Census Reform

Questionnaire Test Shows Simplification Holds Promise Gao ID: T-GGD-92-59 July 1, 1992

Improving public cooperation is crucial to controlling census costs and ensuring high-quality data. The Census Bureau's test of simplified census questionnaires this year shows that making them more user friendly, adopting a strategy of multiple mail contracts, and reducing the number of questions improves public cooperation. These test results have important implications for a range of census operational issues. The results also raise difficult policy questions on the trade-offs that must be made between the cost of the census and the content and geographic detail of the data collected.



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