With funding from a National Science Foundation grant and internal support from many University departments, Penn State will soon be home to one of fewer than 20 Census Research Data Centers (RDCs) in the United States. These RDCs provide approved researchers access to a range of data, including economic, health, and census data, that are currently restricted and difficult to obtain.
Learn more about the University's Census Research Data Center on its new website.
The Penn State facility will provide a secure connection to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. The RDC at Penn State will be a crucial resource for faculty members and graduate students in disciplines including economics, demography, statistics, political science, sociology, and the health sciences.
"Today, researchers need to travel to Washington D.C. for restricted versions of data sets," said Jenny Van Hook, director of the Population Research Institute and professor of sociology and demography, who is the project’s principal investigator. "It’s like you’re stepping into a virtual part of the Census Bureau."
The College of the Liberal Arts, College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Health and Human Development, Eberly College of Science, Penn State Libraries, Population Research Institute, Social Science Research Institute and the Office of the Vice President for Research funded the project. The National Science Foundation also provided three years of funding support.
To protect privacy and confidentiality, researchers must go through several security steps to use the RDC and access data sets. Penn State will work with the Census Bureau to provide training and resources needed for researchers to use the facility. A bureau employee will oversee the center’s day-to-day operations in Paterno Library. Center organizers will host a grand opening early in spring, 2014.
"For economics faculty members, this means everything," said Mark Roberts, co-principal investigator and professor of economics. "Every five years, the bureau conducts a census on retail, wholesale and manufacturing. Those data are never released publicly, but the center will provide this useful data. It will be extremely valuable for research projects." Roberts will serve as the center’s first director.
The RDC also enhances research that covers topics including immigrant populations, housing markets, employment, voting behavior, health disparities and more. It also builds opportunities for cross-university collaboration. The other RDCs are located in mostly major cities and research hubs across the country.
Roberts said cities and major research universities with RDCs have access to all the same research data. Penn State will have that too and open doors to a wide network of collaboration.
"Whether you are working with someone in Atlanta or in Seattle, it’s extremely valuable that we can access the same information simultaneously," Roberts said. "As the network grows, it becomes even more valuable.
Also working on this project are Marianne Hillemeier, associate professor of health policy administration; John Iceland, professor of sociology and demography; and Leif Jensen, distinguished professor of Rural Sociology and Demography.