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Bureau of Labor Statistics > National Longitudinal Surveys > Home

NLS State, County, and MSA Geocode Data

National Longitudinal Survey 79 State, County, and MSA Geocode (Restricted NLSY79); National Longitudinal Survey 79 Young Adult State, County, and MSA Geocode (Restricted NLSY79 YA); National Longitudinal Survey 97 State, County, and MSA Geocode (Restricted NLSY97)

Restricted NLSY79, Restricted NLSY79 YA, and Restricted NLSY97 data include the respondent's state, county and MSA of residence and codes identifying colleges attended. These restricted data are a small subset of the NLS dataset and when provided to the researcher, the included respondent ID variable facilitates linking to the public-use data. More detail about the variables on the restricted data files is available in the NLSY79 Geocode Codebook Supplement and the NLSY97 Geocode Codebook Supplement.

To protect the confidentiality of respondents, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) only grants access to restricted files to researchers in the United States who agree in writing to adhere to BLS confidentiality policy and whose projects further the mission of BLS and the NLS program to conduct sound, legitimate research in the social sciences. [Applications from abroad cannot be accepted.] Applicants must provide a clear statement of their research methodology and objectives and explain how the restricted data are necessary to meet those objectives. Researchers who are granted access to restricted data may use them from approved locations on the physical premises of their institution.

Applicants for Restricted NLSY79, Restricted NLSY79 YA, and Restricted NLSY97 data must first complete the Standard Application Process (SAP) through the online portal at ResearchDataGov (RDG). RDG is a portal for requesting access to restricted microdata from federal statistical agencies.

After your standard application has been approved by BLS, you will complete a BLS specific form (the BLS VDE Confidential Data Access Information Form) detailing the signing official information for your institution, your software requirements, and other specifics of you proposed security set-up. This form is sent to you only after your standard application has been approved by BLS.

Geographic Information For the NLSY79 Cohort:

County and state (or country if outside the U.S.) at birth, at age 14, at 1979 interview data, and at each county lived in since 1-1-78.
County and state location of current job.
State of residence of parents if respondent is still "attached" to parental home.
Identification code to allow merging with public use data.
Selected environmental variables for county of residence.

The 50 states, the District of Columbia, and outlying areas of the United States (e.g., Puerto Rico, Guam) were coded using the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 5-1. Counties were coded using FIPS 6-1. These standardized codes allow the researcher the opportunity to merge easily other data bases such as the City and County Data Book which use the same coding scheme as the youth data. Countries other than U.S. were coded using a set of codes designed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC).

Last Modified Date: April 4, 2025