Glossary and Abbreviations
Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.):
A coverage evaluation program conducted by the Census Bureau following the 2000 census; it produces estimates of undercount and overcount in the census and forms the basis for statistical adjustment of census counts through dual-systems estimation. In the A.C.E., a sample survey is conducted in a sample of census block clusters after the nonresponse follow-up phase of the census is complete. The resulting sample of individuals found by the survey in the selected block clusters—called the P-sample—is matched to the set of census enumerations from the sample block clusters (the E-sample).
A.C.E.:
Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation
A.C.E. Revision II:
The estimates and evaluation research produced between October 2001 and December 2002 as a further revision to the original Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation. The Revision II work informed the Census Bureau’s March 2003 decision not to use statistically adjusted census figures in calculating intercensal population estimates. See Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
ACF:
Address Control File
ACS:
American Community Survey
Address Control File (ACF):
The 1990 census analogue to the Master Address File used in 2000. The ACF was the residential address list used to label questionnaires, control the mail response check-in operation, and determine the nonresponse follow-up workload.
Address List Improvement Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-430):
The law that enabled two innovations in the construction of the Master Ad-
dress File for the 2000 census: the Local Update of Census Addresses Program (allowing local governments to receive and review the address list) and address list updates from the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File.
Administrative records:
Records that are collected as part of the operation of federal, state, and local programs, typically fund allocation and tax programs, such as Internal Revenue Service and Food Stamp Program records.
American Community Survey (ACS):
A continuous survey program under development by the Census Bureau to collect the detailed socioeconomic and other data currently asked of the census long-form sample. ACS estimates would be based on monthly surveys of respondents and released annually; for smaller population groups, estimates would be based on 3 or 5 years of data. The Census Bureau hopes that implementation of the American Community Survey will allow the switch to a short-form-only census in 2010. Pilot ACS data collection began in 1996, and a larger prototype (the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey)was fielded in 2000. Data collection continued at the 2000 level from 2001–2003.
American FactFinder:
The Internet site established and hosted by the Census Bureau as a primary means of disseminating data from the 2000 census, the 1990 census, the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey, and the American Community Survey. It is accessible at http://factfinder.census.gov [1/10/04].
Apportionment:
The reallocation of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, on the basis of population size, using data from a new decennial census. Under current law, apportionment is conducted using the method of equal proportions.
Balancing error:
Type of error cited by the Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy in its March 2001 recommendation not to adjust census counts for congressional redistricting. Balancing error occurs when cases in the P-sample and E-sample are not treated identically (e.g., when the search area used to identify P-sample matches and E-sample correct enumerations is defined differently).
BAS:
Boundary and Annexation Survey
Basic data; basic data item:
See complete count.
Basic street address:
The portion of an address consisting of a house number with a street or road number (but not designation for apartments, units, or subdivisions within structures).
Be Counted:
A program in the 2000 census that made census questionnaires available in public places, so that residents who believed that they had been missed in the regular census enumeration could file a questionnaire.
Block:
See census block.
Block canvass:
A field operation implemented shortly before the 2000 census to improve the completeness of the Master Address File. Census Bureau field staff were assigned to verify information for every mailout/mailback address and to add addresses for housing units and living quarters when possible. In the 2000 census process, the Census Bureau decided to perform a complete block canvass after concluding that the Delivery Sequence File and updates from the Local Update of Census Addresses Program were insufficient as primary sources of address updates.
Block cluster:
Group of one or more census blocks expected to contain about 30 housing units, defined for use in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Program.
Blue line:
A Census Bureau-defined boundary that is meant to identify areas that have predominantly city-style addresses and those that do not. Areas “inside the blue line” are said to have city-style addresses; those “outside the blue line” typically have non-city-style addresses. Named after the color originally used to draw the boundary on early maps, the blue line was used to identify local and tribal government eligibility for the 1998 or the 1999 wave of the Local Update of Census Addresses Program.
Boundary and Annexation Survey:
An annual survey by the Census Bureau of all counties (or equivalents), minor civil divisions, incorporated places, and American Indian reservations to determine their legal geographic boundaries.
