Department of Commerce
United States Census Bureau
OMB Information Collection Request
2020 Census Post-Enumeration Survey Independent Listing Operation
OMB Control Number 0607-XXXX
A. JUSTIFICATION
Necessity of the Information Collection
The U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) Independent Listing (IL) operation as part of the 2020 Census. The 2020 PES IL operation will be conducted in the U.S. (excluding remote Alaska) and in Puerto Rico in selected PES sampled areas. As in the past, including in the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) program, the PES operations and activities will be conducted separate from and independent of the 2020 Census operations.
The 2020 PES will use the dual-system estimation procedure, which depends on two independent systems of measurement. The independence between the PES and census operations is a fundamental necessity for dual-system estimation. The PES will comprise two independent enumerations of housing units and the household population within the same sample areas. These two enumerations are called the population sample (P sample) and the enumeration sample (E sample). The primary sampling unit is the basic collection unit (BCU), which is the smallest unit of collection geography for 2020 Census listing operations. The P sample is a sample of housing units (HUs) and people obtained independently from the census for a sample of BCUs. The E sample is a sample of census HUs and enumerations in the same BCUs as the P sample. The independent roster of HUs is obtained during the PES IL operation.
Separate OMB packages will be submitted for PES field operations subsequent to the Independent Listing. The remaining packages are 1) the 2020 PES Initial Housing Unit Followup and Final Housing Unit Followup and 2) the 2020 PES Person Interview and Person Followup.
Title 13, United States Code, Section 141 authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a decennial census of the population, and Section 193 authorizes the Secretary to conduct tests to gather supplementary information related to the census.
The Census Bureau is not currently planning a separate package for the Evaluations and Experiments program, as has been done in past censuses. A planned evaluation of the census Address Canvassing operation uses the same field data collection procedures as the PES IL. In addition, the sample for the PES IL is sufficient for the Address Canvassing evaluation. For the 2020 Census, evaluations and experiments will be described either as a Nonsubstantive Change to this package to accommodate the Address Canvassing evaluation, to the Census Bureau’s 2020 Census package (covered under OMB approval #0607-1006), or within the Generic Clearance for Census Bureau Field Tests and Evaluations (covered under OMB approval #0607-0971).
Needs and Uses
The PES will be conducted for the 2020 Census to provide estimates of net coverage error and components of coverage (correct enumerations, erroneous enumerations, imputations, and omissions) for HUs and people in HUs. These estimates will measure the coverage of the 2020 Census and may be used to improve future censuses. This is similar to methodologies of the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) program. Prior to that, Coverage Measurement programs were designed only to measure net coverage error.
The IL operation is the first field operation in the PES process. It will be conducted to enumerate all HU addresses within the PES sample of BCUs before the 2020 Census enumeration of people commences. Group quarters will be excluded. In those BCUs throughout the 50 states (excluding remote Alaska), the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, field staff—referred to as listers—will canvass every street, road, or other place where people might live in their assigned BCUs. Listers will construct a list of HUs using an automated data collection instrument on a laptop.
Listers will attempt to contact a member of each HU they encounter in their assigned BCU to ensure all units at a given address are identified. If someone answers, the lister will provide the Confidentiality Notice and ask about the address to collect the address information, as appropriate. If the listers do not find anyone at home after several attempts, they will try to collect the information from a proxy or update the address list as best they can by observation as a last resort. Proxies are respondents who are not members of the household. Listers will also identify the location of each HU by collecting map spots and collect information on the status of each HU, such as occupied, vacant, under construction, empty trailer park, etc.
Completed IL BCUs will be automatically reviewed for unusual characteristics (such as GPS information indicating that the lister was far from the units they were listing). BCUs with unusual characteristics may be subject to a quality control (QC) wherein QC listers return to the field to check a portion of units to ensure that the work performed is of acceptable quality and to verify that the correct BCUs were visited. If the BCU fails the QC, then the QC lister works the entire BCU.
