National Data Sets Useful in Food and Nutrition Assistance
Research
ERS encourages research that makes appropriate use of
existing, nationally representative data. Examples of
relevant surveys include:
The following provides brief descriptions of the data.
Several of these data sets contain items related to food
security, which has a distinct section on this page. For
more information, see the associated web links.
American Time Use Survey (ATUS)
The ATUS, sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, interviews about
13,000 respondents age 15 or older annually. The survey
provides nationally representative estimates of how, where,
and with whom Americans spend their time. Over the 2006-2008
survey period, ERS sponsored the Eating and Health Module
(ATUS). The module contains questions on whether respondents
ate or drank while engaged in other activities, such as
driving or watching TV; general health, height, and weight;
participation in the Food Stamp Program; children's consumption
of meals obtained at school; grocery shopping and meal
preparation; and household income. More information can
be found on the Economic Research Service’s website—see
Eating and Health Module website.
 List
of National Data Sets
Catalogue of Surveillance Systems
The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research
(NCCOR) has launched a new, free online resource to help
researchers and practitioners more easily investigate
childhood obesity in America. The Catalogue of Surveillance
Systems describes in detail existing surveillance systems
that collect data related to childhood obesity so that
researchers can identify surveillance systems to meet
their research and program needs; compare attributes across
systems; find information about the systems; and link
directly to the systems to download data or other information.
The Catalogue provides one-stop access to more than 75
surveys and other data sets, allowing users to search
and select surveys that provide a wealth of data at the
National, State, and local levels on a range of variables,
including school policies and health outcomes, as well
as eating and exercise behaviors. Health officials at
the city and State level also can find data related to
their programs. Program participation. For more information,
see the National Collaborative
on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) website.
List
of National Data Sets
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE)
The CE is an annual survey of household expenditures
conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S.
Department of Labor. The survey has three major objectives:
(1) to provide information on consumer expenditures to
support revisions to the Consumer Price Index market basket;
(2) to provide a flexible set of data serving a wide variety
of social and economic analyses; and (3) to provide a
continuous body of detailed expenditure and income data
for research purposes. The survey is comprised of two
independent household components: a quarterly interview
survey for broad expenditure categories and a weekly diary
survey for small frequently purchased items, such as individual
food items, gasoline, stamps, and other miscellaneous
items. The data set includes information on age, race,
sex, household size, income, geographic region, and Food
Stamp Program participation. For more information, see
the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CE
website.
List
of National Data Sets
Current Population Survey (CPS)
The CPS is a large, nationally representative monthly
survey that obtains information from approximately 50,000
households. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the survey
on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other
Federal agencies that support the survey. The main purpose
of the CPS is to provide estimates of employment, unemployment,
and other characteristics of the general labor force.
In addition to the labor force data, the March CPS Supplement
provides detailed data on annual income and food assistance
program participation; the income data are used to calculate
State and national poverty estimates. Estimates of food
security at the household level are developed using items
on a CPS supplement that is sponsored by USDA. The food
security supplement was introduced in April 1995. The
supplement is fielded annually, although the month of
administration varies from year to year. Information on
the CPS and its supplements can be found on the Census
Bureau's CPS
website. Information on the CPS food security supplements
can be found in the Economic Research Service's Food
Security in the United States briefing room.
List
of National Data Sets
Early Childhood Longitudinal
Study—Birth Cohort (ECLS-B)
The ECLS-B is an ongoing nationally representative sample
of about 12,000 children born during the year 2001 who
will be followed through the first grade. The study focuses
on factors affecting readiness for school, and information
will be collected each year from parents, teachers, birth
records, and the children themselves. Study participants
come from diverse socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds,
with oversamples of children who are Asian and Pacific
Islander, American Indian, or Chinese; twins; and children
with low and very low birthweights. Information about
these children is collected when the they are about 9
months old, 2 years old, 4 years old, and in kindergarten
and first grade. Data items funded by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture relate to participation in the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC), as well as other USDA food assistance
programs; infant feeding practices; children's household
food security; and children's height and weight. The ECLS-B
offers the opportunity to examine the relationship between
children's participation in WIC and their cognitive performance
and school progress and many other issues. For example,
data from the ECLS-B may shed light on the relationship
between infant feeding practices and childhood obesity.
For more information, see the National Center for Educational
Statistics' ECLS website.