BSA:
Basic street address
C2SS:
Census 2000 Supplementary Survey
CAI:
Computer-Assisted Interviewing
CAPI:
Computer-assisted personal interviewing
Casing check:
A program in which postal workers determine addresses for which they did not receive a questionnaire and notify the Census Bureau.
CATI:
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing
CAUS:
Community Address Updating System
CCF:
Coverage correction factor
CEFU:
Coverage edit follow-up
Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS):
Pilot program for the American Community Survey; a survey to collect data items from the census long form that was conducted in monthly samples totaling 700,000 households in 2000.
Census Act:
See Title 13.
Census block:
The smallest entity for which the Census Bureau collects and tabulates decennial census information; bounded on all sides by visible and nonvisible features shown on Census Bureau maps. Occasionally, especially in rural areas, drainage ditches or power lines may be used to define blocks. Because most blocks have small population and housing unit counts, only complete-count data are tabulated for them.
Census Day:
The target date of a decennial census. Census Day is the date for which census respondents are supposed to describe their household population, and for which the results of a decennial census are supposed to be an accurate representation of the nation’s population. Since 1930, Census Day has been April 1 of years ending in zero.
Census Monitoring Board:
An entity established by law (P.L. 105-119) during preparations for the 2000 census that was charged with observing and monitoring all aspects of census implementation. Members of the board appointed by House and Senate Republican leaders and by the president (in consultation with House and Senate Democratic leaders) functioned independently, with separate staffs and reports. Under the terms of the enacting legislation, the Census Monitoring Board ceased to exist on September 30, 2001.
Census Plus:
A method considered as an alternative to dual-systems estimation in 2000, in which enumerators would revisit a sample of households to obtain a roster of household members and immediately reconcile that roster with the roster from the census. When weighted, the union of the two rosters (after making any deletions or additions) would provide an estimate of the population. Plans for Census Plus were set aside following the results of a 1995 census test.
Census tract:
A census-defined geographic area of roughly 2,500 households. Census tracts are aggregations of census blocks (roughly 150 blocks, dependent on the population of the area). Tracts are intended to be relatively stable entities over time, though their definitions do shift with each census.
CIFU:
Coverage improvement follow-up
Closeout:
The last stage of nonresponse follow-up when enumerators are instructed to make a last attempt to obtain at least minimal information, from a proxy if necessary. Imputation is used to fill in any missing information.
CNSTAT:
Committee on National Statistics
Coefficient of variation (CV):
An assessment of the variability of an estimate, calculated as the ratio of the standard error of an estimate to the value of the estimate. This is expressed as a percentage of the size of the quantity being measured.
Community Address Updating System (CAUS):
Aprogramtobe initiated under the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER Enhancements Program leading up to the 2010 census to improve geographic coverage, particularly in rural areas. The CAUS Program uses American Community Survey enumerators to collect geographic updates as they perform their duties, using laptop computer systems equipped with GPS receivers.
Complete count; complete-count items:
The basic data items asked of all census respondents, whether they received the census short form or the long form (the long form asks additional sample items of an approximate one-sixth sample of the population). In 2000, the complete-count items were name, age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, date of birth, relationship to census respondent (reference person), and housing tenure (own or rent).
Computer-assisted interviewing (CAI):
A group of methods for using computers to assist with data collection. CAI surveys can be either interviewer-administered (conducted in person using a laptop computer or by telephone using a shared computer) or self-administered (conducted by surveys disseminated to respondents by telephone, by the Internet, or on a computer disk). See computer-assisted personal interviewing; computer-assisted telephone interviewing.
Computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI):
The use of a computer to assist an interviewer in carrying out an interview.
Advantages include avoiding errors in skip patterns, providing immediate edit checks, and expediting electronic data capture.
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI):
Method of data collection featuring interviewers administering survey interviews via telephone, reading questions presented on a computer screen, and recording responses on the computer.
