Departmental Papers (SPP)
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
February 1999
Abstract
Following a critique of the 1990 decennial census procedures, we conducted a field study among low-income, inner-city residents in 1991 to examine how they conceptualized and managed the civic task of census response. Interpretations about the purpose and meaning of the census, about commitment to the task, and about connection to government, singly and together with literacy skills (e.g., reading and general literacy competence), were associated with errors that are not detectable by evaluative methodologies used regularly by the Census Bureau. The validity and reliability of census data, and possibly other self-administered survey research, will be increased by greater use of knowledge about both interpretation and literacy skills in formulating data collection procedures.
Recommended Citation
Iversen, R. R., Furstenberg, F. F., & Belzer, A. A. (1999). How Much Do We Count? Interpretation and Error-Making in the Decennial Census. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/spp_papers/51
Date Posted: 22 January 2007
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Reprinted from Demography, Volume 36, Issue 1, February 1999, pages 121-134.
Publisher URL: http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/1901
Permission granted by Population Association of America.