The purpose of the 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) was to measure the coverage of the 2020 Census. The PES was designed to measure the coverage of housing units and people―excluding group quarters, people residing in group quarters, and remote areas of Alaska. 

The 2020 Independent Listing operation was the first PES field operation conducted. During this operation, field staff independently visited and listed all housing units and potential housing units in each PES sample basic collection unit without using any previously collected address information. A potential housing unit was a unit that was not a housing unit at the time of listing but had the potential to be a housing unit on Census Day (April 1, 2020).

The Independent Listing production workload included 10,000 basic collection units located in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 

This assessment report focuses on the PES Independent Listing operation only. Other PES data collection and matching operations are addressed in separate reports. The report describes the procedures implemented, provides results of the operation, cost, and schedule, as well as identifies lessons learned. It produces valuable data for the 2030 PES planning cycle and provides information on the successes and shortcomings of the 2020 PES Independent Listing operation.