African researchers and policy makers need access to census microdata to analyze
challenging social, demographic, and economic transformations underway throughout the
continent (McCaa, Esteve, Ruggles and Sobek 2006). IPUMS-International
(www.ipums.org/international) offers statistical agencies worldwide a one stop solution to
disseminating anonymized microdata samples. The project asumes the responsibilities, risks,
and costs for recovering, archiving, anonymizing, integrating, and disseminating microdata
worldwide (McCaa and Thomas 2009). Researchers and policy makers access extracts of the
data free of cost—regardless of country of birth, residence, or nationality—thanks to sustained
funding by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (USA).
Begun in 1999, IPUMS-International enjoys the satisfaction of more than 5,000
researchers in some 100 countries and of over 90 national statistics office-partners. As of June
2011, the global project has completed the anonymization and integration of population
microdata for 62 countries worldwide, totaling 185 samples and 397 million person records.
Thanks to the exceedingly generous cooperation of NSOs, the IPUMS-International database is
expanding at the rate of 5-10 additional countries per year. By 2015, it is likely that coverage
will extend to 85 or more countries, encompassing over four-fifths of the world’s population.
The project is led by the Minnesota Population Center (MPC). In Africa, the African
Center for Statistics’ AICMD initiative partners with the MPC in a pan-African collaboratory of
National Statistical Offices, universities, and major research centers
(http://ecastats.uneca.org/aicmd/Home/tabid/40/language/en-US/Default.aspx). Twenty-nine
African National Statistics Offices, encompassing 85% of the continent’s population, entrust
census microdata and national surveys to IPUMS under a uniform memorandum of
understanding (Appendix A, Figure 1 and Table 1). Access is governed by means of a stringent
licensing agreement (Appendix B).