Terms & Definitions
• 2010 Census Program for Evaluations and Experiments (CPEX): The 2010 CPEX will involve evaluations, experiments, and operational assessments that ultimately will evaluate the 2010 Census and inform planning for post-census testing and research. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ’90 Plus Five: A Census 2000 public relations program and a component of the How America Knows What America Needs campaign that challenged governors, mayors, tribal leaders, and other officials to increase their communities’ initial mail response rates by at least five percentage points over their 1990 response rates. See initial mail response rate. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• A Streamlined Acquisition Process (ASAP): The process the Census Bureau uses to acquire services. There are six phases: 1) Bureau-integrated strategic plan and budget, 2) project plan, 3) market research, 4) selection of acquisition vehicle, 5) meeting of project objective and managing of acquisition, and 6) close-out. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.): A coverage measurement method used to estimate the number of people and housing units missed or erroneously included in Census 2000. The A.C.E. is a nationwide sample survey conducted by the Census Bureau independent of the census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation 2000 (A.C.E. 2000): The automated system for assignment, control, and tracking of all A.C.E. field operations, including both paper (paper assisted personal interview) and automated (computer assisted telephone interview). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation Regional Office (ACERO): A separate office in each regional office, created to conduct the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ACS Coverage Program (ACS-CP): Alternative terminology for the Community Address Updating System, which was originally part of the American Community Survey (ACS), but is now part of the post-2000 enhancement of the Master Address File and TIGER database. See Community Address Updating System. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Active entity: A governmental unit that has officials who carry out legally prescribed functions, provide services, and/or raise revenues. The Census Bureau differentiates active entities by their fiscal independence and whether they provide general or limited, special services. See functional status, functioning entity, governmental unit, inactive entity, nonfunctioning entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Add: A housing unit whose address was not on the Census Bureau’s initial Decennial Master Address File, and that was retained in the final decennial census inventory. Adds can be found during block canvassing, address listing, Local Update of Census Addresses operations, update/leave, urban update/leave, update/enumerate, list/enumerate, Nonresponse Followup, and Coverage Improvement Followup field operations, as well as from the Be Counted and Telephone Questionnaire Assistance operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address: The house number and street or road name or other designation assigned to a housing unit, special place, business establishment, or other structure for purposes of mail delivery and/or to enable emergency services, delivery people, and visitors to find the structure. See basic street address, city-style address, E-911 address, fire number, house-number-and-street name address, location description, mailing address, and noncity-style address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address binder (AB): A special version of an address register used for some Census 2000 field operations. The binder contained address register listing pages that were preprinted with addresses and related information acquired by previous census operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address break: The city-style address on each side of a boundary or at an intersection of a street with another feature; for example, 1234 Main Street is inside an incorporated place and 1236 is outside the place. See address range. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address Coding Guide (ACG): A forerunner of the Geographic Base File/Dual Independent Map Encoding File and the TIGER database. Used for the 1970 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address Control File (ACF): The residential address list used by the Census Bureau to label questionnaires, control the mail response check-in operation, and determine the Nonresponse Followup workload for the 1990 census. See Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address List Map Review (ALMR): A January 1998 program that asked local and tribal government officials to review Census Bureau maps to identify incorrect and missing map features and names so that the Census Bureau could update the TIGER database in time for the address listing operation. They also were asked to record address ranges for any street segments that used city-style mailing addresses and to identify city-style address breaks for streets and roads that intersected the legal boundary. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address List Review: See Local Update of Census Addresses. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address listing (AL): A Census 2000 field operation to develop the address list in areas with predominantly noncity-style mailing addresses. A lister entered, in an address register, the address and/or a physical/location description for each living quarters within a specified area. The lister marked the location of each residential structure on a block map by drawing a map spot and assigning a map spot number. The lister also updated and corrected the map if necessary. Called “Prelist” for the 1990 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address listing page: An individual page in an address register, with either no entries or preprinted addresses and related information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address range: The lowest and highest address numbers used to identify structures along each side of a street segment that has city-style addresses. The Census Bureau usually expands the range to include all possible numbers, not just the existing ones (for example, the Census Bureau may expand the actual addresses of 105, 111, 123, and 131 on the odd-numbered side of a street to 101-199). Usually, an address range on one side of a street contains only even or only odd numbers, but sometimes it contains both. See address break, Automated Address Range Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address register (AR): A book used by field staff to record or verify addresses and related information for all living quarters in an assignment area. It also includes instructions on how to perform the job and a set of maps for the assignment area. See address binder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address register area (ARA): A term used for the 1990 census. Called an assignment area for Census 2000, and enumeration district for preceding decennial censuses. