TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 434: Use of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) by State Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations describes ways that transportation planners are using the PUMS data.

The report is designed to serve as a reference for transportation planners who may be able to exploit these data. Census microdata are the confidential records of specific individuals and housing units from whom Decennial Census or American Community Survey responses have been obtained.

The U.S. Census Bureau also draws a sample from the full set of microdata and makes these sampled records available in the PUMS data products, so that users can develop their own tabulations.

These data are being used by state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations for studies, such as analyses of the commuting characteristics of population subgroups, and for supporting travel demand model and land use models.