The U.S. Census Bureau’s Frames Program seeks to assess public opinion regarding a national demographic frame that would include person-level demographic, social, and economic characteristics for the U.S. population. Working jointly with the Center for Behavioral Science Methods, staff from the Frames Program and RTI International designed a 2-year, multi-mode research study. The research comprises three tasks: (1) develop and test an instrument to assess public perceptions of the use of administrative records, (2) conduct a nationally representative web survey using an address-based probability panel, and (3) conduct focus groups with hard-to-count populations and individuals who participated in the Ipsos web survey.

This report explains the focus group methodology, including a description of the target populations and participant eligibility criteria and the strategies for participant recruitment and screening. Additionally, this report includes the qualitative analysis of the focus group data collected and discusses findings, with potential next step considerations provided to the Census Bureau.