DNORS Data

The DNORS data is divided into two categories: the Public Use data, which is accessible to all, and the Restricted Use data for which a special application must be made. In addition, separately created contextual data are also available to researchers to use in conjunction with the Restricted Use data or independently.

Specific questions regarding the DNORS data and documentation should be sent to our data support email address dnors-supp@rand.org.

Public Use Data

The DNORS Public Use Data contains the screener and main interview responses.

All users will need to access the Public Use Data because they include all variables except those that may enable identification of survey respondents through deductive identification. Public Use Data contain no specific geographic codes other than the DNORS sampling segment and has top-coded or grouped responses for the following items: earnings, income, property damage, occupation, industry, height/weight, distances, and state and country of locations.

See the DNORS Overview, User's Guide, and Codebook [PDF] for more detailed information about the data files and individual variables.

Restricted Use Data

Restricted Data include only those data fields that may enable identification of survey respondents through deductive identification. These data are intended to be linked with the Public Use Data for analysis. Access to DNORS Restricted Data requires a contract as well as a processing fee.

DNORS has created four versions of Restricted Use Data, each of which has different contents and a different level of access requirements and data security. A summary description of these four versions and the Public Use Data is provided in the table below.

Table 1. Comparison of different versions of DNORS data

Data types

	Public Use Data	Restricted Data V.1	Restricted Data V.2	Restricted Data V.3	Restricted Data V.4
Direct identifiers	No	No	No	No	No
Geographic coordinates	No	No	No	No	Yes
Census block number	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Census tract number, city, zip	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
County, State, Country	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distance variables	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Individual characteristics	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

* Some of the characteristics are treated for disclosure protection or are not included.

Procedural requirements

	Public Use Data	Restricted Data V.1	Restricted Data V.2	Restricted Data V.3	Restricted Data V.4
On-line user agreement	Yes	No	No	No	No
Brief research proposal	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data protection plan	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Licensing agreement	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Institutional Review Board approval	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Processing fee	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Secure data enclave	No	No	No	No	Yes
Federally-funded project	No	No	No	No	Yes

Contextual Use Data

DNORS has assembled contextual data for all of Orleans Parish that can be used in conjunction with the DNORS Restricted Use Data or independently. Contextual data for DNORS has one set of Census 2000 data that is provided at the Census Tract level and a different set at the Census Block level. The block-level data additionally includes elevation and Katrina flood depth data.