Information quality is an integral part of the predissemination review of data by the Census Bureau (fully described in the Census Bureau’s Information Quality Guidelines located at http://www.census.gov/quality/). Information quality also is integral to the information collections conducted by the Census Bureau and is incorporated into the clearance process required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Use of Information Technology
The automation efforts for the 2020 PES are focused on the PES Independent Listing and Person Interview operations. The IL interviews will be conducted using in-field person-to-person interviews on an automated instrument on a laptop that will contain digital maps of the area that needs to be canvassed.
Efforts to Identify Duplication
This effort does not duplicate information collected by any other agency.
Minimizing Burden
The proposed information collection consists of collecting information about HUs, not businesses or group quarters, in the PES sample BCUs. Interviews will be conducted at the smallest number of housing units required to adequately estimate net coverage error and the components of census coverage. Respondents will be asked the minimum number of questions to identify all housing units in the sampled areas.
Consequences of Less Frequent Collection
The Census Bureau will conduct the PES IL activities only once in the 2020 Census. If these activities were not conducted, it would adversely affect our ability to measure the coverage of the 2020 Census.
Special Circumstances
No special circumstances exist.
Consultations Outside the Agency
The Census Bureau has historically conducted research to evaluate results for the decennial census. We benefit from consultation with a variety of data users, including, but not limited to academicians, national researchers, and community leaders. These individuals and members of the National Academy of Science and the Census Advisory Committees are well-known scholars and social or political activists, and are respected as spokespersons for their communities and organizations. Both now and in the past, we have responded to advice obtained through this ongoing consultation process.
The Census Bureau published a notice in the Federal Register on October 25, 2018 (Vol. 83, Pg. 53849), inviting public comment on our plans to submit this information collection. We received comments from two writers. The first commenter, from the City of New York Department of City Planning, urged that IL listers be trained to accept proxies only as a last resort. This recommendation is consistent with the plans for the 2020 PES IL operation. The listers will collect data first by interview and then by observation at the housing unit. Proxy interviews may be obtained if a lister is unable to conduct an interview at the housing unit after multiple attempts.
The second commenter, from the Sierra Health Foundation, included five recommendations.
Oversample Hard-to-Count Census Tracts – The commenter suggested, “The ILO needs more fine-grained, high-quality address listing to generate an adequate sampling frame for the E sample.”
We are oversampling harder to enumerate BCUs by selecting BCUs from the nonowner-occupied stratum at a higher rate (1.5 times higher) than the BCUs in the owner-occupied stratum. This is the same differential sampling factor used in the 2010 CCM. As part of 2020 PES research agenda, we investigated alternative stratification methods for targeting harder to enumerate tracts. We decided to use tenure status (i.e., nonowner-occupied and owner-occupied) as the stratification variable for 2020 PES similar to how it was used in 2010 CCM. This research was published in the 2018 ASA proceedings titled “Creating a Hard-To-Enumerate Score to Stratify the 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey Sample” by Heim, et al.
Revise and Enhance Address Listing Procedures – The commenter states, “The ILO address listing procedure described in the Federal Register Notice basically consists of standard Census Bureau address listing operations. The procedures described show minimal awareness of the on-the-ground housing patterns in low-income communities where unconventional and/or hidden housing is prevalent.”
The procedures listed in the Federal Register Notice did not include all of the listing details. The PES IL directs listers to make up to three visits to obtain an interview. In addition, the interview includes a question to the respondent to identify hidden housing units. We have long been aware that different living arrangements necessitate different field procedures. The 2020 PES IL operation will be conducted similar to the 2010 CCM IL operation. Please refer to the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement Initial Housing Unit Independent Listing, Matching, and Followup Operations Assessment Report for more information on procedures.
Rely on Local Community Service and Community Advocacy Organizations for Recruiting Address Listers – The commenter states, “The optimal ILO will be one that successfully recruits local community members who are experienced in door-to-door outreach.”
