Search

AbstractA sample of pairs of twins who were born in the United States in 1919 and survived to adulthood is identified through an innovative and large-scale application of the methodology of probabilistic linkage. The social security program began in the United States in November 1936, and the file of applicants for a social security number ? which was used in this study ? is the closest thing in the United States to a population register. The study results are very satisfactory, and demonstrate the superiority of probabilistic linkage to exact linkage. We estimate that about 33,000 twin pairs were born in the United States in 1919 and about 19,000 survived to age 17. Since the social security number was not then, at the inception of the program, the universal identifier that it is today, the number of enumeratedtwin pairs is somewhat less. Nonetheless, over 16,000 twin pairs can be identified by the method of probabilistic linkage. By comparison, only about half as many can be identified by straightforward exact linkage.

Few data sources include ethnicity-levelclassification for Asian Americans. However, it isoften more informative to study the ethnic groupsseparately than to use an aggregate Asian Americancategory, because of differences in immigrationhistory, socioeconomic status, health, and culture. Many types of records that include surnames of personsoffer the potential for inferential ethnicclassification. This paper describes the developmentof surname lists for six major Asian American ethnicgroups: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, AsianIndian, and Vietnamese. The lists were based on SocialSecurity Administration records that include countryof birth. After they were compiled, the lists wereevaluated using an independent file of census records.The surname lists have a variety of applications forresearchers: identification of individuals to targetfor study participation; inference of ethnicity indata sources lacking ethnic detail; andcharacterization of the ethnic composition of apopulation.

The population of social security beneficiaries residing outside the United States, now approximately 340,000, is examined. One objective is to evaluate the implications of the growth of this population for the level of emigration; another is to classify those in this population according to citizenship and-for the first time-nativity.

The potential of the Social Security Administration's Master Beneficiary Record filefor supporting the study of migration among the elderly is explored. The file's characteristics are described, and attention is called to its unique perspective on migration. Some findings, from a sample study, are presented on the extent and correlates of elderly migration for the one-year period ending June 1985.