The 2000 Census Counting Under Adversity (2004) / Chapter Skim
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4 Assessment of 2000 Census Operations
4 Assessment of 2000 Census Operations
Pages 97-156
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From page 97... ...
public response namely, redesigned questionnaires and mailing materials ant! pair!
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From page 98... ...
The goal for this universe for the questionnaire delivery ant! mail return phase of the census was to deliver a questionnaire to every housing unit on the MAF ant!
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From page 99... ...
The Bureau bucigetec! for a decline in the mail response rate (mail returns as a percentage of all mailback aciciresses)
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From page 100... ...
1970 1980 1990 2000 Mail response rate: 78% 75% 65% 67% Mail return rate: 87% 81% 75% 78% Differences in Final Mail Return Rates: Short and Long Forms Return rates of long forms are typically below the return rates of short forms. This difference widened substantially in 2000.
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From page 101... ...
response to the short form: the final mail return rate for short forms was 80 percent in 2000 compared with 76 percent in 1990. For long forms, the final mail return rate was 71 percent in both years, so that the gap between short-form and long-form mail return rates in 2000 was 9 percentage points, compared with only 5 percentage points in 1990.
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. · Total final mail return rates were similar for most household!
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20 percent or greater clecTines in mail return rates from 1990 to 2000 were fount! in central Indiana; Brooklyn, New York; ant!
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From page 104... ...
to the success in halting the historical decline in mail response ant! return rates a redesigned questionnaire and mailing package (4-B.1)
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From page 105... ...
about 100,000 housing units that would otherwise not have been incluclec! in the census count (see Vitrano et al., 2003a:29~.
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From page 106... ...
When late mail returns are incluclecI, the gap between short- ant! long-form mail response ant!
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From page 107... ...
4-B.2 Paid Advertising and Expanded Outreach Expansion of Efforts in 2000 A seconct important element of the Census Bureau's strategy in 2000 to reverse the historical Decline in mail response rates ant! to encourage nonresponclents to cooperate with follow-up enumerators was to advertise much more extensively ant!
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From page 108... ...
return rates in 2000 comparer! with 1990.
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Response rates for waves 2 ant! 3, which user!
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From page 110... ...
Response rates to the two surveys were 62 ant! 61 percent, respectively (Singer et al., 2001:14~.6 The results shower!
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From page 111... ...
However, positive publicity may have had indirect effects on response in that exposure to such publicity generally led to more favorable attitudes toward the census, which in turn increased mailback propensities. In particular, those who believecl that census data are not misuser!
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From page 112... ...
back their census forms at a rate of only 74 percent. The NORC study fount!
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From page 113... ...
by the Census Bureau in stemming the Decline in mail response rates observer! in the two previous censuses.
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From page 114... ...
Whether these methods would increase overall returns is not as clear, as they may mainly attract respondents who would fill out and mail back their questionnaires in any case. Although mail response and return rate patterns have been extensively analyzed, there is much that is not known about factors that explain differences in return rates among population groups and geographic areas and over time.
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From page 115... ...
practices for software clevelopment in the context of the work to reconfigure the system to separate the completion of ciata capture for long-form-sample items from the basic items. 4-C.2 Improved Data Capture Technology Strategy The Census Bureau early on made a decision to use new data capture technology to replace its in-house FOSDIC system (Film Optical
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From page 116... ...
Finally, the data capture system was redesigned at the last minute to postpone capture of Tong-form content that required keying by clerks. Both short forms ant!
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From page 117... ...
In this study, the images and data capture information from the 2000 census processing were obtainer! for 1.5 million forms (cliviclec!
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From page 118... ...
analysis for 2000 examined OMR, OCR, and KFI error rates by type of form, data capture center, and regional census center. Excluding forms for Puerto Rico, key findings include: · Averaged across type of technology (OMR, OCR, KFI)
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From page 119... ...
· There were no significant differences in error rates across the four ciata capture centers. This finding is important because it indicates that data capture site was not a source of geographic variation in the quality of the census ciata.
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. Nonresponse follow-up was a major problem in the 1990 census because the mail response rate not only ciroppec!
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From page 121... ...
housing units with later check-in ciates (the date of entering the Census Bureau's processing system) were more likely to inclucle erroneous enumerations than were returns checker!
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From page 122... ...
mail returns overall (5.3 percent.
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From page 123... ...
coverage improvement enumerations were of people living in renter! units compared with 25 percent renters on mail returns; r · 51 percent of nonresponse ant!
