Microcensus Panel 1996-1999
The Microcensus is designed as a rotating panel sample, in which households in a sampling district are surveyed for four years, with a quarter of the sampling districts being replaced each year. Individuals and households that move out of their home are replaced by those that move in.
With the completion of the joint project "Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe" (“Processing and Provision of the Microcensus as a Panel Sample") funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), a Microcensus panel has been available to researchers as a Scientific Use File since September 2006, analogous to the Microcensus cross-sectional files. Even the selection of the rotation quarter of the Microcensus, which was only surveyed from 1996 to 1999, has a very large number of cases, particularly compared to panel data collected for research purposes. This allows to analyse economic and social structures and their changes in more detail, to make reliable statements even for small population groups, and to observe social and economic change in a more differentiated way than before.
The Microcensus has been conducted in West Germany since 1957 and in the new federal states since 1991, with a sampling fraction of 1% of the population. The basis of the Microcensus is the entire resident population in Germany.
Since 1962, the Microcensus has been an area sample with partial rotation of the sampling districts (areas). The sampling districts, along with the households and persons living in them, remain in the survey for four years, forming a so-called rotation quarter. Each year, a quarter of the sampling districts are exchanged, so that data are available for a maximum of four years. Due to the principle of area sampling, households and individuals moving out of the sampling districts are not further surveyed, but are replaced by households and persons moving in. The Microcensus is therefore a repeated survey with partial overlap of the survey units (partial rotation). The possibility of merging the cross-sectional data into a panel has been legally possible since the Microcensus Act of 1996.
The conditions for processing the Microcensus as a panel and making the factually anonymised data available to the scientific community were established in the project "Methodenverbund Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe" (Methods Network Processing and Provision of the Microcensus as a Panel Sample) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Collaborating partners included the Federal Statistical Office, the State Office for Data Processing and Statistics North Rhine-Westphalia, the Free University of Berlin, and the Center for Surveys, Methods, and Analyses.
The panel data cover approximately 55,000 private households or about 120,000 individuals from private households in the rotation quarter surveyed from 1996 to 1999. The Scientific Use File is a factually anonymized 70% sub-sample of selected districts, with all households and individuals of a selected district included regardless of the success of merging. This allows for both cross-sectional analyses and independent examinations of sample selectivity due to spatial mobility.
Access conditions
The Microcensus Scientific Use Files can be ordered from the research data centres of the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the Länder for a provision fee. The provision fee for the Microcensus Panel is 1000 euros (per statistic and survey period 250 euros x 4 survey periods). Discounts are granted under certain conditions for doctoral candidates and students.
Researchers authorised to access and use the data must be specially obliged to comply with data protection regulations. This special obligation usually applies to public service employees (universities); otherwise it has to be carried out by the Statistical Offices. In addition, the institution/researcher receiving the data must implement special technical and organizational data security measures.
It must be stated that due to legal reasons (according to § 16, Abs. 6 - 8 BStatG), the anonymized individual data cannot be circulated to institutions beyond the Federal Republic of Germany. Microcensus guidelines restrict the place of data usage to Germany. However, foreign researchers, under approved, special circumstances, have the opportunity to work with the data at the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the Länder or via remote execution.
See: https://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en/terms-use
Standard list of data protection measures .pdf
Data Supply & Application
The materials are only available in German.
Manual
Manual of the Microcensus Panel 1996-1999 - Methodological Consortium "Processing and Provision of the Microcensus as a Panel Sample" (Ed.: Federal Statistical Office, Group VIII, Bonn) 
Distributions of Selected Characteristics
Examination of the imported data material - Distributions of selected characteristics from the Microcensus original files and cross-sections of the Microcensus Panel 1996-1999 for the survey years 1996-1999; Appendix to the Handbook of the Microcensus Panel 1996-1999; Ed.: Federal Statistical Office, Group VIII C, Bonn.
Index of variables
Index of the factually anonymised Microcensus Panel 1996-1999
Survey program
Survey program 1996-2004 (in the MZ panel 1996-1999 without the supplementary and additional programme of the year 1999)
Classifications
- Classification of the main field of study at a scientific (technical) university, version for the Microcensus, Edition 1985; Federal Statistical Office
- Classification of Occupations by the Federal Statistical Office in the Version for the Microcensus, Edition 1992
- International Standard Classification of Occupations for use within the European Community (International Standard Classification of Occupation – Establishment of Community-Wide Occupational Statistics) ISCO-88 COM
- LEM-Beispielprogramme für Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels [.pdf] (Auszug aus: Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard: Bildungsverläufe und Stichprobenselektivität - Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels 1996 - 1999 am Beispiel bildungsstatistischer Fragestellungen. GESIS-Forschungsberichte: Reihe Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenanalyse; Bd. 1. Bonn: GESIS, 2008.)
- LEM_Beispiele.zip
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2008): Bildungsverläufe und Stichprobenselektivität. Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels 1996-1999 am Beispiel bildungsstatistischer Fragestellungen. GESIS-Forschungsberichte, Reihe Sozialwissenschaftliche Datenanalyse, Band 1. ISBN 978-3-86819-003-8. Bonn: GESIS. [Link]
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Auszug aus dem Elternhaus: Ergebnisse Mikrozensuspanel 1996-1999. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/04.
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Zur Datenqualität der Bildungsangaben im Mikrozensus. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/03.
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Berufliche Ausbildungsverläufe bis zum Übergang ins Erwerbsleben – Analysen zur Stichprobenselektivität des Mikrozensuspanels 1996-1999. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2006/02.
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2006): Filekonzept zum Mikrozensuspanel. Methodenverbund "Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe", Arbeitspapier Nr. 12.
- Schimpl-Neimanns, Bernhard (2005): Bildungsverläufe im Mikrozensuspanel 1996-1999: Besuch der gymnasialen Oberstufe bis zum Abitur. ZUMA-Arbeitsbericht 2005/02.
- Wirth, Heike (2006): Anonymisierung des Mikrozensuspanels im Kontext der Bereitstellung als Scientific-Use-File. Methodenverbund "Aufbereitung und Bereitstellung des Mikrozensus als Panelstichprobe", Arbeitspapier Nr. 11.