Coverage Measurement

Post-Enumeration Surveys

The Census Bureau has used post-enumeration surveys with dual system estimation to measure coverage in the Decennial Censuses of Population and Housing since 1980. This approach involves case-by-case matching of persons in an independent survey with persons in the census to determine who was missed or counted in error. The post-enumeration survey-based coverage measurement program associated with the 1980 Census was called the Post-Enumeration Program (PEP); in the 1990 Census it was called the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES); in Census 2000 it was called the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.); and for the 2010 Census it is called Census Coverage Measurement (CCM).

The primary goal of the 2010 CCM program is to measure coverage error in the 2010 Census such that this information can be used to improve the coverage of future censuses. As a result, the scope of coverage measurement will be broader and the emphasis will be different than it has been in the past. Specifically, the 2010 CCM goals are to: 1) produce measures of coverage error, including its components of omissions and erroneous enumerations; 2) produce these measures of coverage error not only for demographic groups and geographic areas, but also for key census operations; and 3) continue to provide measures of net coverage error.