1998 Washington State Population Survey

Results are also available for: 2006 | 2004 | 2002 | 2000

The 1998 Washington State Population Survey was designed to provide a profile of Washington residents between decennial censuses. It collects data on topics such as employment, work experience, income, education, in-migration, health, health insurance, commute pattern, computer ownership, and internet usage, in addition to basic demographics. The first survey was conducted in the spring of 1998. A second survey is being prepared for administration in spring 2000.

The 1998 survey was designed by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) with consultation from a legislative staff advisory group and an extended network of more than 80 individuals from research organizations, state agencies, local governments, and higher education institutions. It was administered by the Washington State University Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC).

1998 results are available for Washington State and, for some items, for eight regions within Washington. The regions, all either single counties or groups of counties, are shown below. The sample design supports the regional data. No data are available for smaller/other areas.

RegionCounties
North Sound (1)Island, San Juan, Skagit, Whatcom
West Balance (2)Clallam, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Klickitat, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Skamania, Wahkiakum
King (3)King
Other Puget Sound Metro (4)Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston
Clark (5)Clark
East Balance(6)Adams, Asotin, Chelan, Columbia, Douglas, Ferry, Garfield, Grant, Kittitas, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Walla Walla, Whitman
Spokane (7)Spokane
Yakima-TriCities(8)Benton, Franklin, Yakima

A map of the State Population Survey regions is also available.

Published Reports

Washington State Population Survey Selected Findings

Research Briefs Using Survey Data (or related to survey)

The Questionnaire

The initial draft of the 1998 State Population Survey questionnaire was based on the March Current Population Survey (CPS) questionnaire administered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. In addition to the CPS questionnaire, the OFM State Population Survey group also collected questions covering additional topics of importance to the state. The initial draft was reviewed by the SPS network of more than eighty individuals representing research organizations, state agencies, local governments, and higher education institutions. Their comments were collected and reviewed by OFM. Many of the recommendations were incorporated into the final draft. The final draft was then reviewed again by SESRC for logic flow and modified accordingly. Further changes were recommended by SESRC after the pretest of 100 cases. These changes were mainly aimed at reducing the interview time.

The complete questionnaire including skip patterns, a 126-page PDF file, is also available.

Summary Tabulations by Region

Data Tabulations - raw output files containing basic data variables cross-tabulated by region. Data are subject to revision and may not be comparable to previous tabulations. Last revision September 23, 1999.

User Notes:
  • Note the "universe" (the specific respondents that are asked the question) at the top of each table. Skip patterns often cause confusion for new survey data users. Print and review the data dictionary and variable lists in the Technical Information section.
  • Examine the "confidence level" for each column in the table tabulations. The number of cases are extremely small for many tables or table cells.
  • For specific items, these survey data may not be strictly comparable with administrative data or other survey data.

Technical Information

Downloadable Data

Disclaimer: By using these data the user agrees that the Washington State Office of Financial Management shall not be liable for any activity involving these data with regard to lost profits or savings or any other consequential damages; or the fitness for use of the data for a particular purpose; or the installation of the data, its use, or the results obtained.

The 1998 SPS analysis data file is available as a self-extracting SAS file (35,172,608 bytes when extracted). Download format.sas, the SAS format file associated with this dataset. The missing values in the SAS data set are denoted by the following:

        .A  = Skipped-Age
        .D  = Don't Know
        .R  = Refused
        .S  = Skipped
        .N  = Not Ascertained

The analysis data file is also available as a self-extracting Excel spreadsheet (26,888,192 bytes when extracted). The missing values in this file are denoted by negative numbers:

        -1  = Skipped-Age
        -2  = Don't Know
        -3  = Refused 
        -4  = Skipped
        -9  = Not Ascertained

Variable labels and value labels are not available in the Excel file. To see what the variable and its values are, please see the corresponding tabulation in the data tabulation section.

Additional technical information regarding the datasets is available in the following reports:

Last modified: January 25, 2007
E-mail: OFM.Forecasting@ofm.wa.gov