Survey of Income and Program Participation

SIPP provides comprehensive information about income and labor force participation for individuals and households in the United States, and the extent and principal determinants of their participation in government transfer payment and supplemental income programs. SIPP offers detailed information on cash and noncash income on a subannual basis. The survey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, and participation in government transfer programs. SIPP data allow the government to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, and local programs, estimate future program costs and coverage, and improve statistics on the distribution of income and measures of economic well-being in the country. The survey design is a continuous series of national panels, with sample size ranging from approximately 14,000 to 45,000 interviewed households. The duration of each panel ranges from 2 ½ years to 4 years. Each SIPP panel is a multistage-stratified sample of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population. The content is built around a "core" of labor force, program participation, and income questions designed to measure the economic situation of people in the United States. In addition, the survey periodically includes questions on a variety of topics not covered in the core section. These questions are labeled "topical modules" and are assigned to particular interviewing waves of the survey. Topics covered by the modules include personal history, child care, wealth, program eligibility, child support, utilization and cost of health care, disability, school enrollment, taxes, and annual income. Data are currently available for the series of panels conducted between 1984 and 2004. The 2008 panel is in the field.