2000 CENSUS: Best Practices and Lessons Learned for More Cost-Effective Nonresponse Follow-up

Abstract

Nonresponse follow-up where enumerators from the Bureau of Census went door-to-door to count those individuals who did not mail back their questionnaires was the most costly and labor intensive of all Census operations. According to bureau data, labor, mileage, and certain administrative costs alone amounted to about $1.4 billion, or about 22 percent of the total $6.5 billion allocated for the 2000 Census from fiscal year 1991 through fiscal year 2003. In terms of employment,the bureau hired about a half a million enumerators, which temporarily made it one of the nation s largest employers, surpassed by only a handful of big organizations like Wal-Mart and the U.S. Postal Service. Moreover,the workload and schedule of nonresponse follow-up the need to collect from about 42 million nonresponding households within a 10-week time frame made the conduct of this operation extraordinarily difficult and complex.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA399006

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