Recruiting local community members is a good idea. We have done this in past censuses and plan to do something similar for 2020.
Contract with Local Community Organizations to Conduct IL Address Listing Operations in HTC Neighborhoods – The writer provides an example of when the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Census Bureau collaborated with the California Rural Legal Assistance Corporation to conduct an experimental initiative to use community-based canvassers to identify low-visibility housing units likely to have been omitted. This operation successfully added about 3,000 newly identified low-visibility housing units.
The Census Bureau will conduct the 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey using Census Bureau employees.
Make a Commitment to Transparency – The commenter states, “The current Federal Register Notice includes many operational details on address listing but does not provide more than a skeletal description of sampling.”
Procedures for sampling, interviewing, and field procedures are very similar to what we implemented in the 2010 Census and can be found online. As we continue to plan for the 2020 PES, we will present our procedures to advisory committees. We will make our procedures available in the 2020 Census Detailed Operational Plan for PES to be published in 2019. Finally, more details about sampling and address listing procedures are included in Supporting Statement B.
Paying Respondents
Respondents participating in this survey will not receive any form of compensation for their participation.
Assurances of Confidentiality
This survey complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and provisions of Title 13, U.S. Code.
The lister will give each respondent in the 50 states and the District of Columbia a copy of the Form D-31(PES-IL), U.S. Confidentiality Notice (see Attachment A); in Puerto Rico the lister will give each respondent a copy of the Form D-31(PES-IL)PR, Puerto Rico Confidentiality Notice (see Attachment B). The Confidentiality Notices explain that any information given to the Census Bureau will be held in strict confidence. It also informs each respondent that participation is mandatory.
Justification for Sensitive Questions
The Census Bureau perceives no questions in the PES Independent Listing questionnaire as being sensitive.
Estimate of Hour Burden
The estimated workload is approximately 541,000 HUs for PES IL in selected census BCUs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia; and 24,000 HUs for the IL operation in Puerto Rico. From the IL workload, we will select a sample of approximately 81,000 HUs from all BCUs in the 50 states and District of Columbia and 4,000 HUs from all BCUs in Puerto Rico for the IL QC operation. To calculate the burden hours, we assumed a theoretical 100 percent response rate and an approximate completion time of 5 minutes per case. The estimated total annual respondent burden for the IL operation is approximately 54,167 hours.
2020 Census |
|||
Operation |
Estimated Number of Respondents |
Estimated Time per Response (in minutes) |
Total Burden Hours |
Independent Listing (Stateside) |
541,000 |
5 |
45,083 |
Independent Listing (Puerto Rico) |
24,000 |
5 |
2,000 |
Independent Listing Quality Control (Stateside) |
81,000 |
5 |
6,750 |
Independent Listing Quality Control (Puerto Rico) |
4,000 |
5 |
333 |
Total Burden Hours |
54,167* |
||
* Difference is due to rounding.
Estimate of Cost Burden
There are no costs to respondents other than their time to participate in this data collection.
Cost to the Federal Government
The cost incurred by the Census Bureau to conduct the IL field operation is estimated to be about $13.8 million. An interdivisional Census Bureau team developed the data collection methodologies. The Census Bureau’s Decennial Census Management Division allocated the resources for the effective and efficient management of the information.
Reason for Change in Burden
This request for clearance pertains to a new data collection effort.
Project Schedule
Activity |
Schedule |
|
Start Date |
Finish Date |
|
Conduct Independent Listing Interviews |
01/16/20 |
03/13/20 |
Conduct Independent Listing Quality Control Interviews |
01/23/20 |
03/20/20 |
Examine Results and Conduct Analysis for Independent Listing |
04/20/20 |
05/15/20 |
Formally Release the FINAL 2020 PES Independent Listing Report in the 2020 Memorandum Series |
10/05/20 |
10/05/20 |
Request to Not Display Expiration Date
No exemption is requested.
Exceptions to the Certification
There are no exceptions to the certification.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 0000-00-00 |