Description

GEO2_ DO identifies the household's municipality within Dominican Republic in all sample years, except 2002. Municipalities are the second level administrative units of the country, after provinces. GEO2_ DO 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_ DO can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.

The full set of geography variables for Dominican Republic 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

The 2002 sample of Dominican Republic is not included in GEO2_DO, it is only available as a year specific variable GEO2_DO2002. The 2002 microdata sample identifies municipalities and municipal districts, whereas all the other census years (2010, 1981, 1970, and 1960) identify municipalities. There are around 225 municipalities and municipal districts in 2002 compared to 155 municipalities in 2010, around 125 municipalities in 1980, and around 100 municipalities in 1970 and 1960.

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

Boundary changes for GEO2_DO are too numerous to list here, but users should be aware that there were changes over time.

Universe

Availability

• Dominican Republic: 1960, 1970, 1981, 2010