Continuation form:
A census questionnaire, asking items for up to six additional household members, used in follow-up interviewing in 2000 if there were six or more people in a household (the standard enumerator form allowed for only five household members in 2000). Multiple continuation forms could be completed for a household, as necessary.
Count Question Resolution (CQR):
A process established by the Census Bureau to enable state, local, and tribal governments to challenge their 2000 census counts if they believed that inappropriate tabulation boundaries had been used or that specific living quarters had been miscounted. Upon review, the local governments could be issued a letter attesting to a revised count for use in such purposes as fund allocation; the enabling regulation stipulated that counts revised under CQR would not affect a state’s apportionment count. The CQR program began in 2001 and ended in 2003.
Correlation bias:
A (technical) bias in dual-systems estimation by which the estimated counts would be, on the average, either too low or too high, caused by heterogeneity in enumeration probabilities for both the census and the postenumeration survey. The heterogeneities of the probabilities for these two attempted enumerations are typically positively related, which causes the estimated counts to be on the average too low. The A.C.E. Revision II estimates included an attempted correction for correlation bias.
COTS:
Commercial off-the-shelf
Coverage correction factor (CCF):
In dual-systems estimation, the dual-systems estimate for a poststratum divided by the census count (including whole person imputations and late additions). The CCF is interpreted as the multiplier that can be applied to the population count for a poststratum in a particular area to generate an adjusted count.
Coverage edit follow-up (CEFU):
A 2000 census follow-up operation of mail-return households whose census responses showed population count discrepancies (e.g., the number of people for whom census information was included on the form did not match the number of residents reported elsewhere on the questionnaire). In particular, CEFU concentrated on large households (those with seven or more members for which there was room to report characteristics for only the first six members on the mail questionnaire).
Coverage evaluation:
Statistical studies conducted to evaluate the level and sources of coverage error in censuses and surveys.
Coverage improvement follow-up (CIFU):
The second-stage follow-up operation used in the 2000 census (performed between June and August, 2000), verifying findings from the initial nonresponse follow-up.
Coverage improvement programs:
Often (but not always) nationally applied methods and programs that attempt to collect information from individuals and households that might be missed using mailout/mailback or nonresponse follow-up. Before the 2000 census cycle this term referred to such programs as the parolee and probationer program (used in 1990), in which lists of these individuals were checked to see whether they were enumerated, and the non-household sources program, in which several administrative record lists were matched to census records to try to identify people missed in the census for purposes of field follow-up (used in 1980). For the 2000 census, coverage improvement refers more to efforts to complete the address list, use of multiple response modes, and service-based enumeration.
CPS:
Current Population Survey
Curbstoning:
The practice by which a census enumerator fabricates a questionnaire for a residence without actually visiting it.
Current Population Survey (CPS):
Monthly sample survey of the U.S. population that provides employment and unemployment figures as well as current data about other social and economic characteristics of the population. The CPS is collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Census Bureau. The sample size for the CPS is about 50,000 households per month.
CV:
coefficient of variation
Data capture:
The process by which survey responses are transferred from written questionnaires to an electronic format for tabulation. In the 2000 census, data capture was done by optical character and optical mark recognition; from 1890 to 1950, punch cards were used for data capture, and the FOSDIC process of optical mark recognition was used from 1960 to 1990.
Data Capture System 2000 (DCS 2000):
The system used in the 2000 census to digitally extract and capture information from paper census forms. A replacement of the FOSDIC system used in earlier census, the Data Capture System 2000 made use of optical character recognition.
Data-defined:
In census data processing, an assessment of the completeness of a census record. For the complete count (basic data items), a household is data-defined if at least one member has reported values for at least two complete-count items (including name). For the long-form sample, a record for a household is said to be data-defined if at least one member of the household has at least two sample data items reported.
Data Preparation Division:
Until 1998, the name of the Census Bureau’s permanent processing center in Jeffersonville, Indiana (now known as the National Processing Center).
DCS 2000:
Data Capture System 2000
Decennial Master Address File (DMAF):
See Master Address File.
