2008 Washington State Population Survey

The biennial Washington State Population Survey (WSPS) has been an important source of data on the health and welfare of Washington families since 1998. It focuses primarily on employment, family poverty, in-migration, health, and health insurance coverage.

BASIC INFORMATION

ATTENTION DATA USERS: Technical Changes to 2006 and 2008 Surveys

OFM consulted with Westat to improve the overall quality of the survey and address the impact of growing cell phone use on survey results. Based on the recommendations, important technical changes have been made to the 2008 survey and where possible, applied to the 2006 survey to support comparisons across time.

Technical Improvements to 2006 and 2008 Surveys
Reports from the Westat evaluation of the State Population Survey:

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.

DOWNLOAD SURVEY DATA

*Attention Data Users: The 2006 and 2008 WSPS surveys have new weights (check "User Notes" below for instructions on how to use).

User Notes (pdf) - Instructions for using new weights for the 2006 and 2008 surveys.

2008 WSPS Online - easy access to the latest health insurance and poverty data.

Survey data are also available for: 2006 | 2004 | 2002 | 2000 | 1998

2008 DATA FILES
The 2008 WSPS analysis data file is available in both SAS (sps08_02.sas7bdat) and Excel spreadsheet (WSPS 2008v2.xls) formats.

The SAS file (40,769 kb when extracted) may be downloaded as a self-extracting SAS data file. Download formats2008v2.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 in Excel spreadsheet format (31,878 kb when extracted) is downloadable as a self-extracting Excel® spreadsheet. 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

SURVEY REGIONS

Region	Counties
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, Thurston (prior to 2008 Snohomish and Pierce counties were included)
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
Snohomish(9)	Snohomish (not available prior 2008)
Pierce(10)	Pierce (not available prior 2008)

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

Last modified: April 9, 2009
E-mail: OFM.Forecasting@ofm.wa.gov