Boston Census Research Data Center

A partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Economic Research

The Boston Census Research Data Center (BRDC) is a partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Open since 1994, the BRDC provides qualified researchers the opportunity to perform statistical analysis on non-public Census microdata.

Information on the RDC program can be found at the homepage of the Center for Economic Studies, a research unit of the Office of the Chief Economist at the Census Bureau. Data available for use within the secure RDC's include a wide range of microdata files. For firms and establishments, these include the Economic Census for manufacturing, retail, service, and other sectors, the Longitudinal Business Database LBD), The Annual Survery of Manufactures (ASM), and the Business Research & Development and Innovation Survey (BRDIS). For persons and households these include the Decennial Census, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Current Population Survey (CPS) and American Housing Survey (AHS). There are also combined economic and demographic data such as the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD).