APDU Board Member: Learn about new data sources at the APDU Annual Conference

By APDU Board Member Beth Jarosz

If you ask a data user to name public data sources, she might name the decennial census, American Community Survey, National Vital Statistics System, or Current Population Survey. Each of those sources provides robust, timely, accurate public data on important topics like population, housing, and employment. Yet the “big name” public data sources merely hint at the breadth and depth of data available, which includes information on consumer expenditures, healthcare access and utilization, and participation in the arts.

Do you know what share of the American public attends jazz concerts or reads poetry? Attendees will learn about trends in arts and leisure activities from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, which tracks arts attendance by detailed event type and state.

Do you know that the Consumer Expenditures Survey is one of the nation’s most complex surveys (by number of variables)? The Consumer Expenditures Survey captures a range of expenditures, incomes, and demographic characteristics. Attendees will learn about what types of questions can, and cannot, be answered with this dataset as well was the geographic detail currently available.

Did you know that the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey now includes a de-identified public use file? With the public use file analysts can answer questions about Medicare beneficiary insurance status, socio-demographic characteristics, access to care, health status, preventive behaviors, falls, housing characteristics, and experiences with Medicare Advantage.

Join us in Arlington, Va. July 9th and 10th, 2019 at APDU’s Annual Conference to learn more about these, and other, under-the-radar public data sources.