Intro and Overview

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is household panel survey conducted since 1968. The sample is national and includes people of all ages. The most unique feature is the PSID's inclusion of multiple generations of the same family. Many other surveys contain very little information about persons who leave the sampled household. The survey has rich measures of Income Program Participation. The survey over samples low-income and African American populations, which helps to support research of these populations in particular.

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Tips for Getting Started

In addition to the videos above, there are several helpful Getting Started resources on the PSID webpage. You should also consult the User Guide to gain an in depth understanding of the sampling procedures and file structure. There is also more help with file structure and merging files when you are ready to prepare your analytic file for your project.

To browse available variables, go to this page and use the links under Survey Content by Topic. You may also find the information about ongoing and one-time supplements available on this page helpful.

Key Advantages

Longitudinal and follows the same families over time (currently up to seven generations)
Highly detailed questionnaires including financial information and income program participation
Over samples low-income and African American households to support disparities research and studies of poverty.
Both public and restricted use data products are available so early work may lead to future projects with restricted use data.
Supports life course analyses.

Key Disadvantages

Surveys are conducted every 2 years since 1997
Sample is based on US population in 1968. A Latino sample was added in 1990 but dropped after 1995. A new immigrant sample was added in 1997.
Small sample size precludes release of geographical identifiers (even state of residence). Only ~8,000 families as of 2017 whereas the Survey of Income Program Participation has up to 40,000.
Restricted use data, including some linkages to administrative data, are available.

Papers Using these Data

A full bibliography is available here .