Description: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world. The study began in 1968 with a nationally representative sample of over 18,000 individuals living in 5,000 families in the United States. Information on these individuals and their descendants has been collected continuously, including data covering employment, income, wealth, expenditures, health, marriage, childbearing, child development, philanthropy, education, and numerous other topics.
Publisher: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research
Timeframe: 1968 - Present

Subject Domain

Population Age

Aged (80 years and over)

Newborn (under 1 month)

Infant (1 to 23 months)

Child (2 to 12 years)

Adolescent (13 to 17 years)

Adult (18 to 64 years)

Senior (65 to 79 years)

Access via PSID
Access Restrictions: Application required

Free to all
Access Instructions: Public release files containing generalized geographic information can be downloaded directly from the PSID website. Users in need of more specialized geographic information may want to request use of the restricted PSID Geocode Match files including the identification codes necessary to link data from the PSID annual family files to Census data. Restricted files may be requested by individuals who conduct scientific research, hold a full-time, permanent, doctoral-level faculty appointment, and obtain approval of their research and data protection plan through a human subjects institutional review board.
Data Type: Survey
Dataset Format(s): SAS, SPSS, ASCII, STATA

Data Catalog

Panel Study of Income Dynamics