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Address System Information Survey (ASIS): A Census Bureau survey, conducted by telephone in 1993 and 1996, to determine the type of mailing addresses used in a county or, in New England, an incorporated place or minor civil division. It applied to geographic entities that, according to the Census Bureau’s records, used city-style addresses for fewer than 95 percent of their residential mailing addresses, or that previously reported that part of the entity was served by noncity-style mailing addresses. The purpose of the ASIS was to determine the most effective method of enumerating each geographic entity for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Administrative and Customer Services Division (ACSD): Census Bureau. Offers administrative services to internal customers. It prepares publications, such as the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and provides external customers with links to American FactFinder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Advance Census Report (ACR): An unaddressed short-form questionnaire delivered by U.S. Postal Service letter carriers in advance of the actual enumeration in list/enumerate areas. Enumerators picked up completed ACRs, checked them for completeness and consistency, transferred the responses to standard census questionnaires, and completed any missing information or entire questionnaires if necessary. These were used for the 1990 census, but only in the Island Areas for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Advance letter: The Census Bureau sent an advance letter to alert households that the census questionnaire would be sent or delivered to them soon (for every area except list/enumerate and update/enumerate areas). The advance letter enabled households to request a questionnaire in certain languages. See reminder card. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA): Legislation (Public Law 92-203, as amended) enacted in 1972 establishing Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Alaska Native villages to conduct business and nonprofit activities by and for Alaska Natives. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Alaska Native Regional Corporation (ANRC): A corporate entity established to conduct both business and nonprofit affairs of Alaska Natives, pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Alaska Native village (ANV): A local governmental unit in Alaska that constitutes an association, band, clan, community, group, tribe, or village, recognized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. ANVs do not have clearly defined boundaries. See Alaska Native village statistical area, governmental unit, and legal entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Alaska Native village statistical area (ANVSA): A statistical entity that represents the settled portion of an Alaska Native village for data presentation purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Community Survey (ACS): A monthly sample household survey conducted by the Census Bureau to obtain information similar to the long-form census questionnaire. It was first tested in 1995, and is expected to replace the long form for the 2010 Census. Beginning in 2004, the nationwide survey will provide annual data for social and economic characteristics for many geographic entities and population groups. In 2004, they must have a minimum population of 65,000; in 2006, 20,000; and in 2008, there will be no population limit, and the data also will be available for census tracts and perhaps block groups. See ACS Coverage Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American FactFinder (AFF): An electronic system for access and dissemination of Census Bureau data on the Internet. The system offers prepackaged data products and the ability to build user-selected tables and maps. The system serves as the vehicle for accessing and disseminating data from Census 2000 (as well as the 1990 census, the 1997 Economic Census, and the American Community Survey). The system was formerly known as the Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian/Alaska Native area (AIANA): A Census Bureau term that refers to these entity types: American Indian reservation, American Indian off-reservation trust land, Oklahoma tribal statistical area, joint use area, American Indian tribal subdivision, tribal designated statistical area, state designated American Indian statistical area, Alaska Native Regional Corporation, Alaska Native village, Alaska Native village statistical area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian area: A Census Bureau term that refers to any or all of the following entities: American Indian reservation, American Indian off-reservation trust land, Oklahoma tribal statistical area, joint use area, American Indian tribal subdivision, tribal designated statistical area, state designated American Indian statistical area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian area/Alaska Native area/Hawaiian home land (AIANHH): An all-encompassing Census Bureau term referring to American Indian entities, Alaska Native entities, and Hawaiian home lands. See American Indian/Alaska Native area, Hawaiian home land. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian off-reservation trust land: The United States holds title for specific areas in trust for the benefit of federally recognized American Indian tribes (tribal trust land) or for individual American Indians (individual trust land). Although trust land may be located on or off a reservation, the Census Bureau recognizes and tabulates data only for off-reservation trust land. Census data always associate off-reservation trust land with a specific federally recognized reservation or tribal government. See American Indian trust land. