Attachment V - 2022 Response Rates for the Interview and Diary Surveys

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U.S. Department of Labor			Bureau of Labor Statistics
2 Massachusetts Ave. N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20212

August 31, 2022

MEMORANDUM FOR:	DAVID C. SWANSON, Supervisory Mathematical Statistician
				Branch of Consumer Expenditure Surveys
Division of Price Statistical Methods
				Office of Prices and Living Conditions

FROM:			SHARON L. KRIEGER, Mathematical Statistician
				Branch of Consumer Expenditure Surveys
				Division of Price Statistical Methods
				Office of Prices and Living Conditions

SUBJECT:			2021 Response Rates for the Interview and Diary Surveys

In 2021 the response rate for the Interview survey was 45.6%. That means 45.6% of “eligible” CUs participated in the survey. The table below shows this 2021 response rate along with those for 2017 thru 2020 as a comparison.

Interview Survey
Collection Year
CUs Designated for the Survey
Type B or C Nonresponses
Total Eligible CUs
Type A Nonresponses

Interviews
Response Rate for Eligible CUs
2017
47,949
7,756
40,193
15,714
24,479
60.9%
2018
48,018
7,652
40,366
17,207
23,159
57.4%
2019
47,799
7,410
40,389
18,688
21,701
53.7%
2020
50,939
8,027
42,912
22,667
20,245
47.2%
2021
51,944
7,306
44,638
24,304
20,334
45.6%

In 2021 the response rate for the Diary survey was 40.0%. That means 40.0% of “eligible” CUs participated in the survey. The table below shows this 2021 response rate along with those for 2017 thru 2020 as a comparison.

Diary Survey
Collection Year
CUs Designated for the Survey
Type B or C Nonresponses
Total Eligible CUs
Type A Nonresponses

Interviews
Response Rate for Eligible CUs
2017
24,696
4,586
20,110
  8,452
11,658
58.0%
2018
24,522
4,389
20,133
  9,054
11,079
55.0%
2019
24,566
4,322
20,244
  9,562
10,682
52.8%
2020
36,132
5,693
30,439
19,824
10,615
34.9%
2021
36,106
5,902
30,204
18,137
12,067
40.0%

Type B or C nonresponses are housing units that are vacant, nonexistent, or ineligible for interview. Type A nonresponses are housing units which the interviewers were unable to contact or the respondents refused to participate in the survey. The response rates stated above are based only on the eligible housing units (i.e., the designated sample less Type B and C nonresponses).

COVID-19’s Impact on Response Rates
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a decrease in the response rates from 2019 to 2020, from 53.7% to 47.2% in the Interview survey, and from 52.8% to 34.9% in the Diary survey. In large part, the decrease was caused by changes to data collection protocols at the Census Bureau.

From mid-March until the end of June 2020, the Census Bureau stopped personally visiting CUs and instead started contacting them exclusively by telephone. The Census Bureau was able to find telephone numbers for most addresses in the survey, but not all of them. That meant some of the CUs had an unknown eligibility status.  CUs with unknown eligibility were treated as Type A nonresponses, which caused a noticeable drop in the response rates.

After June 2020, the Census Bureau gradually resumed its usual data collection protocols. However, the pandemic’s impact on response rates lingered throughout the rest of the year anyway. This impact was bigger in the Diary survey than in the Interview survey because it was harder for the Census Bureau to get interviews in the Diary survey than in the Interview survey. In the Diary survey most CUs were being contacted for the first time and many of their telephone numbers were unknown. In contrast, in the Interview survey most CUs had already been contacted in a previous quarter and their telephone numbers were known.

In 2021, the pandemic’s impact on response rates diminished as the Census Bureau continued to return to its usual data collection protocols. This resulted in a relatively small decrease in the response rates from 2020 to 2021 for the Interview survey, from 47.2% to 45.6%, and in a relatively large increase in the response rates from 2020 to 2021 for the Diary survey, from 34.9% to 40.0%.

The Sample Expansion’s Impact on Sample Sizes
The “sample expansion” in 2020 contributed to an increase in the number of “CUs Designated for the Survey,” from 47,799 to 50,939 in the Interview survey, and from 24,566 to 36,132 in the Diary survey. The sample expansion went into effect in April 2020 in the Interview survey and in January 2020 in the Diary survey. The reason for the expansion is that in 2020 the CE survey added some outlet-related questions to its questionnaires to replace CPI’s outlet information formerly collected by the TPOPS survey, and this meant the sample size in urban areas needed to be increased to ensure outlet sampling frame sufficiency in those areas.


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