SOUTH CAROLINA STATE SURVEYS

Since 1989 the Institute’s survey research unit has conducted a number of state-wide surveys on a variety of policy issues. Both the South Carolina Policy Survey (an internal Institute survey) and the South Carolina State Survey (a biannual omnibus survey in which various organizations participate) are random-digit dialed telephone surveys of the adult (age 18 and older) population. Publicly released data from these surveys are now available.

For each of these surveys three files are available: (1) A questionnaire file that provides the wording of the questions for the available data; (2) a set of frequency counts that provides marginal distributions for these items; and (3) an SPSS data file. The results provided in the marginal distributions have been weighted so that the characteristics of the sample reflect those of the South Carolina adult population on the basis of age, race, and sex. Each of the SPSS data contains a variable (CENSUSWT) that applies these weights, and it is highly recommended that these weights be used in any analyses of these data to ensure a representative sample for making estimates of the true population figures for South Carolina. 

If you have any questions about these data, please contact Ned Self at 777-1864 or selfea@mailbox.sc.edu.