Statistical Review by NASS

Below is my response to the Current Population Survey (CPS) Food Security Supplement.

The USDA Food Security Supplement (FSS) is a supplemental survey conducted in early December of each year from the CPS. The CPS interviews are done on a monthly basis, and the CPS produces labor force data and estimates for the total US population, providing details by age, gender, race, and Hispanic origin.  The CPS-FSS has been successfully fielded by the Census Bureau under the sponsorship of the Economic Research Service since 1995.  Information collected from the supplement is based on the previous twelve-month period.  The sample design, estimation methodology and questionnaire content for the December 2013 supplement survey is unchanged from that of the December 2011 survey and that of the planned December 2012 survey.  The CPS sample is a stratified clustered address-based sample drawn from four sampling frames.  When address information from the census is not available or the address information from the census no longer corresponds to the current address situation, then a separate listing (universe) of all eligible units without addresses must be created.  The listings can occur in all four sampling frames.  Performing the listing and the sampling from it in two separate steps allows for more complete control of the sampling procedures to avoid sampling bias in designating the sampling units to be interviewed.  For the CPS-FSS the cluster sampling is most efficient when the cluster groups share the same geographic characteristics, and the sampling units are internally heterogeneous, where the demographic characteristics are diverse. 

Thank You.

Tom Pordugal

Statistical Methods Branch

Commodity Section

USDA / NASS / SD / SMB

Phone: (202) 690-3623

E-mail: [email protected]