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as having less than the minimum amount of information for a complete interview but at least housing unit status and, for occupier! units, the number of residents (see Moul, 2003:3 for the requirements for a complete interview)
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Mail returns for househoIcls with more than six members and some other returns that appeared! not to have not fillet!
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From page 126... ...
After completion of all follow-up procedures, computer routines were user! as in previous censuses, not only to impute responses for incliviclual missing items but also to supply census records for household members that were missing all basic characteristics ant!
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From page 127... ...
people in 2000 were those in mail return househoIcis that clic! not provide characteristics for all of their members (type 14.
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From page 128... ...
4. Persons imputed in a housing unit for which occupancy status and household size have to be imputed first (from among housing units for which occupancy or vacancy status is not known)
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. Whole-person imputations in enumerated households include a small number of whole-person imputations for group quarters residents.
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In particular, the small number of people imputes! in 2000 when it was not even clear whether the aciciress was a housing unit (type 5)
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From page 131... ...
and housing status imputation (type 5~. First, because of an error in processing enumerator forms, about 145,000 housing units were ciassifiec!
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From page 132... ...
in 2000. Rates of missing data for incliviclual basic items were low (1-4 percent)
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From page 133... ...
4-D.3 Reliance on Imputation: Summary of Findings and Recommendations A major design strategy for the 2000 census was to limit as much as possible costly, time-consuming follow-up (particularly in-person follow-up) for missing data ant!
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From page 134... ...
Recommendation 4.2: Because the 2000 census experienced high rates of whole-household nonresponse and missing responses for individual long-form items, the Census Bureau's planning for the 2010 census and the American Community Survey should include research on the trade-offs in costs and accuracy between imputation and additional field work for missing data. Such research should examine the usefulness of following up a sample of households with missing data to obtain information with which to improve the accuracy of imputation routines.
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Integration of the address list for special places (group quarters) with the housing unit address list was clelayecl, anal, con
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136 Cal .
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The results led the Census Bureau to conclude that there were probably still a sizable number of duplicate housing unit addresses
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from the census; 1 million housing units ant! 2.4 million people were reinstater!
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By type of structure, the housing unit coverage study estimated that small multiunit structures (those with two to nine housing units)
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From page 141... ...
We also know little about the variability in the accuracy of the i7Even higher percentages of errors of erroneous enumeration and omission occurred for vacant housing units (Barrett et al., 2001:Table 2~. See Vitrano et al.
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From page 142... ...
By full participation, we mean that they informed the Census Bureau of needed changes to the address list for their area; see Box 4.3. Factors that relate to participation include: · Geographic region.
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143 o U o u ~ au au ~ ~ ~ O to C: it_ In a)
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From page 144... ...
used a broad definition of participation, under which 53 percent of eligible governments participated by signing the required confidentiality agreement. These are governments in categories 1-3; they include approximately 92 percent of 1990 housing units in eligible areas.
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occupier! or vacant housing units, but only 506,000 valic!
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the block canvass, another 396,000 housing units were contributec! by both LUCA 98 ant!
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for a thorough evaluation of the contribution of various sources, such as the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence File ant!
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It is also critical to develop accurate information on the number of housing units that exist within structures. Several reports, including the housing unit coverage study (Barrett et al., 2001, 2003)
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An issue for concern wouIc! be that sharing of MAF files might violate the conficlentiality of inclivicluals for example, by clisclosing overcrowding of housing units in violation of local cocles.
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Improvements in at least three areas are essential: 1. The Census Bureau must develop procedures for obtaining accurate information to identify housing units within multiunit structures.
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A structure that houses a group quarters may also include one or more housing units (e.g., the apartment for a resident faculty member in a dormitory)
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Moreover, some group quarters (e.g., halfway-homes) are Tocatecl in structures that appear to be housing units.
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From page 153... ...
in the Census Bureau's Count Question Resolution Program.2i · There was no system, such as a preprinted! group quarters identification cocle, for tracking incliviclual questionnaires from group quarters residents.
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From page 154... ...
erroneously from the group quarters to the housing unit universe. Of these, 31,000 people were erroneously omitted from the census altogether.
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From page 155... ...
others, resultecl in poor data quality for this growing population. In particular, missing data rates, especially for Tong-form-sample items, were much higher for group quarters residents than for household members in 2000 and consiclerably higher than the missing data rates for group quarters residents in 1990 (see Finding 7.34.
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From page 156... ...
In abolition, there was no program to evaluate the completeness of population coverage in Croup Quarters. {A {A 1 1 Enumeration procedures for group quarters residents neec!
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