Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place Residence Rules in the Decennial Census (2006) / Chapter Skim
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2 Residence Rules: Development and Interpretation
2 Residence Rules: Development and Interpretation
Pages 23-58
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From page 23... ...
Residence rules form a crucial connective link in the census process, taking the data and attributes of each American resident and producing results that can be tabulated by whatever geographic boundaries may be needed. Residence rules are critical to assigning each person to a "correct" address; a second key linkage -- between the address and a specific geographic location -- is provided by the Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF)
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. We outline some of the consequences of difficulties in defining residence in Section 2E, and close in Section 2F with a description of the Census Bureau's preliminary residence rules for 2010.
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From page 25... ...
In recent censuses, the actual list of residence rules has been an internal Census Bureau document, although a somewhat edited version of the rules was posted on the Census Bureau Web site during the 2000 census.1 The rules were also incorporated in some form into the training materials for census enumerators. The formal residence rule list is used to answer questions, both inside and outside the Census Bureau, on residence questions (U.S.
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From page 26... ...
is written into active census law. Rather, the residence rules are guidelines, internal to the Census Bureau, on how certain living sit uations should be handled in terms of defining "usual residence." 2B.1 Historical Development While the U.S.
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101, §5) .3 The legislative text of 1790 outlined the rules for defining residence for census purposes, with the goal of counting each resident of the United States once and only once and in the correct location; the first census residence rules, like the underlying census goal, have guided every subsequent census.
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From page 28... ...
. Moreover, Title 13 does not directly specify what residence standard-a de jure enumeration based on usual residence or a de facto count based on current residence or where a person is found on Census Day -- should apply to the decennial census.
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From page 29... ...
. The Census Bureau tried moving Census Day back further still in the 1920 census, to January 1, "at the request of the Department of Agriculture, and also because it was contended that more people would be found at their usual place of abode in January than in April" (Steuart, 1921:571)
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From page 30... ...
Arguably, the most significant change in residence rules and their role in the decennial census was brought about by a major paradigm shift in census operations: the switch from an enumerator-conducted census to a mailedquestionnaire, self-administered response model of census data collection. The 1960 census was the first to move significantly toward this model;8 in that year, households were mailed an "Advance Census Report," which they were asked to fill out but not return by mail.
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From page 31... ...
(We discuss the evolution of the mail-based census instruments in Chapter 6, illustrating the approaches used in the 19601990 censuses in Figures 6-16-4.) 2B.3 Assessment of the 2000 Census Residence Rules By 2000, the Census Bureau's internal list of residence rules grew to 31 specific rules, plus a related statement on the meaning of time cycles (e.g., daily, weekly, or monthly)
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(5) Rural update/enumerate The Census Bureau determined that some blocks originally planned to be enumerated by update/leave would be better handled by a procedure in which address list updating and enumeration were conducted concurrently.
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In this section we focus on the challenges faced by the Census Bureau in specifying what it means by residence; in Section 2D, we consider the difficulties faced by respondents in answering residence questions. 2C.1 Definitional Challenges An inherent problem with the Census Bureau's "usual residence" approach -- particularly when the primary mode of data collection is selfresponse by individual persons -- is that it requires respondents to interpret
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From page 34... ...
The term the Census Bureau uses as its basic unit of measurement is the "household"; operationally, the Bureau draws distinctions between the household population and the "group quarters" (e.g., prisons, dormitories, and hospitals; see Box 2-3) and "service-based" populations (e.g., shelters and soup kitchens)
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From page 35... ...
9. Dormitories and other group quarters Crews of maritime vessels; agriculture workers' dormitories; other workers' dormitories; Job Corps and vocational training facilities; dormitories for staff at military institutional group quarters; dormitories for staff at civilian institutional group quarters; religious group quarters; other nonhousehold living situations (includes hostels, YMCAs, YWCAs)
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From page 36... ...
Defining the unit of measurement is difficult in itself; defining "usual residence" at that unit is harder still. In the absence of a universally clear and applicable word to describe what is meant by "usual residence," another approach is to try to find the actions and activities that respondents are most likely to associate with what the Census Bureau deems to be the "usual residence." This is the approach taken in most recent censuses, trying to find the bundle of activities -- "living and sleeping"?
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From page 37... ...
Respondents are asked to consider where they live "most of the time," allowing flexibility in interpretation. 2C.2 Discrepant Standards Etymology and syntax aside, determining "usual residence" can be difficult because the general concept of residence can be approached through any number of standards, some of which conflict directly with each other and some of which clash with residence standards encountered by people in everyday life.
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From page 38... ...
The adage "home is where the heart is" rings true for many; people may consider their family home to be their real home or "usual residence," even if that location is not what a strict majority-of-nights-stayed or other measure might suggest. Family and kinship ties may be important in determining where people say that they usually live; so too may be the presence of friends or affiliation in community organizations.
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From page 39... ...
RESIDENCE RULES: DEVELOPMENT AND INTERPRETATION 39 Box 2-4 State Definitions of Residence: California Residence for In-State College Tuition: With slight variations, the campuses of the University of California, California State University, and California Community College systems define residency consistent with "Uniform Student Residency Requirements" (California Education Code, Part 41 and §68062)
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From page 40... ...