Delivery Sequence File (DSF):
The master list of deliverable mail addresses maintained by the U.S. Postal Service, organized by carrier route. The Delivery Sequence File was first used as a source of updates to the Master Address File for the 2000 census, following enactment of the Address List Improvement Act of 1994.
Demographic analysis:
A method that uses various administrative records (especially birth and death records, information on immigration and emigration, and Medicare records) and information from previous censuses to estimate the total number of people in various demographic groups resident in the United States on a specific date, and therefore their census undercoverage.
DMAF:
Decennial Master Address File; see Master Address File.
Domain:
A classification based on race and ethnicity (Hispanic origin) used in the definition of poststrata in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Dress rehearsal:
The largest census test, typically 2 years before the decennial census, in which the methods and procedures of the upcoming decennial census are given their final test to identify any operational problems.
DSE:
Dual-systems estimation
DSF:
Delivery Sequence File
Dual-systems estimation (DSE):
An estimation methodology that uses two independent attempts to collect information from households to estimate the total population, including the number of people missed by both attempts.
Enumerator:
A census field operations employee who collects information from respondents through interviews.
Equal proportions:
Since 1941, the method used in apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the method, priority values for seats are generated by multiplying a state’s apportionment population by the reciprocal of the geometric mean 
; for example, a state’s priority value for its tenth seat in the House equals its population multiplied by 
. Priority values for all states are ranked and seats are assigned beginning with the 51st seat (each state’s second seat; the Constitution provides each state with a minimum of one seat in the House.)
Erroneous enumeration:
The inclusion of someone in the census in error. Such inclusions may be people born after Census Day or deceased before Census Day, people in the United States temporarily, and people in the wrong location. They also include people counted more than once, i.e., duplicates.
Error:
The difference between an estimate and the true value.
E-sample:
The set of census enumerations for a sample of census block clusters; part of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation, it is used to calculate the correct enumeration rate in the dual-systems estimation formula.
ESCAP:
Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy
Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy (ESCAP):
The committee of senior Census Bureau staff charged with analyzing information from the 2000 census and Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation in order to decide whether census counts should be adjusted for estimated net undercount. The ESCAP reported to
the director of the Census Bureau, who in turn submitted a formal recommendation to the U.S. secretary of commerce.
Follow-up:
A secondary census or survey operation, predominantly in data collection, carried out to successfully complete an initial operation. It is most often a telephone or personal visit interview to obtain missing data or clarify original responses.
FOSDIC (Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers):
From 1960 to 1990, census questionnaires were microfilmed. The answers were read from the microfilmed questionnaires using FOSDIC and converted to electronic codes on computer tape.
FSPD:
Further Study of Person Duplication
Further Study of Person Duplication (FSPD):
A research study completed as part of A.C.E. Revision II that made further refinements to the Person Duplication Studies conducted in summer 2001. The FSPD included improved statistical matching techniques and assessed probabilities of duplicate links.
FWA:
Final weighting area
Geocoding:
The assignment of a geographic location code to an address or a map spot (longitude/latitude location). For example, geocoding may identify the census block in which a street address is located; with that knowledge, information from that street address can be associated with the correct block (and, thus, the correct census tract, place, and higher-level geographic aggregates). Geocoding is a major function of the Census Bureau’s TIGER database.
GIS:
Geographic information system
GPS:
Global positioning system
GQ:
Group quarters
Gross error:
The sum of erroneous enumerations and omissions in the census. See also Erroneous enumeration; Omission; Overcount; Undercount.
Group quarters (GQ):
A place where people live that is not a housing unit. There are two types of group quarters: institutional (for example, nursing homes, mental hospitals, and correctional institutions) and noninstitutional (for example, college dormitories, ships, hotels, group homes, and shelters). A structure that houses group quarters may also include one or more housing units (e.g., the apartment for a resident faculty member in a dormitory).
Hot-deck imputation:
The technique used by the Census Bureau to impute missing responses on census questionnaires. Imputations are made based on a continually updated distribution of responses from other, filled-in questionnaires that match characteristics that are known from an incomplete questionnaire.