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian reservation: A federal American Indian reservation is an area that has been set aside by the United States for the use of one or more federally recognized American Indian tribes. It covers territory over which a tribe(s) has primary governmental authority. Its boundary is defined by tribal treaty, agreement, executive or secretarial order, federal statute, or judicial determination. A state American Indian reservation is an area that a state government has allocated to a tribe recognized by that state, but not by the federal government. See American Indian area, American Indian off-reservation trust land, joint use area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian tribal subdivision: A legal subdivision of a federally-recognized American Indian reservation, off-reservation trust land, or Oklahoma tribal statistical area. These entities are internal units of self-government or administration that serve social, cultural, and/or economic purposes for American Indians. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• American Indian trust land (TL): Area for which the United States holds title in trust for the benefit of a federally recognized American Indian tribe (tribal trust land) or for an individual American Indian (individual trust land). Although trust land may be located on or off a reservation, the Census Bureau recognizes and tabulates data only for off-reservation trust land. See American Indian off-reservation trust land, Hawaiian home land. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The most common format for text files in computers and on the Internet. Computers “read” ASCII codes, each of which can be represented by a 7-digit binary number from 0000000 through 111111, and produce them as letters, numbers or symbols; 128 possible characters are defined. ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Apportionment: There are two definitions for this term: The process of dividing the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states based on the decennial census. See reapportionment, redistricting. A distribution by the Office of Management and Budget of funds available for obligation in appropriation or fund accounts of the Executive Branch. The distribution makes funds available on the basis of time periods (usually quarterly), programs, activities, projects, objects, or combinations thereof. The apportionment system is intended to achieve an effective and orderly use of federal funds. See appropriation, authorization, and continuing resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Apportionment calculation: The mathematical calculation to determine congressional representation by each state following a decennial census. The apportionment calculation uses the method of equal proportions. The calculation is based on the total resident population (citizens and noncitizens) of the 50 states. For some censuses, including Census 2000, the population includes U.S. Armed Forces personnel and federal civilian employees stationed outside the United States (and their dependents living with them) who can be allocated to a home state. The populations of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Island Areas are not included in the calculation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Apportionment counts: The first data product from the decennial census is the apportionment population for each state and the number of representatives each state is entitled to based on the apportionment calculation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Appropriation: An act of Congress that allows federal agencies to incur obligations and make payments from the U.S. Treasury for specified purposes. An appropriation is the most common means of providing budget authority, and usually follows the passage of an authorized bill. See apportionment, authorization, and continuing resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assignment area (AA): A small geographic area, usually a block or group of blocks, established by the Census Bureau as a basic unit for data collection by a single enumerator, lister, or other field staff. AAs may be combined into field assignments for some operations. Formerly called an address register area (1990 census) and an enumeration district (earlier censuses). See assignment area map, collection geography, field assignment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assignment area locator map (AA locator map): See locator map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assignment area map (AA map): A map that shows the area assigned to a member of the field staff for a specific census operation. The map displays the individual roads, streets, and nonstreet features (and their names, if any); selected legal boundaries; and, if appropriate, the city-style address ranges of the roads and streets and the census collection block numbers within and adjacent to the AA. See assignment area, block map, and locator map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assignment control: For selected field operations, this operation required clerks to check the accuracy and completeness of work returned from the field to the local census office, and to route materials to appropriate staff. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assignment preparation: The coordination, preparation, and assembly of all materials by assignment area (AA), including maps, address registers, and questionnaires. This operation was performed by the regional census centers for address listing and block canvassing and by the local census offices (LCOs) for other field operations. Map pouch labels and large or color maps were printed in the regional census centers; AA maps, block maps, and other 11"x17" maps were printed in the LCOs. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Assistant to the Associate Director (AAD): Census Bureau. The AAD for the Decennial Census reports to the Associate Director for the Decennial Census. The AAD is responsible for the Decennial Management Division, Decennial Statistical Studies Division, Geography Division, and Decennial Systems and Contract Management Office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Associate Director (AD): Census Bureau. The AD for the Decennial Census reports to the Principal Associate Director for Programs. The AD directs, and is the spokesperson for, the decennial census of population and housing and the geographic support program that is the foundation for that census and most other economic and demographic programs of the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM): A process that increases the amount of information that can be electronically transferred at one time between sites. