Planning the 2010 Census Second Interim Report (2003) / Chapter Skim
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4. American Community Survey
4. American Community Survey
Pages 79-102
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From page 79... ...
Pilot data collection of the ACS began in selectee! test sites in 1996 a geographic base that reached 31 sites by 1999 and the resulting data have fee!
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From page 80... ...
The 2The Census Bureau refers to the latter two data collections as SSO1 and SS02 the 2001 and 2002 Supplementary Surveys respectively. 3 Under the funding levels provided by the Bush administration s proposed budget for fiscal year 2004, questionnaire mailing for a full-scale ACS could begin during the fourth quarter July-September)
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From page 81... ...
The stagewise nature of ACS follow-up leacis to another important design feature, which is that all of the information collected in a given month will be usect as inputs for that month's estimates. That is, a particular month's estimates may include mailback responses from the present month's systematic sample of housing units but will also include completed telephone anc!
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From page 82... ...
The increased timeliness of the ACS estimates relative to census long form estimates is a very substantial benefit. ACS data products are at most 3.5 years out of ciate when released; census long form data procIucts are never less than 2 to 2.5 years out of clate anct can be as much as 12.5 years out of ciate.
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From page 83... ...
household surveys such as the Current Population Survey, jointly using each to improve the information collected by the other. Relative to the decennial census, the prime advantage of a fullflecigect ACS to the Census Bureau is the resulting prospect of a short-form-only census.
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From page 84... ...
suggest that a fuller cost-benefit analysis of the ACS would help bolster the case for the survey. ACS INFORMATION AS A REPLACEMENT FOR LONG-FORM INFORMATION Our basic theme in this report is the importance of integration within the census process, and in that spirit the panel urges the Census Bureau to make a stronger case for the ACS and its role in the broader census context.
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From page 85... ...
Hence, the question arises: are there applications using the census long form for which substitution of a moving average-type estimate from the ACS would be inappropriate? The seconct subquestion is how well ACS estimates match other estimates of the same phenomena not only how ACS finclings compare with census long-form results but also how ACS estimates compare with other survey measures.
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From page 86... ...
ESTIMATION USING THE ACS Adequacy of Moving Averages as Point Estimates A basic concern regarding the American Community Survey as a replacement for the census long form is whether ACS estimates -which, particularly for small areas or groups, would be moving averages of multiple years' data points can take the place of fixed point-in-time estimates. Obviously, ACS estimates have one clear advantage in that those fixect point-in-time estimates could, for the census long form, refer to a point as much as 12 years ago.
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From page 87... ...
bolster the case for the ACS anct potentially help relieve users' concerns if it would procluce a user's guicle that details the statistical uses for which moving averages are and are not intenclecl, the problems they pose to users, and .
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From page 88... ...
It is also natural to aciciress the question from a more pragmatic point of view: the ACS anct the census long form purport to measure the same basic phenomena, but clo the resulting data from both series actually tell the same story? Comparisons of how the ACS or C2SS estimates match census long-form estimates implicitly treat the census long-form data as an effective "golc!
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From page 89... ...
QUALITY OF ACS ESTIMATES The error associated with ACS data may be clecomposect into sampling error (sample variance) anct nonsampling error, the latter of which can be further separated into error clue to nonresponse anc!
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From page 90... ...
For example, the long form accepts proxy responses while proxies are not permitted in the ACS or C2SS, anct it is generally accepted that proxy responses are of lower quality than responses by household members.8 So the programs, anct these ratios, are not directly comparable. Still, the C2SS seems to be roughly equivalent to the long form with respect to unit nonresponse and survey unclercoverage.
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From page 91... ...
As a result, we feel that it is reasonable to compare item imputation rates to measure the impact on data quality from item nonresponse. Item imputation rates for the C2SS were substantially lower than those for the decennial census for 100 percent 9As Salvo and Lobo (2002)
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From page 92... ...
Quality of Imputed Responses Rates of unit anct item nonresponse are only partially informative as measures of the ultimate error clue to nonresponse. This is because the imputation en cl weighting routines that the Census Bureau uses to treat item en c!
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From page 93... ...
~~Confidentiality concerns in the 1980s and 1990s led the IRS to restrict access to data, even for statistical purposes, thus precluding further census matching studies in recent decades. More recently, the IRS has facilitated limited administrative records research by the Census Bureau using IRS data with appropriate safeguards.
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From page 94... ...
be tackled in the near future in orcler to generate the maximum benefits from use of the ACS as part of an integrated framework of estimates. Voluntary versus Mandatory Response The law governing conduct of the census imposes penalties on "whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects Tithe census attempts to capture "usual residence" the location where respondents usually live or spend most of their time.
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From page 95... ...
be the development of mocIels that combine information from other sources household surveys, administrative records, census data, anc! so forth with ACS information.
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From page 96... ...
given the collection of ACS data. The potential for ACS to provide improved estimates of internal and external migration also suggests the importance of exploring the potential interactions between the ACS and population estimates derived by demographic analysis.
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From page 97... ...
Use of these models and connections to external programs such as the ACS may permit other household surveys to reallocate sample to areas in which estimates are less reliable.
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From page 98... ...
to answer many other funciamental questions about data quality, the use of small-area estimates based on cumulated data, how continuous measurement could be integrated with existing household surveys, anc! its advantages compared with other means of providing more frequent small-area estimates.
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From page 99... ...
The fact that the Census Bureau has not clone more in comparing the data collected from the 31 ACS test sites, the C2SS, and the 2001 and 2002 Supplementary Surveys with the data collected by the 2000 census long form is disappointing. Such analyses would help assess the quality of ACS data and would be helpful in making the argument for transition from the long form to the ACS.
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From page 100... ...
The short-form-only census would facilitate broacler Internet clata collection and the use of MCDs to collect respondent ciata; it woulc! reduce the data collection effort and simplify use of multilanguage forms.
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From page 101... ...
the Census, commented in his opening statement: I am also very aware that we are rapidly approaching the point where the Census Bureau neects to know one way or the other if there will be a long form in the 2010 census or will the ACS be the new survey tool. It's funclamental to a successful 2010 Census that we let the Census Bureau know as soon as possible how the Congress expects the Census to be concluctecI.
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From page 102... ...
revising the content of the Current Population Survey; or greater use of administrative records supplemented with other survey ciata. The costs and benefits of these various approaches need to be clevelopect and presented for review so that decisions on the ACS can be fully informed.
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