Description

GEO2_ML identifies the household’s circle (cercle) within Mali in all sample years. Circles are the second level administrative units of the country, after regions. GEO2_ML is spatially harmonized to account for political boundary changes across census years. Some detail is lost in harmonization; see the comparability discussion. A GIS map (in shapefile format), corresponding to GEO2_ML can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.

The full set of geography variables for Mali can be found in the IPUMS International Geography variables list. For cross-national geographic analysis on the first and second major administrative level refer to GEOLEV1, and GEOLEV2. More information on IPUMS-International geography can be found here.

Comparability — General

Where boundaries changed over time, units were harmonized to create units with boundaries that remain stable over time. Where officially-defined circles have populations less than 20,000, they have been regionalized (combined) with neighboring circles.

Boundary changes for GEO2_ML are too numerous to list here, but users should be aware that there were changes over time.

Universe

Availability

• Mali: 1987, 1998, 2009