Graph (Twoway) number of cases over time for certain subgroups

[Carola Schmitz]

Hi everyone,

I haven't used Stata for quite some time and now have a stupid question I fear.

I use survey data and have respondents with information on (among many others) the following variables: mig_year (Year they migrated to country X) sex (gender 0/1) and nation_1(Country of origin)

I now want to make a simple graph ( I thought of twoway with line) that shows the number of cases on the Y axis and the mig_year on the x-axis for Turkish and Italian immigrants separated by gender.

But now I'm a bit lost as to how to tell Stata what information it should take for the Y-axis.

The first data point would "simply" be the number of cases for female/male Turks/Italians in the year 19xx. So the result should be 4 lines (Turks male, Turks female, Italians male, Italians female) showing the number of cases over time.

I thought of something like that, but I just can't figure out how to tell Stata that y=number of cases. Do I need to gen a new variable that counts the obs? And if so, how do I do it?

I would really appreciate some help!
Best Carola

twoway (line y mig_year if sex==0 & nation_1=="Italy", ${suboptions} mlabel(nation_1) msymbol(d) color(red) xlabel(#10)) /// Italy Male
|| (line y mig_year if sex==1 & nation_1=="Italy", ${suboptions} mlabel(nation_1) msymbol(d) color(red) lpattern(dash) xlabel(#10)) /// Italy Female
|| (line y mig_year if sex==0 & nation_1=="Turkey", ${suboptions} mlabel(nation_1) msymbol(d) color(blue) xlabel(#10)) /// Turkey Male
|| (line y mig_year if sex==1 & nation_1=="Turkey", ${suboptions} mlabel(nation_1) msymbol(d) color(blue) lpattern(dash) xlabel(#10)) /// Turkey Female
|| , ${options} legend(order(1 "Italy Male" 2 "Italy Female" 3 "Turkey Male" 4 "Turkey Female") row(2)) title("Italy & Turkey by sex (without total)", size(medium) color(black))

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input float mig_year byte sex str18 nation_1
1973 0 "Turkey"
1973 0 "Turkey"
1973 0 "Turkey"
1975 1 "Turkey"
1975 1 "Turkey"
1975 1 "Turkey"
   . 0 "Turkey"
1973 0 "Turkey"
1972 0 "Turkey"
1972 0 "Turkey"
1976 1 "Turkey"
1976 0 "Turkey"
1976 0 "Turkey"
1969 0 "Turkey"
1969 0 "Turkey"
1972 1 "Turkey"
1972 1 "Turkey"
1972 1 "Turkey"
1974 0 "Turkey"
1974 0 "Turkey"
end
label values sex sex
label def sex 0 "male", modify
label def sex 1 "female", modify

[Nick Cox]

bysort nation_1 sex mig_year: gen y = _N

[Carola Schmitz]

Thank you so much! The graph looks exactly as I wanted. So simple.

As a Stata user (who never does graphs), it is, of course, an honor that Nick Cox replied to me within 6 minutes <3

[Nick Cox]

Sometimes it’s a bot. Sometimes it’s not…

You’re welcome.