Who Doesn't Respond When a Survey Is Voluntary?
Deborah H. Griffin
U.S. Census Bureau
Michael D. Starsinic
U.S. Census Bureau
Most surveys conducted by the federal government and the private sector cannot rely on mandatory messaging to encourage participation. Gaining respondent cooperation requires other incentives or appeals. While mandatory surveys achieve higher survey response rates than voluntary surveys, little research is available to see who may be included in a mandatory survey, but missed in a voluntary survey. The American Community Survey (ACS) is a mandatory national household survey. In 2003, the Census Bureau conducted a test to assess the implications of using voluntary methods in the ACS. Recently staff reanalyzed the dataset from that test to compare the characteristics of the population that was included in the voluntary implementation with the characteristics of the population included in the mandatory implementation. The hardest-to-interview populations were equally likely to be included in voluntary and mandatory implementations. Mandatory methods were more successful in gaining cooperation from the higher educated, more mobile, and higher income populations, suggesting that these individuals may be missing from voluntary surveys.
