Bureau of the Census. Selected Aspects of Census 2000 Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Need Improvements Before 2010

摘要

During a decennial census, the Census Bureau attempts to count and gather information about every resident in the country. However, in any census some enumerations that should have been excluded are included, and some portion of the population that should have been included is missed. The first source of errors leads to an overcount; the second, to an undercount. To measure these coverage errors, the Census Bureau conducted a separate and independent quality check survey known as the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.). A.C.E. uses a statistical methodology based on obtaining an independent sample of the population. The A.C.E. population sample is matched with the census population to identify persons missed or incorrectly counted in the census. Correctly matching A.C.E. person records with census person records is important because even small mistakes can affect the bureaus ability to measure the over and undercount precisely.