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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Finding NASA’s Data from Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) – Moved to Harvard

(SEDAC) – moved to Harvard

Data from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) along with other recent data releases are now available through a special CIESIN subcollection of the CAFE collection on the Harvard Dataverse. CAFE is the Research Coordinating Center for Health and Extreme Weather, based at Boston University School of Public Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The spatial data produced or curated by SEDAC were specifically intended to facilitate integration with gridded Earth science data, in particular data from NASA’s constellation of remote sensing instruments. SEDAC was managed by CIESIN from 1998-2025.

The Harvard Dataverse is a generalist repository that adheres to the FAIR Principles, is open-source, and enables anyone to both deposit and download data.  According to CIESIN director, Dr. Alex de Sherbinin, “The CIESIN collection is of great value to those who are seeking to understand current climate risks, such as extreme heat and sea level rise, among highly exposed populations. It also includes projections of population and urban areas to better characterize future exposure. This makes it a perfect fit for the CAFE collection.”

The initial subcollection contains 234 SEDAC data sets plus four recent CIESIN releases.  We will be releasing roughly 60 more SEDAC data sets over the coming months.  Meanwhile, NASA Earthdata has restored access to SEDAC data sets (from Earthdata’s SEDAC page scroll down to Data at SEDAC).

Sign Up to Join the Early Career Listserv!

We invite early career faculty affiliates to join our new mailing list, csde_earlycareer. Among other things, this is the way to find out info about our quarterly Early Career Affiliate happy hours, and you won’t want to miss those! These will be a great way to meet up with other junior scholars in a fun and casual atmosphere over snacks and drinks. Who counts as early career, you ask? Typically we mean folks who are pre-promotion (i.e. assistant professor or equivalent), but we’re not strict! Join the list here (Please note – this is for faculty only – we are strict about that. Sorry, all others!)

Growing up in the UK: Child Development in a Complex System – Chia Liu

When: Friday, November 7 at 12:30 pm

Where: Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom

One-on-one Meeting: Sign up here

We are looking forward to hosting Chia Liu from University of St. Andrews on Friday, November 7 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative.

Children’s socioemotional development is shaped not only by their families but also increasingly by digital devices that connect them to the wider world. In this talk, Chia Liu will present analyses on children’s socioemotional health by social media consumption, with a focus on differences across ethnic groups and parenting styles. Using responses from both children and their parents in the UK Household Longitudinal Study, the study seeks to uncover the linkage between distinct parenting styles and child outcomes in a growingly digitalized childhood.

Chia Liu received her PhD from the Center for Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, following several years as a demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau. Her postdoctoral research has taken her from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany to the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is currently a tenured Teaching Lecturer in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at St Andrews and an Understanding Society Fellow (2025–2026), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

From Human Ecology to Social Ties to Assimilation: The Legacy of Pete Guest – Susan Brown

When: Friday, October 17, 12:30 pm 

Where: Parrington Hall Room 360 and on Zoom

1-on-1 meetings: 223 Raitt Hall (sign up here)

We are looking forward to hosting UW Alumna Susan Brown from The University of California, Irvine on Friday, October 17 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. Dr. Brown will deliver the The Guest Lecture, in honor of Pete Guest, titled “From Human Ecology to Social Ties to Assimilation.” This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative and UW Department of Sociology. 

Avery M. “Pete” Guest was one of the last giants of the traditional field of human ecology. His interests ranged from neighborhood persistence to social ties, to the structure and social importance of suburbanization, to assimilation, and more, with a strong historical bent. While his students have taken his interests in multiple directions, Brown will focus on how Pete Guest influenced her work in the field of immigrant integration, with a focus on traditional structural and spatial integration and ultimately on legal status and other types of restrictions to social inclusion.

Susan K. Brown is professor emerita of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. She is co-author of Parents Without Papers: The Progress and Pitfalls of Mexican American Integration (2015), winner of the Otis Dudley Duncan Award from the American Sociological Association, and author of Beyond the Immigrant Enclave: Network Change and Assimilation (2004). Her research focuses on the integration of immigrant groups across generations in the United States, residential segregation, and inequality of access to higher education. She directed the UCI master’s program in Demographic and Social Analysis.

IPUMS Updates on Data

IPUMS has just published updates on new data from IPUMS.  There are recent releases from IPUMS International, IPUMS CPS, IPUMS Global Health.  There is also a new blog post on how to access International Census Data Tables in R.

IPUMS INTERNATIONAL

IPUMS International has added 21 new harmonized variables. The new variables cover household amenities (e.g., private or shared toilet, availability of a stove), characteristics of the statistical operation and sample design reported in the sample descriptions documentation, and work — including a new occupation variable following ISCO-2008.

IPUMS CPS

IPUMS CPS has released the 2025 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data. This release also includes new variables on 5-year migration status, and variables added to the ASEC in 2025 on telework and child care.

IPUMS GLOBAL HEALTH

IPUMS PMA has released new household and female data for six countries: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Niger, and Nigeria. You can find these data in the Person – Family Planning unit of analysis in the online data dissemination system. All but Ethiopia surveys are data from Phase 4 of longitudinal panel data, and can be accessed as “Longitudinal – Wide” files.