Using Population Data to Improve Public Sector Frame Coverage

• Activity Number: 51
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 3, 2014 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Carma R. Hogue*+ and Tameka Sammy and Rachelle Reeder and Elizabeth Accetta
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Governmental Units ; Governments Master Address File ; Government Units Survey ; paradata

Abstract

Statisticians within the Governments (GOVS) Division are entrusted with maintaining the Governments Master Address File (GMAF) a comprehensive frame of government entities. The GMAF is being re-engineered, which allows an opportunity to build paradata into the frame processing. Complete coverage is imperative as this repository acts as the sampling frame for all of the division's surveys. The availability of lists of local governmental units varies significantly from state to state and poses challenges in frame coverage. Historically, we have recorded changes in governmental organization (mergers, reductions, reincarnations, and births) through a combination of legislative research, the Government Units Survey, and Quality Improvement Program trips. In this paper, we hypothesize that an influx in population may predict the births of governments, specifically special districts. We examine population counts and changes logged by the last four decennial censuses by state/region against that of historical governmental units to test this theory.