List
of National Data Sets
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten
Cohort (ECLS-K)
The ECLS-K is an ongoing longitudinal study conducted
by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics. The study follows a nationally representative
sample of approximately 22,000 children from kindergarten
through eighth grade. The children's parents, teachers,
and schools are also participants in the study. The ECLS-K
collects information on the children's cognitive, social,
emotional, and physical development (i.e., height and
weight); home environment and home educational practices;
school environment, classroom environment, and classroom
curriculum; participation in the National School Lunch
Program, School Breakfast Program, and Food Stamp Program;
and household food security status. Information is collected
in the fall and the spring of kindergarten (1998-99),
the fall and spring of first grade (1999-2000), the spring
of third grade (2002), fifth grade (2004), and eighth
grade (2007). For more information, see the National Center
for Educational Statistics' ECLS
website.
List
of National Data Sets
Food and Nutrition Service Program
Operations Data
The Food and Nutrition Service Program Operations Data
provide statistical information on aspects of all major
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) food and nutrition assistance
programs. These programs include the Food Stamp Program;
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC); Child Nutrition Programs
(National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Child and Adult
Care, Summer Food Service, and Special Milk); and Food
Distribution Programs (Schools, Emergency Food Assistance,
Indian Reservations, Commodity Supplemental, Nutrition
for the Elderly, and Charitable Institutions). Four types
of tables are provided: historical summaries, annual State-level
data for selected elements, monthly national-level data
for major programs, and State-level participation in major
programs for the latest available month. The summaries
begin with 1969, the year that FNS was established to
administer USDA's food and nutrition assistance programs.
FNS Program Operations Data are available on the Food
and Nutrition Service website.
List
of National Data Sets
Food Security Data Information
ERS plays a leading role in Federal research on food
security and hunger in U.S. households and communities.
Food security for a household means access by all members
at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.
Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability
of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) assured
ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable
ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies,
scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies). USDA
has developed a standardized survey module for assessing
food security status. This module is included on a number
of national surveys, the most prominent of which is the
Current Population Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau. For
more information on national surveys that include the
USDA food security module, see the Economic Research Service's
briefing room Food Security
in the United States.
List
of National Data Sets
Food Stamp EBT Redemption
Patterns National Database
USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) contracted
with Abt Associates to assemble a national sample of approximately
10,000 food stamp households per State. The sample
was drawn from FNS’s nationwide Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT) database, providing a record of the time,
place, and amount of every purchase. Subsets of the data
were linked with the Food Stamp Program’s authorized
retailer database to identify store characteristics and
with the program’s quality control database to identify
household characteristics. Methods used to construct the
database and detailed tables can be found on the FNS
website.
List
of National Data Sets
Food Stamp Program Access
Study Surveys (FSPAS)
The Food Stamp Program Access Study Surveys (FSPAS) were
conducted in 2000 to provide a systematic and comprehensive
look at how local program policies and procedures influenced
potentially eligible households’ participation in
the Food Stamp Program. FSPAS is centered around a nationally
representative sample of local food stamp offices. Samples
of food stamp caseworkers and their supervisors were selected
within the sampled offices and interviewed concerning
local office policies and practices that might affect
access to the FSP. For the geographic area served by each
office, samples were drawn of food stamp eligible nonparticipants,
food stamp applicants, households recertifying for food
stamp benefits, and households leaving the FSP. Information
was obtained about their socioeconomic characteristics,
their relationship to the FSP, and their participation
decisions. Details of the data collection methodology
can be found in Chapter 2 of the FSPAS
final report
and the public use dataset and documentation can be obtained
from the FANRP office.
List
of National Data Sets
Food
Stamp Program State Rules Database (Waivers
of SNAP Rules Database)
The Food Stamp Program State Rules Database and associated
documentation were prepared by the Urban Institute with
funding from the FANRP program to provide a central data
source for State policy options in the Food Stamp Program.
The database includes 59 program rules and/or policies
that fall into 10 categories: Asset Limits; Immigrant
Eligibility; Standard Utility Allowance; Recertification
Periods; Reporting Requirements; ABAWD Eligibility; Cash
Assistance; Issuance Method; Outreach; and Biometric Technology.
Data are provided for all 50 States and the District of
Columbia, and, where possible, for each month from January
1996 through December 2004. Individual data records are
provided for State, month, and year (e.g., Alabama in
January 1996).
