Harmonized International Census Data For Social Science and Health Research

IPUMS International is a global data platform that provides harmonized census and survey microdata from more than 100 countries, enabling researchers and policymakers to conduct cross-national and longitudinal analyses of population characteristics. The platform integrates anonymized individual- and household-level census data collected by national statistical offices, standardizing variables and documentation to facilitate comparisons across countries and over time. Users can create customized data extracts covering topics such as population demographics, migration, education, employment, housing, disability, fertility, and household composition. Access is free for approved researchers and educators.

Although IPUMS International is not an air quality resource, it provides critical demographic and socioeconomic data that can be combined with air pollution models, satellite observations, and health datasets to support exposure assessment and health impact analysis. The platform is widely used to estimate populations at risk, identify vulnerable groups, analyse environmental inequalities, and evaluate the distributional impacts of air quality policies. Its harmonized geographic variables and GIS boundary files also facilitate the integration of census microdata with environmental and air quality datasets for national and subnational analyses.