Census of Population and Housing, 1990: Modified Age/Race, Sex and Hispanic Origin (MARS) File (STF-S-4), Middle Atlantic Region

<p>The MARS file contains modified race and age data based on the 1990 Census. Both race and age are tabulated by sex and Hispanic origin for several layers of geography. The race data were modified to make reporting categories comparable to those used by state and local agencies. The 1990 Census included 9,804,847 persons who checked the "other race" category and were therefore not included in one of the 15 racial categories listed on the Census form. "Other race" is usually not an acceptable reporting category for state and local agencies. Therefore, the Census Bureau assigned each "other race" person to the specified race reported by another person geographically close with an identical response to the Hispanic-origin question. Hispanic origin was taken into account because over 95 percent of the "other race" persons were of Hispanic origin. (Hispanic-origin persons may be of any race.) The assignment of race to Hispanic-origin persons did not affect the Hispanic-origin category that they checked (i.e, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc.). Age data were modified because respondents tended to report age as of the date they completed the 1990 questionnaire, instead of age as of the April 1, 1990 Census date. In addition, there may have been a tendency for respondents to round up their age if they were close to having a birthday. Age data for individuals in households were modified by adjusting the reported birth-year data by race and sex for each of the 1990 Census's 449 district offices to correspond with the national level quarterly distribution of births available from the National Center for Health Statistics. The data for persons in group quarters were adjusted similarly, but on a state basis. The age adjustment affects approximately 100 million people. In this file their adjusted age is one year different from that reported in the 1990 Census. STF-S4 contains data for all States and their places of 2,500 or more persons. (Source: ICPSR, retrieved 06/15/2011)</p>

本MARS文件包含基于1990年美国人口普查（1990 Census）修正后的种族与年龄数据。种族与年龄数据均按性别、西班牙裔血统（Hispanic origin）以及多层级地理分区进行制表统计。种族数据已完成修正，使其分类标准与州及地方机构所采用的报告分类保持一致。1990年人口普查共有9,804,847名受访者勾选了“其他种族”分类，因此未被纳入普查表格所列的15个标准种族分类之中。州及地方机构通常不接受“其他种族”作为有效报告分类，因此美国人口普查局（Census Bureau）将每一位勾选“其他种族”的受访者，匹配至地理邻近且对西班牙裔血统问题作答一致的其他受访者所申报的种族分类。考量西班牙裔血统因素的原因在于，超过95%的“其他种族”受访者属于西班牙裔血统（西班牙裔血统人群可属于任意种族）。将种族分类匹配至西班牙裔血统受访者的操作，并未改变受访者原勾选的西班牙裔血统类别（如墨西哥裔、波多黎各裔、古巴裔等）。年龄数据亦经过修正，原因在于受访者通常会申报完成1990年普查问卷当日的年龄，而非普查基准日1990年4月1日的实际年龄。此外，受访者可能存在临近生日时将年龄向上取整的申报倾向。针对家庭户内个体的年龄数据，普查局依据1990年人口普查449个地区办事处的分区，按种族与性别对申报的出生年份数据进行调整，使其与美国国家卫生统计中心（National Center for Health Statistics）公布的全国季度出生人口分布数据保持一致。集体居住单元内的受访者年龄数据则采用类似方式调整，但调整基准为州级行政单位。此次年龄修正共涉及约1亿人口，在本文件中，这些人群的修正后年龄与1990年普查申报年龄相差1岁。STF-S4数据集包含全美所有州以及人口规模达到2500人及以上的建制区域的相关数据。（数据来源：ICPSR，2011年6月15日获取）