2013 National Census Contact Test

• Activity Number: 186
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Timothy Stewart*+
• Companies: US Census Bureau
• Keywords: contact frame ; telephone interviewing ; CATI ; administrative records

Abstract

To meet the strategic goals and objectives for the 2020 Census, the United States Census Bureau must make fundamental changes to the design, implementation, and management of the decennial census. The Census Bureau designed the 2013 National Census Contact Test (NCCT) to collect data from household members in order to validate landline and cell phone numbers as well as email addresses associated with the household's address that we had obtained from multiple commercial sources. In January 2013, we conducted telephone interviews with respondents using a web-based Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (webCATI) instrument. In this paper, we present the 2013 NCCT study design, several methods such as validating phone numbers prior to telephone interviews, and some preliminary results that begin to assess the quality of our contact frame. The ultimate goal of the Census Bureau for this study is to utilize our contact frame using commercial sources to initiate contact with respondents via landline or cell phone and/or email in an overall effort to reduce future census costs while maintaining or improving quality.