CNSTAT Current Projects: Panel on Future Census Methods Research

In response to a request from the Census Bureau, the Committee on National Statistics has convened a panel on future census methods research. This panel would have three phases. In phase I, the panel will review and present, in a conceptual framework, the gaps that were identified through use of 1990 research results during the planning of the 2000 Census, and the panel will propose important research for the Census Bureau to conduct in the early stages of planning the 2010 Census. The research proposed is beyond that conducted during the 2000 Census, and will include research on technology, sampling, and estimation. Finally, as part of phase I, the panel will review and comment on the Census 2010 Design Continuum, specifically as to the scope of the design.

In phase II, based on the 2000 Census results, the panel will identify census and administrative data that would be important to retain to evaluate the 2000 Census, and the panel will recommend appropriate uses of administrative records based on, in part, an assessment of the 2000 Census test results, previous tests, and the use of administrative records by other federal agencies, the accessibility and quality of data in the public and private sector, and the status of automated matching and unduplication software.

In phase III, the panel will provide recommendations on the scope and timing of major tests for the 2010 Census, based on an evaluation of the 2000 Census research program.

It is expected that this panel will have occasional interaction with the Panel to Review the 2000 Census. This panel would have the advantage of being early enough in the census process to have a major impact on the design of the 2005 and 2006 tests and to guide use of the data collected during the 2000 census in simulation studies. Finally, this panel needs to be fairly broad-based to consider the wide variety of issues that arise in census taking.

BENJAMIN F. KING (Chair), Boca Raton, FL
DAVID A. BINDER, Methodology Branch, Statistics Canada
MICK P. COUPER, Survey Research Center, University of Michigan
C.A. “AL” IRVINE, San Diego, CA
WILLIAM D. KALSBEEK, Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina (resigned)
SALLIE KELLER-MCNULTY, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
GEORGE T. LIGLER, GTL Associates, Potomac, MD
MICHAEL M. MEYER, Intelligent Results, Inc., Seattle, WA
DARYL PREGIBON, AT&T Labs Research, Florham Park, NJ (resigned)
KEITH F. RUST, Westat, Inc., Rockville, MD
JOSEPH J. SALVO, Population Division, New York City Department of City Planning
JOSEPH L. SCHAFER, Department of Statistics, Pennsylvania State University
ALLEN L. SCHIRM, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Washington, D.C.
JOSEPH SEDRANSK, Department of Statistics, Case Western Reserve University
MATTHEW C. SNIPP, Department of Sociology, Stanford University
DONALD YLVISAKER, Department of Statistics, University of California at Los Angeles
ALAN ZASLAVSKY, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School