Household:
All the persons who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence.
Housing unit (HU):
A house, an apartment, etc., that is occupied (or, if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters, which are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building. See also household.
HU:
housing unit
Hundred percent data:
See complete count. Tabulations from the Hundred Percent Census Edited File—the hundred percent data, after consistency edits and imputation has been performed—are used to generate apportionment counts.
ICM:
Integrated Coverage Measurement
IIs:
Census respondents whose records contain insufficient information for matching, such as would be necessary to obtain adjusted counts through dual-systems estimation. For the 2000 census in particular, the set of IIs contained both persons with substantially incomplete questionnaires and people who were reinstated in the census count at a late stage of processing but excluded from the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Imputation:
A method for filling in missing information. Sequential hot-deck imputation fills in information from a previously processed respondent (and therefore geographically close) with other similar characteristics.
Individual census report:
A special version of the census questionnaire used during group quarters enumeration and other special operations that asks questions regarding only one person (rather than up to six persons in a household, as on the usual census short and long forms).
Inmover:
A person who moved into a housing unit after Census Day but before the reference date for a postenumeration survey,as in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Integrated coverage measurement (ICM):
The use of a postenumeration survey and some type of estimation method, e.g., dual-systems estimation, to produce adjusted census counts in time for appor-
tionment and therefore all uses of census data. ICM was a key part of initial Census Bureau plans for the 2000 census, but was abandoned after the Supreme Court’s 1999 decision ruling out the use of sampling in generating apportionment counts.
Interactive voice response (IVR):
A technology for survey data collection in which surveys are conducted using an automated telephone system, using voice recognition to allow respondents to select from possible question responses.
IRS:
Internal Revenue Service
IVR:
Interactive voice response
IWA:
Initial weighting area
Key from image (KFI):
A data capture operation in which the data from questionnaires whose entries could not be parsed by optical character recognition with sufficient confidence were entered by hand by census staff.
KFI:
key from image
Last resort:
Term used in the 1990 census to describe the collection of data from neighbors, apartment managers, post office employees, etc., when a response from a resident could not be obtained.
LCO:
local census office
List/enumerate:
A method of enumeration in which enumerators canvass a geographic area, list each residential address, and collect a questionnaire from or enumerate a household.
List/leave:
A method of enumeration in which the enumerators list each residential address and at the same time deliver the census form for return by mail.
Local census office (LCO):
A temporary office established for decennial census operations, including coordination of address listing and nonresponse follow-up operations.
Local review:
Census Bureau program in the 1980 and 1990 censuses in which local officials were given the opportunity to review housing unit counts in census blocks.
Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA):
A Census Bureau program in which local officials were given the opportunity to review individual addresses on the Master Address File and make corrections, additions, and deletions to that list, and to make corrections to census maps to match any changes that may be needed. The LUCA 98 Program covered only local governments
in mailout/mailback enumeration areas; LUCA 99 covered governments in update/leave enumeration areas.
Long-form data-defined:
See data-defined.
Long-form sample:
The approximate one-sixth sample of the population that is asked an additional set of socioeconomic and housing characteristics questions (the sample items) in addition to the complete-count items asked of everyone. See also complete count.
LUCA:
Local Update of Census Addresses
MAF:
Master Address File
MAF/TIGER Enhancements Program:
A Census Bureau program in anticipation of the 2010 census to make improvements to the Census Bureau’s Master Address File and TIGER geographic database. Major objectives include the realignment of the TIGER database to be consistent with GPS readings, modernization of the TIGER database system, and implementation of the Community Address Updating System to collect address information as part of American Community Survey operations.
Mail Response Rate:
Measure of respondent cooperation in the census, defined as the number of households returning a questionnaire by mail divided by the total number of questionnaires sent out in mailback areas. See also mail return rate.
Mail Return Rate:
Measure of respondent cooperation in the census, defined as the number of households returning a questionnaire by mail divided by the total number of occupied households that were sent questionnaires in mailback areas (excluding vacant households and nonresidential units). The mail return rate is considered a more refined measure of cooperation than the earlier-available mail response rate.
