American Community Survey (ACS)

Informing you about news, events, data releases, congressional actions, and other developments associated with the American Community Survey (ACS).

News in this Alert

• Census Bureau Releases Additional Results from the Voluntary Test
• Contact Us

Census Bureau Releases Additional Results from the Voluntary Test

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a second report on its ACS voluntary methods. The test was conducted between March and June of 2003. This report provides additional results including greater detail for some of the measures included in the initial report.

The voluntary test was designed to determine the impact of a voluntary ACS on mail response, survey quality and costs. Here are four key findings from the second report:

• A more direct presentation of the voluntary message resulted in a slight additional decrease in mail cooperation.
• The revised mandatory mail materials, designed to increase user friendliness, resulted in only a slight increase in mail cooperation and a minor additional impact on data quality.
• The patterns of mail responses over time were remarkably similar across all four types of mail materials (e.g., current mandatory, standard mandatory, standard voluntary, direct voluntary).
• Most questions had similar levels of nonresponse in both a voluntary and a mandatory ACS.

"Meeting 21st Century Demographic Data Needs--Implementing the American Community Survey, Report 11: Testing Voluntary Methods—Additional Results" may be found at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/AdvMeth/Reports.htm.

The ACS is a key component in the Census Bureau’s re-engineered 2010 census, which also consists of early planning and modernization of geographic operations.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about the American Community Survey, please call (888)456-7215 or e-mail cmo.acs@census.gov.

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