Description

GEO2_PH identifies the household's municipality within Philippines in all sample years. Municipalities are the second level administrative units of the country, after provinces. GEO2_PH is spatially harmonized accounting 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_PH can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.

The full set of geography variables for Philippines 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 municipalities have populations less than 20,000, they have been regionalized (combined) with neighboring municipalities.

• Spratly Islands are a group of disputed islands claimed by Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Vietnam, and Brunei. The 1995 and 2010 Philippines samples include data on Spratly Islands (locally known as "Kalayann Group of Islands") as part of the Palawan province. The islands are regionalized with other municipalities due to confidentiality reasons. Because of their disputed status, they are not included in GIS maps.

Boundary changes for GEO2_PH are too numerous to list here, but users should be aware that there were changes over time.

Universe

Availability

• Philippines: 1990, 1995, 2000, 2010