The purpose of the Post-Enumeration Survey is to measure the accuracy of the census. The survey measures the accuracy of the census by independently surveying a sample of the population.
The U.S. 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 people in an independent survey with people in the census to determine who was missed or counted in error.
The post-enumeration survey-based coverage measurement program associated with the 2020 Census was called the Post-Enumeration Survey (PES).
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The 2020 PES was designed to support national-level and state-level estimates of census coverage.
The primary goal of the 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) program was to measure coverage error in the 2020 Census. Fieldwork for the 2020 PES began in January 2020 and ended in February 2022.
The 2020 PES Source and Accuracy statements describe the source of the PES data collected and the accuracy of estimates produced by the survey.