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Authorization: An act of Congress that establishes or continues a federal program or agency either for a specified period of time or indefinitely, specifies its general goals and conduct, and usually sets a ceiling on the amount of budget authority that can be provided in an annual appropriation. An authorization for an agency or program usually is required before an appropriation for that same agency or program can be passed. See appropriation, apportionment, and continuing resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Automated Address Range Program (AARP): A program for achieving a consistent address/block number relationship between field-verified city-style addresses in the Master Address File and the address ranges in the TIGER database. The AARP expanded address ranges to include all possible addresses on each side of a street segment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Automated data processing (ADP): The data processing operations performed by a system of electronic or electrical machines. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Automated Listing and Mapping Instrument (ALMI): A post-census 2000 system of files and software used by the Census Bureau to enable regional office field staff to update the address information in the Master Address File (MAF) and the street, address location, and related information in the TIGER database for an area. The field staff use laptop computers to view address and map information derived from the TIGER database and the MAF, and to record updates and corrections to those files. (There will be separate versions of the ALMI for use by staff at headquarters and in the regional offices.) As of spring 2002, the ALMI has three assignment types: (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
- “Update block,” for which staff are assigned specified blocks to canvass in order to find and record addresses not in the MAF, correct and unduplicate information for the addresses recorded in the MAF, record or correct the approximate location of each address, and update and correct street/road information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
- “Locate address,” for which staff are assigned specific addresses recorded in the MAF. Using the ALMI, they can display a map for a specific block, nearby blocks, and, if necessary, an overview or “locator” map of a county, census tract, governmental unit, etc., in an effort to try to find each address on the ground. They record in the ALMI the approximate location of each address that they find, identify addresses currently in the MAF that do not seem to exist or that duplicate another recorded address, and update and correct the address records and street/road information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
- “Find growth,” for which staff are assigned an area suspected to contain new residential development. If they find new housing, they identify the census tract(s) and block(s), which will comprise a future “update block” assignment(s). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The primary intercensal users of the ALMI are the American Community Survey, other Census Bureau surveys, and the Local Update of Census Addresses Field Verification operation. The ALMI also may be used for incorporating into the MAF and the TIGER database the updated information developed from other field operations, such as special censuses. See Group Quarters Automated Instrument for Listing. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Automated Master Address File Geocoding Office Resolution (AMAFGOR): A computer match that attempts to geocode city-style addresses in the Master Address File after street features, names, address ranges, and ZIP Code information have been inserted into the TIGER database using digital files from a governmental or commercial source. See digital exchange file, Master Address File Geocoding Office Resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bar code: A code consisting of a group of printed and patterned bars designed to be scanned and read into computer memory. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Barrio: A minor civil division in Puerto Rico. See barrio-pueblo, county subdivision, legal entity, minor civil division, and subbarrio. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Barrio-pueblo: A minor civil division in Puerto Rico. The barrio-pueblo is differentiated from other barrios because it is the historical center and seat of government of its municipio. See barrio, county subdivision, legal entity, minor civil division, and subbarrio. Note: The plural is barrios-pueblo. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Basic street address (BSA): The house number and street or road name portion of an address, such as 11 Main Street. The BSA does not include designations for apartments, units, lots, etc. However, when the address for a specific structure is identified by a number followed by a fraction or letter, such as 11½ or 11A, the fraction or letter is part of the BSA. See address, city-style address, house-number-and-street-name-address, and mailing address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Be Counted enumeration and Be Counted questionnaire (BC): The Be Counted program provided a means for people who believed they were not counted to be included in Census 2000. The Census Bureau placed unaddressed census questionnaires (Be Counted questionnaires) at selected sites that were easily accessible to and frequented by large numbers of people. The questionnaires also were distributed by the Questionnaire Assistance Centers and in response to requests received through Telephone Questionnaire Assistance. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Be Counted/ Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Field Verification (BC/TQA FV): An operation that verified the existence and residential status of addresses given to the Census Bureau by the Be Counted and Telephone Questionnaire Assistance programs. A verified address was added to the Master Address File and, if appropriate, its map-spotted location was added to the TIGER database. