MicroDF

MicroDF provides weighted pandas DataFrames and Series for analyzing survey microdata, with built-in support for inequality and poverty calculations.

For Users

What is MicroDF?

When you see poverty rates, Gini coefficients, or distributional charts in PolicyEngine, those are calculated using MicroDF.

MicroDF powers:

• Poverty rate calculations (SPM)
• Inequality metrics (Gini coefficient)
• Income distribution analysis
• Weighted statistics from survey data

Understanding the Metrics

Gini coefficient:

• Calculated using MicroDF from weighted income data
• Ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality)
• US typically around 0.48

Poverty rates:

• Calculated using MicroDF with weighted household data
• Compares income to poverty thresholds
• Accounts for household composition

Percentiles:

• MicroDF calculates weighted percentiles
• Shows income distribution (10th, 50th, 90th percentile)

For Analysts

Installation

uv pip install microdf-python

Quick Start

import microdf as mdf
import pandas as pd

# Create sample data
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'income': [10000, 20000, 30000, 40000, 50000],
    'weights': [1, 2, 3, 2, 1]
})

# Create MicroDataFrame
mdf_df = mdf.MicroDataFrame(df, weights='weights')

# All operations are weight-aware
print(f"Weighted mean: ${mdf_df.income.mean():,.0f}")
print(f"Gini coefficient: {mdf_df.income.gini():.3f}")

Common Operations

Weighted statistics:

mdf_df.income.mean()     # Weighted mean
mdf_df.income.median()   # Weighted median
mdf_df.income.sum()      # Weighted sum
mdf_df.income.std()      # Weighted standard deviation

Inequality metrics:

mdf_df.income.gini()     # Gini coefficient
mdf_df.income.top_x_pct_share(10)  # Top 10% share
mdf_df.income.top_x_pct_share(1)   # Top 1% share

Poverty analysis:

# Poverty rate (income < threshold)
poverty_rate = mdf_df.poverty_rate(
    income_measure='income',
    threshold=poverty_line
)

# Poverty gap (how far below threshold)
poverty_gap = mdf_df.poverty_gap(
    income_measure='income',
    threshold=poverty_line
)

# Deep poverty (income < 50% of threshold)
deep_poverty_rate = mdf_df.deep_poverty_rate(
    income_measure='income',
    threshold=poverty_line,
    deep_poverty_line=0.5
)

Quantiles:

# Deciles
mdf_df.income.decile_values()

# Quintiles
mdf_df.income.quintile_values()

# Custom quantiles
mdf_df.income.quantile(0.25)  # 25th percentile

MicroSeries

# Extract a Series with weights
income_series = mdf_df.income  # This is a MicroSeries

# MicroSeries operations
income_series.mean()
income_series.gini()
income_series.percentile(50)

WARNING: .values and .to_numpy() strip weights. These methods now emit a UserWarning because they return plain numpy arrays where operations like .mean() are unweighted. Always use MicroSeries methods directly for weighted calculations:

# ❌ WRONG - strips weights, .mean() is unweighted
ms.values.mean()
ms.to_numpy().mean()

# ✅ CORRECT - weighted automatically
ms.mean()

Working with PolicyEngine Results

import microdf as mdf
from policyengine_us import Simulation

# Run simulation with axes (multiple households)
situation_with_axes = {...}  # See policyengine-us-skill
sim = Simulation(situation=situation_with_axes)

# Get results as arrays
incomes = sim.calculate("household_net_income", 2026)
weights = sim.calculate("household_weight", 2026)

# Create MicroDataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'income': incomes, 'weight': weights})
mdf_df = mdf.MicroDataFrame(df, weights='weight')

# Calculate metrics
gini = mdf_df.income.gini()
poverty_rate = mdf_df.poverty_rate('income', threshold=15000)

print(f"Gini: {gini:.3f}")
print(f"Poverty rate: {poverty_rate:.1%}")

