Overview

This data dictionary describes the output data sets from the Social Security Administration (SSA) closure impact analysis study. The project uses routing analysis to quantify the potential impacts of closing SSA field offices.

Across the data dictionary and the project, when discussing an SSA office’s “coverage area,” we refer to all census tracts for which that office is the nearest SSA location based on drive time.

Tract data: Each row represents a census tract (2022 definitions) with information on the nearest two SSA offices.

Office data: Each row represents a SSA field office with aggregated statistics for all census tracts it covers as the primary office.

Data Dictionary

Tract-Level data:

File: tract-data.csv

Each row represents a census tract (2022 definitions).

• statefp: State FIPS code.
• countyfp: County FIPS code.
• tractce: Tract ID.
• population: The population from 2020 Decennial Census data.
• snap_distance: The distance in meters from the original population-weighted census tract centroid to the nearest point on the road network.
• geo_id: The 11-digit FIPS code for the census tract.
• lon_source: Equivalent to lon below.
• lat_source: Equivalent to lat below.
• lon: The longitude for the population-weighted centroid for the census tract.
• lat: The latitude for the population-weighted centroid for the census tract.
• duration_1: The drive time in minutes from the census tract to the primary SSA office.
• duration_2: The drive time in minutes from the census tract to the secondary SSA office.
• distance_1: The driving distance in meters from the census tract to the primary SSA office.
• distance_2: The driving distance in meters from the census tract to the secondary SSA office.
• haversine_distances_1: The straight-line distance in meters from the census tract to the primary SSA office.
• haversine_distances_2: The straight-line distance in meters from the census tract to the secondary SSA office.
• ssa_id_1: A unique identifier created by the Urban Institute to identify the primary SSA office for the census tract.
• ssa_id_2: A unique identifier created by the Urban Institute to identify the secondary SSA office for the census tract.
• f_address_1: The full address for the primary SSA office for the census tract.
• f_address_2: The full address for the secondary SSA office for the census tract.
• duration_change: The difference in drive time for the tract to the primary SSA office and secondary SSA office.
• distance_change: The difference in driving distance for the tract to the primary SSA office and secondary SSA office.
• haversine_distance_change: The difference in straight-line distance for the tract to the primary SSA office and secondary SSA office.
• 65+: The count of people ages 65 or older based on 5-year ACS data from 2019-2023.
• population_2023: The population based on 5-year ACS data from 2019-2023.
• share_65_plus: The share of the population ages 65 or older based on 5-year ACS data from 2019-2023.
• disabled: The disabled population based on 5-year ACS data from 2019-2023.
• county: The five-digit county FIPS code. A concatenation of statefp and countyfp.

Office-level data

File: office-data.csv

Each row represents a Social Security Administration field office with aggregated statistics for all census tracts it covers as the primary office.

• ssa_id: A unique identifier created by the Urban Institute to identify the SSA office.
• state: The state where the SSA office is located.
• f_address: The full address of the SSA office.
• tracts: The number of census tracts covered by the SSA office.
• duration_avg: The average drive time in minutes from covered tracts to this office weighted by the tract population (population_2023).
• duration_min: The minimum drive time in minutes from any covered tract to this office.
• duration_max: The maximum drive time in minutes from any covered tract to this office.
• distance_avg: The average drive distance in meters from covered tracts to this office.
• distance_min: The minimum drive distance in meters from any covered tract to this office.
• distance_max: The maximum drive distance in meters from any covered tract to this office.
• haversine_distance_avg: The average straight-line distance in meters from covered tracts to this office.
• haversine_distance_min: The minimum straight-line distance in meters from any covered tract to this office.
• haversine_distance_max: The maximum straight-line distance in meters from any covered tract to this office.
• population_2023: The population from the 2019-2023 5-year ACS across all census tracts covered by this office.
• population_2023_65_plus: The count of people ages 65 or older from the 2019-2023 5-year ACS across all census tracts covered by this office.
• disabled_2023: The count of people with disabilities from the 2019-2023 5-year ACS across all census tracts covered by this office.
• duration_change: The average increase in drive time if this office were to close.
• counties_covered: A comma-separated list of county FIPS codes covered by this office.
• counties_covered_names: A comma-separated list of county names and states covered by this office.
• congressional_districts_covered: A comma-separated list of congressional districts covered by this office.
• lon: The longitude for the SSA office location.
• lat: The latitude for the SSA office location.