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Because You Count: A census public relations program, and a component of the How America Knows What America Needs campaign, that encouraged people to cooperate with census takers in communities where the census was conducted in person only. It also encouraged those who did not complete and mail their census forms to work with census takers during the Nonresponse Followup operation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Best and final offer (BAFO): The final and best technical and price solution a vendor provides for a request for proposal in response to a request from a government contracting officer. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Beta site: Located at Census Bureau headquarters, the beta site is an independent operation to test and assure the quality, completeness, and security of software systems, hardware systems, and network systems before their release to a production environment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Beta testing: Tests that ensure that hardware, software, and communication components are functioning properly before their release to the various decennial operating units. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Blank return: A questionnaire returned with little or no information. Such a questionnaire did not qualify for check-in for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Blanket mailing: The mailing of letters, questionnaires, or other forms to all addresses and/or all post office boxes in an area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block: See census block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block boundary: The features, both visible (street, road, stream, shoreline, and so forth) and invisible (county line, city limit, property line, and so forth), that delimit a census block. A boundary generally must include at least one addressable feature; that is, usually a street or road. The boundary of every legal and statistical entity recognized in the Census Bureau’s standard data tabulations is a tabulation block boundary. See census block, collection block, and tabulation block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block Boundary Definition Project (BBDP): A program like the Block Boundary Suggestion Project. It applied only to Puerto Rico. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP): The first phase of the Census Bureau’s Public Law 94-171 program-the Redistricting Data Program-that provided an opportunity for state officials to identify map features that they wanted the Bureau to recognize as block boundaries for the decennial census. They also could identify 1) features they did not want held as block boundaries; 2) features they wanted held as block boundaries on a contingency basis, such as the imaginary extension of a street to a city limit if that legal boundary did not change by January 1 of the census year; and 3) the legal location of the boundaries of state legislative districts. See Block Boundary Definition Project, Block Definition Project, Redistricting Data Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block canvassing: A Census 2000 field operation to ensure the currency and completeness of the Master Address File within the mailout/mailback area. Listers traveled in their assignment areas to collect and verify information to ensure that their address listing pages (derived from the Master Address File) contained a mailing address for every living quarters. They especially looked for hidden housing units (such as attics, basements, or garages converted into housing units) and houses that appeared to be one unit but actually contained multiple housing units. They also updated and corrected their Census Bureau maps. Formerly called precanvass, Targeted Canvassing, and Targeted Multi-Unit Check. See blue line and canvass. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block cluster: A single block or a group of blocks, varying in size depending on the requirements of each census operation or survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block Definition Project (BDP): A program like the Block Boundary Suggestion Project. It applied only to federally recognized American Indian reservations, off-reservation trust land, 1990 census tribal jurisdiction statistical areas, and the District of Columbia. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block group: A statistical subdivision of a census tract. A BG consists of all tabulation blocks whose numbers begin with the same digit in a census tract; for example, for Census 2000, BG 3 within a census tract includes all blocks numbered between 3000 and 3999. The block group is the lowest-level geographic entity for which the Census Bureau tabulates sample data from the decennial census. See tribal block group. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block locator map: A Census Bureau map that displays a census block and a substantial amount of surrounding area, to help users, such as field staff, identify where the block is located and determine an efficient route of travel to the block. See locator map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block map: A large-scale map of a single census collection block, showing roads, streets, and other features, together with their names (if any) within and adjacent to the block. Field staff use block maps to guide them in their canvass of each block, to annotate map changes, and, in some areas, to mark (map spot) and number the location of each residential structure. See assignment area map, block locator map, block number, collection block, and map spot. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block number: A number assigned to each census block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Block numbering area (BNA): Prior to Census 2000, a statistical subdivision of a county or statistically equivalent entity, delineated by a state government agency or Census Bureau regional census center for the purpose of grouping and numbering census blocks in counties (and statistically equivalent entities) that did not have census tracts. BNAs were discontinued for Census 2000; they were replaced by census tracts in every county and statistically equivalent entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Blue line: A boundary that defined the extent of the area covered by the block canvassing operation, and later was included in the mailout/mailback and urban update/leave enumerations. Most mailing addresses inside the blue line use a house number and street name. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Boarded up: A housing condition in which the doors or windows of a building have been covered to prevent destruction or entry. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Borough: A legal entity in Alaska that the Census Bureau treats as statistically equivalent to a county; a minor civil division in each of the five counties that comprise New York city; a type of incorporated place in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. See governmental unit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Boundary: A line that identifies the extent or limit of a geographic entity, such as a census block, census tract, county, or place. The legal boundaries the Census Bureau recognizes for a census are those in effect on January 1 of the census year. See block boundary. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS): A survey of all counties and statistically equivalent entities, all or selected incorporated places and minor civil divisions, all or selected federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land, and Alaska Native Regional Corporations, to determine the location of legal limits and related information as of January 1 of the survey year. See Consolidated Boundary and Annexation Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Boundary change: The establishment, relocation, or deletion of a boundary. For legal entities, boundary changes are reported to the Census Bureau in a state, local, or tribal government’s response to a Boundary and Annexation Survey, through a periodic or occasional survey to collect boundary information for a specific set of geographic entities, as an adjunct to obtaining other information about an area (such as updated street pattern or address information), or by some other reliable source. For statistical entities, boundary changes are provided in preparation for a specific census in response to the Census Bureau’s Participant Statistical Areas Program or some other specific boundary collection program. The boundaries of legal entities are changed due to legal actions, whereas statistical entities may be changed by appropriate reviewers to reflect population growth or decline, or because of revisions either to visible or legal features used as boundaries or to Census Bureau procedures. A boundary change also can occur due to an error in recording a boundary for one census or survey, and showing it correctly for the next. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Boundary Validation Program (BVP): A Census Bureau followup to the Census 2000 Boundary and Annexation Survey that enabled local and tribal government officials to review and correct (but not update beyond January 1) the January 1, 2000 legal boundaries, and to add and correct city-style addresses at the point where streets and roads intersected the legal boundary. The Census Bureau conducted this program from June through August 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Building: See structure. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA): Department of Commerce. Provides data on United States economy by preparing, developing, and interpreting national income and product accounts (summarized by the gross domestic product) as well as aggregate measures of international, regional, and state economic activity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA): Department of the Interior. Responsible for the administration of federal programs for federally recognized American Indian tribes and for promoting American Indian self-determination. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): Department of Labor. The principal fact-finding agency for the federal government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Bureau of the Census (BOC): Department of Commerce. The country’s preeminent statistical collection and dissemination agency. It publishes a wide variety of statistical data about people, housing, and the economy of the nation. The Census Bureau conducts approximately 200 annual surveys and conducts the decennial census of the United States population and housing and the quinquennial economic census and census of governments. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Callback: One or more telephone calls and/or visits that an enumerator makes to a living quarters to obtain information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Callback record page: A page in an address register used to record information about each callback. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Canvass: To systematically travel, block by block, every street, road, path, and the like in an assignment area to find and record information about every place where people live, stay, or could live and to update and correct the map of the assigned area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Casing check: See Postal Validation Check. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census: A complete enumeration of a population or the business and commercial establishments, factories, farms, or governments in an area. See decennial census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000: The 22nd decennial census, taken as of April 1, 2000, for the United States, Puerto Rico, and several island areas under U.S. jurisdiction. Officially called the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. See decennial census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000 Committee on Statistical Policy (CCSP): A committee composed of policy makers and technicians who provide external review and advice. The group reviews policy matters that affect decisions about statistical methods to be used by the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000 library: A depository of key Census 2000 documents, using an electronic document tracking system. See Decennial Document Management System and Personal Computer Document Organization and Control System. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000 Publicity Office (C2PO): Census Bureau. Develops, implements, and coordinates an integrated marketing program for Census 2000, including paid advertising, direct mail, public relations, partnerships, and local outreach. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000 Road Tour: A marketing program in which recreational vehicles staffed by Census Bureau employees and contractors toured the nation to promote Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census 2000 Testing, Experimentation, and Evaluation Program (TXE): As part of each decennial census since 1950, the Census Bureau incorporated a testing, evaluation, and experimental program to evaluate the current census and to facilitate planning for the next decennial census - two important activities that strongly support the Census Bureau’s strategic plan. The objective of the Census 2000 Testing, Experimentation, and Evaluation (TXE) Program was to evaluate Census 2000 and to help guide planning for the 2010 Census. The Census 2000 TXE Program included tests, experiments, and evaluations that were conducted during Census 2000. For program results, go to: http://www.census.gov/pred/www/. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994: See Public Law 103-430. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Advisory Committee (CAC): The committee’s official name is the Commerce Secretary’s 2000 Census Advisory Committee. The committee is approved by the Secretary of Commerce and composed of members of the public. It meets two or more times a year to give advice to the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census area: A statistical entity that serves as the equivalent of a county in Alaska. Census areas are delineated cooperatively with the state of Alaska for the purpose of presenting census data for the portion of Alaska that is not within an organized borough, city and borough, or municipality. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census block: An area bounded by visible and/or invisible features shown on Census Bureau maps. A block is the smallest geographic entity for which the Census Bureau collects and tabulates 100-percent decennial census data. See block boundary, block number, collection block, statistical entity, and tabulation block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Bureau: See Bureau of the Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Bureau map: Any map, in electronic or paper form, produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. Such a map usually displays the boundaries and names and/or codes of the geographic entities that the Census Bureau uses to take a census or survey, or for which the Census Bureau tabulates data, and may include both visible and invisible features, feature names, and other information appropriate to the purpose for which the map was prepared. Some Census Bureau maps display statistical data in various thematic forms. Every Census Bureau map displays a credit note showing that it was produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. May be referred to as “census map” after first usage of the term. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census code: A code assigned by the Census Bureau to identify a specific geographic entity. The Bureau uses census codes for geographic entities for which a Federal Information Processing Standards code either does not exist or is inadequate to identify and/or sequence a type of entity. See Federal Information Processing Standards code, geographic code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census county division (CCD): A statistical subdivision of a county, established and delineated cooperatively by the Census Bureau and state, local, and tribal officials for data presentation purposes. CCDs have been established in 21 states that do not have minor civil divisions suitable for data presentation; that is, minor civil divisions have not been legally established, do not have a governmental or administrative purpose, have boundaries that are ambiguous or change frequently, and/or generally are not well known to the public. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Coverage Measurement (CCM): A sample survey used to measure how well the census covered housing units and persons living in housing units. Sample areas are selected and the housing units in each sample area are listed independently of the census. A person interview, independent of any census results, is conducted at each sample housing unit in order to determine: (1) who lives at the housing unit at the time of the interview, (2) who lived at the housing unit on census day, and (3) other places where these people could have been counted in the census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
- The results are matched to the census enumerations throughout the country. In addition, a search for duplicates among the census enumerations and among the persons rostered in the person interview is conducted. A person followup interview is conducted for CCM and census discrepancies, potential duplicates, and for cases where additional information is needed. A similar series of matching and followup operations is conducted for housing units. The results are used to form estimates of person and housing unit net coverage error for the census (i.e., undercount or overcount) and coverage error components (i.e., omissions and erroneous enumerations). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Day: The reference date for collection of information for a census. For the decennial census, this has been April 1 of the decade year (year ending with zero) since the 1930 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census designated place (CDP): Census Designated Places (CDPs) are the statistical counterparts of incorporated places, and are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. The boundaries usually are defined in cooperation with local or tribal officials and generally updated prior to each decennial census. These boundaries, which usually coincide with visible features or the boundary of an adjacent incorporated place or another legal entity boundary, have no legal status, nor do these places have officials elected to serve traditional municipal functions. CDP boundaries may change from one decennial census to the next with changes in the settlement pattern; a CDP with the same name as in an earlier census does not necessarily have the same boundary. CDPs must be contained within a single state and may not extend into an incorporated place. There are no population size requirements for CDPs.