List
of National Data Sets
National Food Stamp Program Survey
(NFSPS)
The NFSPS was conducted in 1996 by the Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The survey collected
information on client satisfaction with services provided
by food stamp offices and agencies, the monetary and nonmonetary
costs of participating in the Food Stamp Program (FSP),
food shopping behaviors, items related to food security,
and nutrient availability for a nationally representative
sample of Food Stamp Program participants and potential
participants. In addition, information on dietary knowledge
and attitudes and a 7-day household food use record was
collected from a subsample of 1,000 of these households.
Approximately 1,000 nonparticipants were contacted through
random digit dial sampling to gather information on their
experiences with the FSP and their reasons for nonparticipation.
For more information, see one or more of the NFSPS reports
(available in PDF format), including "Food
Stamp Participants' Access to Food Retailers," "Customer
Service in the Food Stamp Program," and "Food
Stamp Participants' Food Security and Nutrient Availability."
These reports and others are available on the Food
and Nutrition Service website.
List
of National Data Sets
National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES)
NHANES is an ongoing survey conducted by the National
Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. The survey assesses the health and nutritional
status of the population and monitors changes over time,
especially in comparison with information from NHANES
I, II, and III, which were conducted in earlier periods.
A major objective of the survey's nutrition component
is to provide data for nutrition monitoring purposes,
including tracking nutrition, identifying risk factors
related to food insecurity, and estimating the prevalence
of compromised nutritional status. A second major objective
is to provide information for studying the relationships
among diet, nutritional status, and health. A dietary
24-hour recall is used to obtain dietary data. The data
set variables include gender, age, race, ethnicity, income,
education, employment, health insurance coverage, marital
status, and food assistance program participation. Outcome
variables of interest include numerous nutritional and
health indicators, such as food and nutrient intake, dietary
practices, body measurements, hematological tests, including
iron status, biochemical analyses of whole blood and serum
(including lipid, lipoproteins, lead, and glucose tolerance),
blood pressure, electrocardiograms, urine tests, bone
densitometry, dental examinations, gallbladder ultrasonography,
and cognitive and physical functioning. For more information,
see the NHANES
website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
List
of National Data Sets
National Survey of America's Families
(NSAF)
The NSAF, conducted by The Urban Institute, provides
a comprehensive look at the well-being of adults and children.
The survey provides quantitative quality-of-life measures
and pays particular attention to low-income families.
The survey is representative of the noninstitutionalized,
civilian population under age 65 in the Nation as a whole
and in 13 States: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey,
New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Together,
these 13 States are home to more than half the Nation's
population and represent a broad range of fiscal capacities,
child well-being, and approaches to government programs.
For more information, see the Urban Institute's NSAF
website.
List
of National Data Sets
Nielsen Homescan Survey
Nielsen Homescan is a consumer-based survey of food purchases
collected from a large, national panel of households.
Panel members report the details of each food shopping
occasion at a wide variety of store types, including traditional
food stores, nontraditional food retailers (such as supercenters,
warehouse clubs, and dollar stores), and online merchants. Panelists
use a customized electronic device in their homes to scan
the barcodes of the products they purchase and to record
the quantity, date, store, and if the item was purchased
on promotion or sale. The amount paid for each item is
either entered by the household or obtained by Nielsen
directly from the store. ERS has acquired Homescan data
covering 1998 through 2005. Because the data are proprietary
(owned by Nielsen), use of the data is subject to the
terms and the conditions of the purchasing contract. The
contract limits the use of the data to issues of interest
to USDA and allows sharing the data with external researchers
when they conduct USDA work. USDA-funded research agreements
can use these data subject to the terms of the contract.
For more details, email the FANRP
office.
List
of National Data Sets
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
The PSID, begun in 1968, is a longitudinal study of
a representative sample of U.S. individuals and their
families, including an oversampling of the low-income
population. As families have grown and changed over time,
the sample size has grown from 4,800 families in 1968
to 6,434 in 1999. A sample of 441 immigrant families was
added in 1997. The PSID has collected information about
more than 60,000 individuals spanning as much as 30 years
of their lives. The central focus of the data is economic
and demographic variables useful for research on dynamic
processes. It contains substantial detail on income sources
and amounts, employment, family composition changes, and
residential location. Some waves of the study also included
variables oriented more toward sociological or psychological
research. The study is conducted at the Survey Research
Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
and has been supported over the years by funding from
various government agencies, foundations, and other organizations.