The publication lists several factors that can determine residency: · Amount of time you spend in California versus [time spent] outside California; · Location of your spouse and children; · Location of your principal residence; · Where your driver's license was issued; · Where your vehicles are registered; · Where you maintain your professional licenses; · Where you are registered to vote; · Location of the banks where you maintain accounts; · Location of your doctors, dentists, accountants, and attorneys; · Location of the church, temple or mosque, professional associations, or social and country clubs of which you are a member; · Location of your real property and investments; · Permanence of your work assignments in California; and · Location of your social ties.
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From page 41... ...
Residence in Administrative Records Thus far, we have focused on the Census Bureau's basic problems in defining a residence concept so that it can be used to try to elicit accurate information from census respondents. However, a potential mismatch in residence standards arises in situations when the Bureau has to blend data gathered directly from respondents (or through enumerator follow-up interviews with respondents)
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From page 42... ...
. Referring to the Act of March 1, 1790, O'Connor wrote that "`usual residence' was the gloss given the constitutional phrase `in each State' by the first enumeration Act and has been used by the Census Bureau ever since to allocate persons to their home states.
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From page 43... ...
A perfect set of residence rules, which could flawlessly guide respondents through the process of identifying themselves at the place the Census Bureau considers the person's "usual residence," is ultimately futile if the Bureau's geographic resources are not in order. Inclusion on the Bureau's MAF is central to inclusion in the census; the MAF is the source of mailing addresses for the mass mailout of questionnaires to most of the country and is the basis for follow-up with nonresponding households.
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for accurate tabulation. Gaps and inaccuracies in the Census Bureau's geographic reference database, the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER)
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Rather, "household" living arrangements can be very fluid -- unrelated persons living together in groups, extended family members moving in and out, and so forth. In short, "household is a polythetic category" and its definition can vary sharply "between various social groups and within them." Third, the instinctive desire to preserve the family unit runs counter to the Census Bureau's "usual residence" principle in several major cases, and can lead to noncompliance with residence rules.
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From page 46... ...
2E CONSEQUENCES OF RESIDENCE COMPLEXITIES The basic consequence of difficulties with census residence rules -- either in their definition or in their interpretation by census respondents -- is spotty census coverage. That is, some people will be omitted from the census entirely, while others will be counted multiple times.
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From page 47... ...
Indeed, the first indication that duplication would be a major story of the 2000 census came as the 2000 census was in progress; a comparison with the count of housing unit addresses on the MAF with another estimate of the size of the housing stock suggested a potentially large duplication problem. The Census Bureau mounted a special ad hoc unduplication program in summer 2000; based on that operation, 2.4 million housing units (comprised of 6 million people)
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Between October 2001 and March 2003, Census Bureau staff engaged in a further major set of evaluation studies, producing a final set of results dubbed A.C.E. Revision II; these results indicated a 0.5 percent net overcount of the population.
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From page 49... ...
. Census residence rules that are clearly conveyed are a key part of a strategy to combat person duplication; given the prominence of groups like college students and nursing home patients as potential census duplicates, a more effective way of ensuring that these groups are counted at one place is certainly needed.
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From page 50... ...
Difficult as the concept may be to work with, though, it is important to keep the general nature of group quarters data collection in mind when thinking of the consequence of definitional and operational aspects of census residence rules. It is important for census residence concepts to deal with group quarters as accurately as possible because the decennial census has historically been the only comprehensive data source on characteristics of the group quarters population.
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From page 51... ...
Based on that feedback, the Census Bureau residence rules staff continued work in advance of a March 2005 meeting with the panel. At that meeting, the Census Bureau presented a draft recommendation that replaced the 31 formal rules of 2000 with a single residence rule for 2010; a supporting document, similar to the 2000 census residence rules list, described how this single residence rule should be applied in a variety of living situations.
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From page 52... ...
Proposed Changes to Residence Situation Applications The Census Bureau's proposed "one rule" is accompanied by a listing of how the rule applies to a variety of residence situations. Most of these are adapted from the 2000 census residence rules, with one change and several formal additions: · Boarding school students: The Census Bureau proposes changing the interpretation of "usual residence" for boarding school students (below the college level)
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From page 53... ...
Finding 2.3: Though the concept inherits from a long tradition of practice dating to the 1790 census act, active census law and regulation do not define the residence standard for the decennial census (de jure or de facto) , nor do they define what constitutes "usual residence." To be clear, the panel believes that it is very much for the best that Title 13 is not highly prescriptive of the exact mechanics of the decennial census; the open-endedness gives the Census Bureau much-needed latitude to develop and continue to refine its craft.
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From page 54... ...
Likewise, de facto-type rules are common in general surveys and polls, but some major federal household surveys vary and follow a usual residence rule: prominent among these are the Census Bureauconducted Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program
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No SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau (2002:Figure 7-5)
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From page 56... ...
In offering this recommendation, we reiterate that the Census Bureau has made some good first strides in this direction with its proposed revisions for the 2006 census test and 2008 dress rehearsal. We applaud and endorse the Bureau's continued effort, and urge that further work be given high priority commensurate with the importance of residence concepts to the accuracy of the census.
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From page 57... ...
RESIDENCE RULES: DEVELOPMENT AND INTERPRETATION 57 the most optimal or cost-effective census operations, and some may be extremely difficult to implement in practice. Striking a balance between pure principle and effective operations may not be easy, but the accuracy of the census will be improved by the development of basic residence principles and their use in developing implementation plans.
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