Mailout/mailback:
A method of census enumeration used primarily in urban areas in which questionnaires are mailed to each address and the residents are asked to mail back the completed questionnaires.
Master Address File (MAF):
The master list of addresses of residential and nonresidential addresses maintained by the Census Bureau. An extract of the MAF, called the Decennial Master Address File (DMAF), is the list of residential addresses on which the 2000 census enumeration was based. It is derived from the 1990 census address list (the Address Control File) in mailout/mailback areas
or an address listing by census field staff, and is updated using a variety of sources, including information from the U.S. Postal Service, local offcials, and a block canvass in mailout/mailback areas. See also Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) System.
Master Trace Sample:
A sample of census records (possibly by selecting all records in a sample of decennial census blocks) for which all information relevant to census data collection is retained to assist in analyzing and comparing methodologies suggested for use in the subsequent census.
Matching:
The process through which it is determined how many persons are included in both the postenumeration survey and the census (in PES block clusters) and how many persons are only included in one or the other attempted enumeration.
MCD:
minor civil division. The Census Bureau has also used this abbreviation for the “mobile computing devices” it intends to use for follow-up data collection in 2010.
Monitoring Board:
See Census Monitoring Board.
MSA:
metropolitan statistical area
Multiple response modes:
Generally speaking, alternative methods for being enumerated, not including mailout/mailback and enumeration as part of usual nonresponse follow-up. In 2000 these methods included obtaining and returning questionnaires available in public places (“Be Counted” forms), the use of the telephone and the Internet to obtain or provide census information, and the enumeration of persons at places that offer services to the homeless.
Multiunit structure:
A building that contains more than one housing unit.
National Processing Center:
The Census Bureau’s permanent processing facility in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Noncity-style address:
See city-style address.
Nonmover:
A person who lived in the same housing unit on both Census Day and the reference date for a postenumeration survey, as in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Nonresponse:
The failure to obtain all or part of the information requested on a questionnaire.
Nonresponse follow-up (NRFU):
The field operation whereby census enumerators attempt to obtain completed question-
naires from interviewing members of households for which no questionnaire was returned in the mail. For the 2000 census, NRFU was performed between April and June, 2000. NRFU was conducted on a 100 percent basis in accordance with the Supreme Court’s decision on sampling for apportionment; the Census Bureau’s initial plans for the 2000 census called for sampling in this follow-up phase, which was then sampling for nonresponse follow-up (SNRFU).
Nonsampling error:
Any error that occurs during the measuring or data collection process that is not directly related to the mechanics of sampling from the population. Nonsampling error includes undercount and overcount, resulting from people being missed or erroneously counted by enumeration processes.
NORC:
National Opinion Research Center
NRC:
National Research Council
NRFU:
nonresponse follow-up
OCR:
optical character recognition
OCS 2000:
Operations Control System 2000
OMB:
Office of Management and Budget (U.S.)
Omission:
A person missed in the census. See also Erroneous enumeration; Overcount; Undercount.
OMR:
optical mark recognition
One-number census:
The goal of the original plan for the 2000 census involving Integrated Coverage Measurement and sampling for nonresponse follow-up; a census involving production of a single set of estimates. That set of estimates would be based on a combination of traditional counting methods and statistical estimation. The idea of a one-number census in 2000 was abandoned after enactment of legislation that required reporting of both statistically adjusted and unadjusted counts (if the decision to adjust census results was made) and after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled sampling unlawful for purposes of deriving apportionment counts.
Optical character recognition (OCR):
Data capture technology that uses a scanner that “reads” and interprets human handwriting and converts it into electronic form.
Optical mark recognition (OMR):
Data capture technology that scans a page, looking for marks in prespecified locations (e.g., circles keyed to the possible responses to a question; the respon-
dent fills in one of those circles). Responses are coded based on the location of detected marks.
