299 – 2020 Census: Operational Design and Methods
The Operational Design of the 2020 Census: Overview of the Current Status
Robin A. Pennington
U.S. Census Bureau
Four years of intensive research on innovations in completing a census culminated in the release of the baseline Operational Plan for the 2020 Census in the fall of 2015. This plan documents major changes in the design of the decennial census, focusing on four major pathways to innovation: Reengineering Address Canvassing, the source of the address frame for the Census; Optimizing Self-Response, in particular by providing internet questionnaires as a response option; Utilizing Administrative Records and Third-Party Data, taking advantage of data provided to other agencies for a variety of applications; and Reengineering Field Operations, using automation for most fieldwork functions and minimizing the footprint of field offices. This paper will provide the context for how the various efforts fit together to work toward the goal of controlling the cost of the census while maintaining the same level of quality.