The Non-response Follow-up Supplement was planned and executed after the 1985 Test Censuses of Jersey City, New Jersey and Tampa, Florida were underway. Its purpose was to gather data from census nonrespondents about behaviors thought to affect the disappointing level of mail return of the census self-enumerative forms. Four explanations were initially offered for the low rates of mail return in the 1985 Test Censuses. They were:

1.     census forms were thrown away;

2.     respondents were turned off by the Jeffersonville return address;

3.     respondents were turned off or intimidated by the design of the census form; and

4.     we had the wrong kind of publicity, which was unable to overcome respondent apathy.

The Non-response Follow-up Supplement collected information about each of these hypothesized explanations.