Request for Non-substantive Change - June 2011 Sample Increase

Request for Non-Substantive Change to American Community Survey (ACS)

Data Collection

U.S. Census Bureau

Summary

The Census Bureau requests a non-substantive change for data collection for the American Community Survey (ACS) under OMB clearance 0607-0810.

In order to improve the reliability of the ACS estimates at the tract level, the Census Bureau received funding in FY 2011 to begin a process to increase the annual sample to 3.54 million addresses per year, as well as to conduct 100 percent follow-up for all sampled addresses in Remote Alaska and small American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hawaiian Homeland areas.

Starting in June 2011, we plan to mail questionnaires to approximately 295,000 households each month, representing an increase from the 250,000 households to which questionnaires currently are mailed. The Census Bureau estimates that, for the average household, the ACS-1 (questionnaire) will take 38 minutes to complete, including the time for reviewing the instructions and answers. We plan to conduct reinterviews for approximately 3,600 households each month, and estimate that the average time for a reinterview will be 10 minutes.

We will continue data collection at group quarters (GQ) facilities at current levels.

The estimated annual burden hours for housing unit data collection at the increased workload levels are as follows:

ACS Household Questionnaire: 2,242,000

ACS Household Reinterview: 7,200

The total estimated annual burden hours are: 2,337,868 (includes GQ data collection)

A summary of the total estimated annual burden hours is attached.

Contact: James B. Treat, Chief, American Community Survey Office, 301-763-3609 or james.b.treat@census.gov.

June 3, 2011

Increased Annual ACS Respondent and Burden Hour Estimates

Data Collection Operation	Forms or Instru-ment Used in Data Collection	Annual Estimated Number of Respondents	Estimated Minutes Per Respondent by Data Collection Activity	Annual Estimated Burden Hours
I. ACS Household Questionnaire - Paper Mailout/Mailback	ACS-1, ACS 1(SP), ACS-1PR, ACS-1PR(SP)	3,540,000	38	2,242,000
ACS Household CATI - Telephone Non-response Follow-up	CATI HU	[1,364,000 included in I.]	[38]	[864,000 included in I.]
ACS Household CAPI – Personal Visit Non-response Follow-up	CAPI HU	[698,000 included in I.]	[38]	[442,000 included in I.]
II. ACS GQ Facility Questionnaire CAPI - Telephone and Personal Visit	CAPI GQFQ	20,000	15	5,000
III. ACS GQ CAPI Personal Interview or Telephone, and – Paper Self-response	CAPI, ACS-1(GQ), ACS-1(GQ)(PR)	200,000	25	83,333
IV. ACS Household Reinterview – CATI/CAPI	ACS HU-RI	43,200	10	7,200
V. ACS GQ GQ-level Reinterview – CATI/CAPI	ACS GQ-RI	2,000	10	335
TOTALS		3,805,200	N/A	2,337,868