Public Use Microdata Area
Public Use Micro Data Sample Areas, or PUMAs, is a division of US States into census area which each contain around 100,000 people. All such areas are non overlapping and partition a State. There are a total of 2,071 PUMAs. The State governments drew the PUMA boundaries for the 2000 Census, to allow reporting of detailed data for all areas. For example the American Community Survey publishes detailed data every year, but due to their sampling procedure only publishes data for census area that have more than 65,000 People. PUMAs allow the publishing of census data for most sub-state areas. For example, only seven of the 55 counties of West Virginia are large enough to receive estimates from the 2006 ACS. In contrast, all 12 PUMAs that partition West Virginia will receive 2006 ACS estimates.
See also