For Contributors

Repository

Location: PolicyEngine/microdf

Clone:

git clone https://github.com/PolicyEngine/microdf
cd microdf

Current Implementation

To see current API:

# Main classes
cat microdf/microframe.py   # MicroDataFrame
cat microdf/microseries.py  # MicroSeries

# Key modules
cat microdf/generic.py      # Generic weighted operations
cat microdf/inequality.py   # Gini, top shares
cat microdf/poverty.py      # Poverty metrics

To see all methods:

# MicroDataFrame methods
grep "def " microdf/microframe.py

# MicroSeries methods
grep "def " microdf/microseries.py

Testing

To see test patterns:

ls tests/
cat tests/test_microframe.py

Run tests:

make test

# Or
pytest tests/ -v

Contributing

Before contributing:

1. Check if method already exists
2. Ensure it's weighted correctly
3. Add tests
4. Follow policyengine-standards-skill

Common contributions:

• New inequality metrics
• New poverty measures
• Performance optimizations
• Bug fixes

Advanced Patterns

Custom Aggregations

# Define custom weighted aggregation
def weighted_operation(series, weights):
    return (series * weights).sum() / weights.sum()

# Apply to MicroSeries
result = weighted_operation(mdf_df.income, mdf_df.weights)

Groupby Operations

# Group by with weights
grouped = mdf_df.groupby('state')
state_means = grouped.income.mean()  # Weighted means by state

Inequality Decomposition

To see decomposition methods:

grep -A 20 "def.*decomp" microdf/

Integration Examples

Example 1: PolicyEngine Blog Post Analysis

# Pattern from PolicyEngine blog posts
import microdf as mdf

# Get simulation results
baseline_income = baseline_sim.calculate("household_net_income", 2026)
reform_income = reform_sim.calculate("household_net_income", 2026)
weights = baseline_sim.calculate("household_weight", 2026)

# Create MicroDataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'baseline_income': baseline_income,
    'reform_income': reform_income,
    'weight': weights
})
mdf_df = mdf.MicroDataFrame(df, weights='weight')

# Calculate impacts
baseline_gini = mdf_df.baseline_income.gini()
reform_gini = mdf_df.reform_income.gini()

print(f"Gini change: {reform_gini - baseline_gini:+.4f}")

Example 2: Poverty Analysis

# Calculate poverty under baseline and reform
from policyengine_us import Simulation

baseline_sim = Simulation(situation=situation)
reform_sim = Simulation(situation=situation, reform=reform)

# Get incomes — use household_weight (the only calibrated weight) mapped to spm_unit
baseline_income = baseline_sim.calculate("spm_unit_net_income", 2026)
reform_income = reform_sim.calculate("spm_unit_net_income", 2026)
spm_threshold = baseline_sim.calculate("spm_unit_poverty_threshold", 2026)
weights = baseline_sim.calculate("household_weight", 2026, map_to="spm_unit")

# Calculate poverty rates
df_baseline = mdf.MicroDataFrame(
    pd.DataFrame({'income': baseline_income, 'threshold': spm_threshold, 'weight': weights}),
    weights='weight'
)

poverty_baseline = (df_baseline.income < df_baseline.threshold).mean()  # Weighted

# Similar for reform
print(f"Poverty reduction: {(poverty_baseline - poverty_reform):.1%}")

Package Status

Maturity: Stable, production-ready API stability: Stable (rarely breaking changes) Performance: Optimized for large datasets

To see version:

pip show microdf-python

To see changelog:

cat CHANGELOG.md  # In microdf repo

Related Skills

• policyengine-us-skill - Generating data for microdf analysis
• policyengine-analysis-skill - Using microdf in policy analysis
• policyengine-us-data-skill - Data sources for microdf

Resources

Repository: https://github.com/PolicyEngine/microdf PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/microdf-python/ Issues: https://github.com/PolicyEngine/microdf/issues