Statistical Disclosure Control Histograms

Histograms compatible with Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) guidance

These are simple Stata programs for producing histograms in conformance with SDC guidance (see Handbook on SDC.pdf)

binsafe plots a histogram of the distribution of a variable constructed so that each bar represents the same fraction of the data (constant area histogram). No fraction contains fewer than 10 observations to accord with SDC guidance [1]. If all bin areas are >10 then the bin number is assigned using Sturges' rule [2].

histsdc plots a frequency histogram that is compatible with Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) guidance by replacing any value less than 10 with the value 10. A note is added to the histogram to this effect.

To use these just copy the ado file and its associated sthlp file into your personal directory.

Authors

Alun Hughes (Twitter: @alundhughes30; Github: https://github.com/adh30)

Acknowledgments

binsafe draws extensively on eqprhistogram by Nick Cox (n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk)

References

1. Emily Griffiths et al. (2019) Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control for Outputs. The Safe Data Access Professionals Working Group.
2. Herbert A. Sturges. (1926). The choice of a class interval. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 21 (153): 65–66. doi:10.1080/01621459.1926.10502161