Arts Basic Survey, United States, 2020 (ICPSR 37972)

Version Date: May 3, 2021

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
National Endowment for the Arts; United States. Bureau of the Census; United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37972.v1

Version V1

Alternate Title

ABS, Annual Arts Basic Survey, AABS

Summary

The 2020 Arts Basic Survey (ABS) was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). This data collection is comprised of responses from two sets of survey questionnaires, the basic CPS and a survey administered as a supplement to the February 2020 basic CPS questionnaire. The supplement, on the topic of public participation in the arts in the United States, was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The CPS, administered monthly, collects labor force data about the civilian noninstitutional population aged 15 years old or older living in the United States. Moreover, the CPS provides current estimates of the economic status and activities of this population which includes estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self-employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage and salaried employees, and estimates of total unemployment. The basic CPS data are provided on labor force activity for the week prior to the survey. In addition, CPS provides respondents' demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, marital status, educational attainment, family relationship, occupation, and industry.

The ABS captures data on American's participation in the arts through attendance at arts events and personal performance and creation of art. The respondent 18 years of age or older and his/her spouse as well as a second randomly selected person and his/her spouse/partner as applicable were asked the supplement questions. The 2020 ABS sample size was 34,995. Questions asked included the following:

  • Do any leisure activities such as working with pottery, ceramics or jewelry, leatherwork, woodwork, or any weaving, crocheting, needlepoint, knitting, or sewing.
  • Play a musical instrument.
  • Perform any acting, dancing, or singing. Take part in any visual artistic activity or creative writing.

Citation

National Endowment for the Arts, United States. Bureau of the Census, and United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Arts Basic Survey, United States, 2020. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-05-03. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37972.v1

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Core-based statistical area

Restrictions

Users of the data must agree to the Terms of Use presented on the NADAC Website and available through the link in each codebook.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

2019-02 -- 2020-12

Date of Collection

2020-01 -- 2020-12

Data Collection Notes

Users are strongly encouraged to refer the User Guide (produced by the Census Bureau), which contains the supplement questionnaire, as well as additional detailed technical documentation regarding the study design, sampling frame used, and response rates.

For more information, please visit the Arts Basic Survey website.
Hide

Study Purpose

The purpose of the Arts Basic Survey (ABS) supplement was to examine American adults' participation in various artistic activities.

Study Design

The February 2020 Arts Benchmarking Survey questions were asked of the CPS respondent and spouse as well as another randomly selected household member aged 18 or older and his/her spouse. About half of the sampled households were asked the supplement questions. Interview numbers 2, 3, 6, and 7 were asked the supplement questions. If the selected person had a spouse or partner then questions were also asked of the spouse/partner. The supplement contained questions about the sampled member's participation in various artistic activities from February 2019 through February 2020. Questions were asked about the use of pottery, ceramics, jewelry, leatherwork, metalwork and woodwork. They were also asked about weaving, crocheting, needlepoint, knitting, sewing, and whether they played a musical instrument. Questions also included doing any acting, singing or dance. Supplement interviews were conducted during the period of February 16-23, 2020.

Sample

The current CPS sample is selected based on 2010 census information. The first stage of the 2010 sample design created 1,987 geographic areas called primary sampling units (PSUs) in the entire United States. These PSUs were grouped into strata within each state. Some of these PSUs formed strata by themselves and were in sample with certainty, which is referred to as self-representing. Of the remaining nonself-representing PSUs, one PSU was selected from each stratum with the probability of selection proportional to the population of the PSU. A total of 852 PSUs were selected for sampling. The second stage of the sample design selected housing units within these PSUs.

Approximately 72,000 housing units are assigned for interview each month, of which about 60,000 are occupied and thus eligible for interview. The remainder are units found to be destroyed, vacant, converted to nonresidential use, containing persons whose usual place of residence is elsewhere, or ineligible for other reasons. Of the 60,000 occupied housing units, approximately 7 percent are not interviewed in a given month due to temporary absence (vacation, etc.), the residents are not found at home after repeated attempts, inability of persons contacted to respond, unavailability for other reasons, and refusals to cooperate. The interviewed households contain approximately 108,000 persons 15 years old and over, approximately 27,000 children 0-14 years old, and about 450 Armed Forces members living with civilians either on or off base within these households.

The February 2020 Arts Benchmarking Survey questions were asked of the CPS respondent and spouse as well as another randomly selected household member aged 18 or older and his/her spouse. About half of the sampled households were asked the supplement questions. Interview numbers 2, 3, 6, and 7 were asked the supplement questions. If the selected person had a spouse or partner then questions were also asked of the spouse/partner.

This study is a complex sample using stratification and primary sampling units (clusters).

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

The basic CPS universe consisted of all persons aged 15 years and older in the civilian noninstitutional population of the United States living in households. The 2020 ABS supplement universe is comprised of persons 18 years of age or older from about half of the eligible CPS households.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

survey data

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

The effect of nonresponse cannot be measured directly, but one indication of its potential effect is the nonresponse rate. For the February 2020 basic CPS, the household-level unweighted nonresponse rate was 17.7 percent. The person-level unweighted nonresponse rate for the Annual Arts Benchmarking Survey was an additional 25.5 percent.

Since the basic CPS nonresponse rate is a household-level rate and the Annual Arts Benchmarking Survey nonresponse rate is a person-level rate, we cannot combine these rates to derive an overall nonresponse rate. Nonresponding households may have fewer persons than interviewed ones, so combining these rates may lead to an overestimate of the true overall nonresponse rate for persons for the Annual Arts Benchmarking Survey.

Hide

Original Release Date

2021-05-03

Version History

2021-05-03 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Hide

Weight

The data contain seven CPS weight variables:

  • Household Weight, HWHHWGT, should be used for tallying household characteristics.
  • Family Weight, PWFMWGT, should be used only for tallying family characteristics.
  • Longitudinal Weight, PWLGWGT, should be used for gross flows analysis and is found only on adult records matched from month to month.
  • Outgoing Rotation Weight, PWORWGT, should be used for tallying information collected only in outgoing rotations.
  • Final Weight, PWSSWGT, is used for most tabulations, controlled to independent estimates for (1) States; (2) Origin, Sex, and Age; and (3) Age, Race, and Sex.
  • Veterans Weight, PWVETWGT, should be used for tallying veterans data only.
  • Composited Final Weight, PWCMPWGT, is used to create BLS's published labor force statistics.

The collection contains one supplement weight variable associated with the 2020 ABS Supplement:

Final supplement weight, PWABSWGT, should be used to estimate the supplement variables.

Users are strongly encouraged to refer to the User Guide for detailed information on how to use the weights, as well as how they were derived.

Hide

Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Free and easy access to data on the arts and on the arts' value and impact for individuals and communities