288 – Census Coverage Measurement
Household Contact and Probing to Collect a Complete Address List and Household Roster in the Census Coverage Measurement Program
Graciela Contreras
U.S. Census Bureau
Lora Rosenberger
U.S. Census Bureau
The goal of the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) Program for the 2010 Census was to provide estimates of net coverage error and components of census coverage, for both housing units and persons living in housing units. To measure the coverage of housing units, the Independent Listing operation created a list of housing units or potential housing units that could exist as of Census Day or by the Person Interview timeframe in selected block clusters, completely independent from any census operations. Each interviewer made up to three attempts to contact a household member to ask if there were additional units at the sample address, such as garage or basement apartments, that may have been missed without talking to a household member. To measure coverage for persons, the Person Interview, which listed all household members living at the sample address any time between Census Day and the day of the Person Interview, included six questions probing for any people that may be tenuously attached to the housing unit. This paper focuses on the final disposition of the housing units and persons collected by these additional questions and probes in the CCM Program.
