Description

For all persons, PANEL reports the number of the panel of which the person was a member. MEPS began in 1996 with Panel number 1 and the panel number for persons entering the MEPS in each subsequent year increases by 1, so that 1997 had Panels 1 (the panel that entered in 1996, in their second year in 1997) and 2 (the panel newly entering MEPS in 1997), 1998 had Panels 2 and 3, 1999 had Panels 3 and 4, and so on. PANEL can be combined with DUID and PID to uniquely identify individuals across panels. IPUMS MEPS offers the constructed variable MEPSID that is equal to the concatenated values of DUID, PID, and PANEL.

For more information on the relationship between calendar year, panel, and round data, please see the IPUMS MEPS Panel Design Documentation.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

• No weights are available for this variable. Please refer to PANEL for more information.

Flags