Planning for the 2020 Census.ppt

Planning for the 2020 Census Presentation to the SDC/CIC Steering Committees Daniel H. Weinberg Assistant Director for ACS and Decennial Census June 17, 2010 The Context The rising costs of the 2010 Census were largely driven by three factors: (1) declining self-response rates requiring the hiring of a large field staff, (2) paper-based and labor-intensive methods requiring a large field infrastructure, and (3) substantial investments in major, national updating of the address frame just prior to the enumeration (2009). * Census Cost per Housing Unit (2010$) (Projected cost for 2020 assumes no change in design and past patterns of cost growth; it also includes the costs for American Community Survey.) Goals The strategic outcome is to develop a design which strikes a balance between delivering the highest quality census while reducing costs and managing risks. The 2020 Census has four strategic goals: (1) An Accurate and Complete Census, (2) Embraced and Valued Results, (3) An Efficient Census, and (4) A Well-Managed Census. * Planning Principles for Identifying Research Projects(1) Reduces Cost—potential that the project could result in overall reduction in census cost per housing unit versus historical trends; Improves Quality—potential that the project could result in overall improved census quality; Reduces Field Timeline—potential that the project could result in reducing the amount of time that field data collection occurs (thus reducing recall bias); Tailored Response Modes—potential that the project supports customization of response modes by geography and demographics (thus improving response and potentially reducing differential undercoverage); Leverages ACS—potential that project could integrate software and hardware improvements into the American Community Survey and that testing could occur using the ACS infrastructure (such as the Internet self-response test planned for 2011); * Planning Principles (2) Supports Continual Frame Updating—po