our predecessor National Research Council panels, including the Panel to Evaluate Alternative Census Methods (National Research Council, 1994), the Panel on Research on Future Census Methods (“2010 Census” panel; National Research Council, 2004b), and the Panel on Residence Rules in the Decennial Census (National Research Council, 2006).

In Chapter 2, we discuss what we think to be the most critical drivers for census planning and research: the balance between census cost and census quality. In Chapter 3, we offer a critique of the Census Bureau’s current strategies for research, experimentation, and testing—in contrast with the Bureau’s legacy of past research—before suggesting general directions for research in the 2010–2020 period. We also conclude that more formal, structural changes in the Census Bureau’s organization for research are critical for success and elaborate those structural recommendations in Chapter 4. Two appendices to the report describe past and present Census Bureau research programs in detail; Appendix A describes the research, testing, and evaluation programs that preceded and were conducted in line with the 1950–2010 censuses, and Appendix B summarizes what we know about the 2010 CPEX program.