Decennial Media Relations CB01-CS.08
301-457-3691/301-457-3620 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: 2000usa@census.gov
Mark Tolbert III
301-457-3691
Statement of Acting Census Bureau Director William Barron
Regarding the Adjustment Decision
After assessing considerable new evidence, the Executive Steering
Committee for Accuracy and Coverage and Evaluation Policy (ESCAP) has
recommended to me that unadjusted Census 2000 data also be used for
non-redistricting purposes. The effect of this new evidence is that the
Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) survey overstated the net
undercount by at least 3 million people. The cause of this error was that
the A.C.E. failed to measure a significant number of census erroneous
enumerations, many of which were duplicates. This level of error in the
A.C.E. measurement of net coverage is such that the A.C.E. results cannot
be used in their current form. This finding of substantial error, in
conjunction with remaining uncertainties, necessitates that revisions,
based on additional review and analysis, be made to the A.C.E. estimates
before any potential uses of these data can be considered.
As a member of ESCAP and as acting director of the Census Bureau, I
concur with and approve the committee's recommendation that unadjusted
data be used for non-redistricting purposes and have decided that the
Census Bureau will release the remaining Census 2000 data products,
postcensal estimates and survey controls using unadjusted data. It is
reasonable to expect that further research and analysis could yield
revised A.C.E. estimates and that these revised estimates could be used to
improve estimates developed as part of the Census Bureau's annual
population adjustments for survey controls and for other purposes.
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