Issues of Counting Americans Overseas in Future Censuses

By Barron, William G.

Book Id: WPLBN0000579691
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 259,248 KB.
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Issues of Counting Americans Overseas in Future Censuses
Author:	Barron, William G.
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Census., Census report
Collections:	U.S. Census Bureau Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	U.S. Census Bureau Department


Citation APA MLA Chicago Barron, W. G. (n.d.). Issues of Counting Americans Overseas in Future Censuses. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Statistical Reference Document

Excerpt
Excerpt: This report deals with the issues of including Americans overseas in future decennial censuses. Policy issues: The U.S. Census Bureau considers prompt resolution of the policy issues a precondition to undertake research into the methodological issues. The direction of the methodological research could be dramatically different depending on the resolution of the policy issues. What should be the goal(s) of the Census Bureau in making the overseas counts? --The goal could simply be to provide a snapshot estimate for general information purposes. To go beyond that to assign that population to states for apportionment would go to a higher level of challenge for the Census Bureau. To develop estimates for redistricting or for funds allocation (particularly those taking into account intercensal population changes), would present very formidable challenges. Each of these uses has different implications as to the data that we would have to collect, the level of geography to which we would have to allocate this population, data quality requirements, data collection methodology, and costs. A use that requires collecting more data, at lower levels of geography and with higher levels of accuracy, would be more costly and difficult to develop and conduct.

Table of Contents
Contents Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Key policy issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.1 What should be the goal(s) of the Census Bureau in making the overseas counts? . . . . . 2 2.2 What would be the implication of conducting a census count that would take a different form than the stateside enumeration because it could not use a master address file and would be voluntary in nature? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.3 What are the implications of applying the concept of usual residence to Americans living overseas? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.4 Which components of the American overseas population should the Census Bureau count? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.5 What is the Census Bureau?s approach for reaching a decision on these policy issues? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. Conceptual issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1 What should the Census Bureau consider when assigning Americans living overseas to a home state or census block? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2 Should the Census Bureau strive for global coverage of Americans overseas? . . . . . . . . 5 4. Methodological issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.1 How to estimate the size of this population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.2 Can the Census Bureau use administrative records to estimate the size of the Americans overseas population? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.3 What is the ?best? data collection strategy for an overseas census that would meet the Census Bureau quality standards? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.3.1 Can the Census Bureau use administrative records to count U.S. citizens abroad in place of self-enumeration through a questionnaire? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.3.1.1 Records from official U.S. entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4.3.1.2 Records from private entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 4.3.1.3 Records maintained by other countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.3.2 Can the Census Bureau use a self-enumeration approach for the Americans overseas population? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4.3.2.1 How to distribute census forms to the target population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.3.2.2 How to publicize the overseas enumeration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.3.2.3 How to deal with nonrespondents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.3.2.4 How to unduplicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.3.3 Can the Census Bureau use both a self-enumeration approach and administrative records? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.4 What verification and validation methods would the Census Bureau use? . . . . . . . . . . . 14