流动、生育率、死亡率和结婚率以及人口行为的经济和社会关联的健康相关研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks funding to capitalize on an extraordinary opportunity to create a demographic database comprising all residents of the United States in 1850. This massive new database will fill a critical gap in American population data infrastructure. The 1850 data collection will provide a baseline for studies of fertility and mortality in the United States before the onset of deliberate fertility control and mortality decline. As the earliest national microdata resource, the database will also be the initial observation for studies of migration, labor markets, wealth distribution, disability, education, and a host of other economic and demographic issues. A database incorporating the entire 1850 census will open an array of new research topics and methodological approaches to the study of long-run demographic change, ranging from the study of the oldest-old to multi-level analysis. The complete-count 1850 database is feasible because of a remarkable data-collection effort by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). This initiative involved approximately 50,000 LDS volunteers who invested over one million hours to transcribe 23 million 1850 census records describing the free population, slaves, and deaths in the year prior to the census. The LDS has agreed to provide these remarkable resources free of charge to create and disseminate a database for scientific research and educational purposes. The first goal of the project is to augment and clean raw transcriptions of the 1850 censuses, adding omitted variables and improving data quality. The second goal is to transform these enhanced transcriptions into a data suitable for statistical analysis, and integrate them with the existing data collections disseminated by the Minnesota Population Center. Old census data are not of purely historical interest; they are essential tools for basic social research and policy analysis. Models and descriptions based on historical experience underlie both theories of past change and projections into the future. These data provide a unique laboratory for the study of economic and demographic processes. This kind of empirical foundation is essential for testing social and economic theory. This database is directly relevant to the central mission of the NIH as the steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation: the new data will advance fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of human population dynamics. This basic infrastructure will stimulate health-related research on population growth and movement, fertility, mortality, and nuptiality, as well as the economic and social correlates of demographic behavior. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The baseline microdata infrastructure is directly relevant to the central mission of the NIH as the steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation: the new data will advance fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of human population dynamics. This basic infrastructure will stimulate health- related research on population growth and movement, fertility, mortality, and nuptiality, as well as the economic and social correlates of demographic behavior.