Outmover:
A person who lived in a particular housing unit on Census Day but no longer lived there as of the reference date for a postenumeration survey, as in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Overcount:
The total number of people counted more than once or otherwise enumerated erroneously in the census. See also Erroneous enumeration; Omission; Undercount.
P-sample:
Sample survey of respondents in a sample of block clusters conducted after (and independent of) the census enumeration; part of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation, it is used to calculate the match rate in the dual-systems estimation formula.
P.L. 94-171:
The public law that requires the Census Bureau to provide the decennial census data required for congressional redistricting to the states by April of the year following the year of the census enumeration. The data file containing population counts by basic characteristics (age, race, Hispanic origin, and sex) down to the block level is commonly known as the “P.L. 94-171 data” or “redistricting data.”
PALS:
Program for Address List Supplementation
PAMS/ADAMS:
Pre-Appointment Management System/Automated Decennial Administrative Management System
Person Duplication Studies:
An evaluation of person duplication in the census conducted during summer 2001 (in preparation for the second decision on statistical adjustment of the 2000 census in October 2001). The Person Duplication Studies made use of the capability to match records by name and date of birth.
Person record:
A record for an individual created from data captured from a census form.
PES:
Postenumeration survey; Post-Enumeration Survey (1990)
PES-A:
A variant form of a postenumeration survey that involves interviewers asking current residents in the survey sample about people who moved from those residences after Census Day.
PES-B:
A variant form of a postenumeration survey used in 1990 that involves interviewers collecting information from survey respondents about their current residence as well as asking them where they lived (at the current P-sample address or another address) on Census Day. PES-B was ruled out as a strategy for the original 2000 census plan including Integrated Coverage
Measurement and, later, for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation; it was replaced with PES-C.
PES-C:
A variant form of a postenumeration survey used in the 2000 Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation that involves interviewers (1) finding out who lived at each P-sample address on Census Day, including people who had left that address after Census Day, and (2) finding out who lived at each P-sample address as of the A.C.E. interview day. The information thus generated on outmovers (as well as inmovers and nomovers) made A.C.E. estimation more complex.
Postenumeration survey (PES):
The independent follow-up survey conducted in some coverage evaluation programs using dual-systems estimation. The specific postenumeration survey conducted following the 1990 census is known as the Post-Enumeration Survey (P-sample component); in 2000, the postenumeration survey produced the P-sample of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation.
Post-Enumeration Survey (1990; PES):
The 1990 census analogue of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation in 2000, including a P-sample and E-sample.
Poststratification:
Separating a data set collected through use of sampling into strata on the basis of information gathered during data collection, and then treating each stratum separately in estimation.
Poststratum:
A collection (of individuals in the census context) that share some characteristics (e.g., race, age, sex, region, owner/renter) obtained during data collection and that are separately treated in estimation.
Primary selection algorithm (PSA):
Algorithm developed by the Census Bureau to consolidate multiple responses from the same address into a single return; given concerns about opening a loophole for duplicates, the details of the PSA have not been made public.
Program for Address List Supplementation (PALS):
A short-lived Census Bureau program prior to the 2000 census that invited local governments to send address files to the Census Bureau for matching to and updating the MAF. PALS was later replaced by the Local Update of Census Addresses Program.
Proxy:
A census interview in which the respondent is not a member of the household being enumerated. The respondent might be a neighbor, a landlord, or some other knowledgeable person.
PSA:
Primary selection algorithm
Public use microdata sample:
Computerized files containing a small sample of individual long-form sample records, subject to confidentiality protection, giving detailed population and housing characteristics for the people on those forms.
PUMS:
Public use microdata sample
Race and Ethnicity Targeted Test (RAETT):
A 1996 test conducted in selected areas of the United States to evaluate alternative formats and sequencing of the race, Hispanic, and ancestry questions for the 2000 census questionnaire.
RAETT:
Race and Ethnicity Targeted Test
Reapportionment:
See apportionment.
Redistricting:
The revision of political boundaries—most commonly congressional districts, but also state legislative districts and municipal election wards and districts—based on the results of a new decennial census. Standards for redrawing the boundaries vary by location, but districts are generally intended to be as equal as possible in population.
