The purpose of the 2020 Person Interview (PI) operation was to obtain information about the residents at the sample housing unit at the time of the PI interview and on Census Day (April 1, 2020) to determine where each person should have been counted on Census Day. For each basic collection unit (BCU) in the PES sample, interviews were conducted for selected housing units to collect rosters of residents.

For each person rostered, the PI attempted to collect demographic characteristics and other addresses where the rostered person could have been counted on Census Day. The final data from PI were used as inputs in the subsequent PES computer and clerical person matching operations and in the final estimates of coverage for the 2020 Census.