For more information, see the University of Michigan's
PSID website.
List
of National Data Sets
School Health
Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS)
The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS)
is a national survey conducted periodically to assess
school health policies and programs at the State, district,
school, and classroom levels in elementary, middle/junior,
and senior high schools. SHPPS is designed to answer
the following three questions: (1) what are the characteristics
of eight school health program components (health education,
physical education and activity, health services, mental
health and social services, food service, school policy
and environment, faculty and staff health promotion, and
family and community involvement) at the State, district,
school, and classroom levels nationwide? (2) who is responsible
for coordinating and delivering each component of the
school health program and what kind of education and training
have they received? and (3) what collaboration occurs
among staff from each school health program component
and with staff from State and local agencies and organizations?
State-, district-, and school-level questionnaires were
designed to collect information on State, district, and
school policies and programs specific to each school health
program component, with an emphasis on policy. Classroom-level
questionnaires were designed to describe required instruction
and techniques used in teaching health topics and physical
education. The public-use data set for SHPPS 2006 is available
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For
more information, see School
Health Policies and Programs Study.
List
of National Data Sets
SNAP Data System
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) Data System provides time-series data
on State and county-level estimates of SNAP participation
and benefit levels, combined with area estimates of total
population and the number of persons in poverty. It also
has an interactive web-based mapping application that
maps program participation and benefit levels with county
level detail for the States and the Nation.
List
of National Data Sets
SNAP Quality Control Data File
(SNAP-QC)
The SNAP-QC database contains detailed demographic,
economic, and program eligibility information for a nationally
representative sample of approximately 50,000 SNAP units
(a SNAP "household" is known technically as a "unit").
The SNAP-QC data are generated from monthly quality control
(QC) reviews of SNAP cases that are conducted by State
SNAP agencies to assess the accuracy of eligibility determinations
and benefit calculations for the State's SNAP caseload.
These data, which are produced annually, are ideal for
tabulations of certain characteristics of SNAP units and
for simulating the impact of various SNAP policy changes
on current SNAP units. For more information, see the link
to SNAP Quality Control Data under Other
Resources on the Food and Nutrition Service website.
List
of National Data Sets
SNAP Retailer Locator
The SNAP Retailer
Locator is a website maintained by the Food and
Nutrition Service (FNS) that provides an interactive map
showing locations of all SNAP retailers and a downloadable
database of SNAP retailer records.
List
of National Data Sets
Survey of Income and Program Participation
(SIPP)
The main objectives of the SIPP are to collect information
on income by source, employment, program participation
and eligibility, and general demographic characteristics.
This information is used to measure the effectiveness
of existing Federal and State programs; to estimate future
costs and coverage for government programs, such as food
stamps; and to improve statistics on the U.S. distribution
of income in the country. The U.S. Census Bureau, which
conducts the SIPP, uses a longitudinal, multistage-stratified
design to survey the civilian, noninstitutionalized population
of the United States. The sample size ranges from approximately
14,000 to 36,700 interviewed households, with the duration
of each panel ranging from 2½ to 4 years. Variables
include labor force behavior; income; participation in
public programs; basic demographic characteristics; living
arrangements; food adequacy or abbreviated food security
module; participation at the individual level in the Food
Stamp Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and participation
at the household level in the free, reduced-price, and
full-price categories of the National School Lunch Program
and School Breakfast Program. For more information, see
the Census Bureau's SIPP
website.
List
of National Data Sets
Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD)
The SPD is a special extension of the Survey of Income
and Program Participation (SIPP) designed to look specifically
at the effects of welfare reform. Congress mandated that
the U.S. Census Bureau continue to collect data on the
1992 and 1993 panels of SIPP, as necessary, to obtain
information on changes in participation in public assistance
programs, employment, earnings, and measures of adult
and child well-being. The data collected from the 1992
and 1993 SIPP panels provide 3 years of longitudinal baseline
data prior to major welfare reform. The SPD's data include
information on program eligibility, access, and participation;
transfer income and in-kind benefits; food security; and
detailed economic and demographic data on employment and
job transitions, income, and family composition. The 3
years of SIPP data combined with the 7 years of SPD data
will provide panel data for 10 years. For more information,
see the Census Bureau's SPD
website.
List
of National Data Sets
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