Response rate:
See mail response rate.
Return rate:
See mail return rate.
Revision II:
See A.C.E. Revision II.
Sample data; sample item:
See long-form sample.
Sample data-defined:
See data-defined
Sampling error:
An error that occurs because only part of the population is contacted directly.
SBE:
Service-based enumeration
Service-based enumeration (SBE):
Enumeration of typically homeless people at food kitchens and shelters.
SF; SF1; SF2; SF3; SF4:
Summary File
Short form:
The census questionnaire that is mailed to about five-sixths of all households that asks only the basic complete-count data items.
Short-form data-defined:
See data-defined.
SNRFU:
Sampling for nonresponse follow-up; see nonresponse follow-up.
Special place:
One or more group quarters where people live or stay that is different from the usual private house, apartment, or mobile home and that requires different decennial census procedures. Such places (e.g., a university or military installation) are administrative units; the individual group quarters (e.g., dormitories) are where people sleep.
Statistical Policy Directive 15:
Common name for the 1977 version of standards issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for the collection of data on race and ethnicity (Hispanic origin). The most recent revision (1997) of these guidelines is not labeled or numbered as a directive or circular. The guidelines make it possible to identify with more than one race, rather than choosing from only one of a few mutually exclusive racial categories.
Summary File (SF):
The detailed data files of tabulations that are the primary data products of the census. Box 2.1 describes the content of each SF variant.
Synthetic error:
Type of error cited by the Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy in its recommendation not to adjust census counts for congressional redistricting. The match rate, correct enumeration rate, and other rates involved in the dual-systems estimation for a population poststratum are supposed to apply at all lower geographic levels; synthetic error is produced in adjusted counts when this synthetic assumption is not satisfied.
Targeted extended search:
An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) operation that extended the search for matches between E- and P-sample records to the ring of blocks surrounding the A.C.E. sample block cluster.
TEA:
Type of enumeration area
Tenure:
The status of an occupied housing unit as either owner-occupied or renter-occupied.
TIGER:
Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing System
Title 13:
The portion of the U.S. Code under which the Census Bureau operates; it is also known as the Census Act. Originally enacted in 1929, Title 13 was enacted into positive law in 1954. In addition to outlining the authority to conduct the census, Title 13 also protects the confidentiality of census information and establishes penalties for disclosing this information.
Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) System:
The framework for identifying the exact geographic location of residential addresses (as well as other physical features).
Tract:
See census tract.
Type of enumeration area (TEA):
A classification identifying how the Census Bureau conducted the decennial census in particular census blocks. There were nine TEAs in 2000. See mailout/mailback; update/leave; urban update/leave; list/enumerate.
Under(over)coverage; under(over)count:
A nonspecific term representing either the rate or number of individuals missed (erroneously included) in the decennial census. More specifically, gross undercoverage and gross undercount are the rate or number of those missed for a demographic group or geographic area (similarly for gross overcoverage and gross overcount); net undercoverage and net undercount are the difference between the rate or number of those missed for a demographic group or geographic area and the rate or number of those erroneously included; differential (net) undercoverage and differential (net) undercount are the difference between the rate or number of net undercoverage between two demographic groups or between two geographic areas.
Unduplication:
The process by which individuals reported on more than one census questionnaire are identified and counted once at only one geographic location.
Update/leave: (also known as update/leave/mailback).
A method of census enumeration used in areas lacking city-style addresses in which the census questionnaire is delivered to an address by a census enumerator. The Master Address File is corrected at the time of delivery (if necessary). Residents at the address are asked to fill out the questionnaire and mail it back.
Urban update/leave:
A new type of enumeration area used by the Census Bureau in the 2000 census. This data collection mode targeted urban areas in which mail delivery was thought to be problematic (e.g., large apartment complexes with common mailbox sites, at which a mail carrier might leave questionnaires in a common area rather than deliver to specific addresses). These areas were counted using update/leave methods rather than mailout/mailback.