Hawai‘i is the only state that has no incorporated places recognized by the Census Bureau. All places shown in decennial census data products for Hawaii are CDPs. By agreement with the state of Hawai‘i, the Census Bureau does not show data separately for the city of Honolulu, which is coextensive with Honolulu County. In Puerto Rico, which also does not have incorporated places, the Census Bureau recognizes only CDPs and refers to them as comunidades or zonas urbanas. Guam also has only CDPs.
• Census division: A grouping of states and the District of Columbia, established by the Census Bureau for the presentation of census data. The nine divisions (East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, Mountain, New England, Pacific, South Atlantic, West North Central, and West South Central) represent areas that were relatively homogeneous areas when they were established in 1910. The divisions are subdivisions of the four census regions. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Edited File (CEF): Staff edits and imputes (item and whole household imputation) the Census Unedited File to create the Census Edited File. Staff edits, imputes (item imputation), and weights the Census Unedited File - Sample to create the Census Edited File - Sample. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census field office (CFO): A small temporary office established by the Census Bureau for Census 2000 to perform the address listing field work, conduct local recruiting, and create a local presence. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census geography: A collective term referring to the geographic entities used by the Census Bureau for data collection and tabulation. See collection geography, geographic hierarchy, and tabulation geography. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Hiring and Employment Check (CHEC): The CHEC system automates the electronic processing of name and fingerprint checks to screen out any potentially unsuitable employees. Designed to conduct background and suitability screening for decennial employees as well as permanent career and current survey personnel, the CHEC system provides a criminal history check on all Census employees and contractors while also verifying employment and education history. This collection of criminal history information and employment verification allows management officials to make timely and informed hiring decisions. Consequently, CHEC will support both the hiring of employees for the decennial census and the ongoing hiring of headquarters, regional and contract personnel. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census identification number: A number assigned by the Census Bureau to a housing unit at a specific address or location. This information is kept in the Master Address File. See no identification number. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census in Schools: A program to distribute instructional materials about the census to school administrators, teachers, and children. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Information Center (CIC): A participant in a cooperative program between the Census Bureau and 57 national, regional, and local nonprofit organizations that represent the interests of underserved communities. The centers serve as repositories of census data and reports, making census information and data available to the public and the communities they serve. The CICs use census data in areas such as program planning, advocacy needs assessment, defining service areas, public policy development, developing new business enterprises, and conducting race/ethnic-related research. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Integration Group (CIG): An inter-divisional team responsible for 2010 Census program integration. The team will serve as the change control board. In addition, they will facilitate the resolution of issues that were identified by the OITs, ISTs, and IPTs. Finally, the team will serve as a liaison between the Decennial Leadership Group and OITs, ISTs, and IPTs. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census map: See Census Bureau map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Map Preview (CMP): A Census 2000 program that gave local and tribal government officials an early opportunity (1996-1997) to review and update the features shown on the Census Bureau maps of their areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Monitoring Board: Established by Public Law 105-119, the function of the board was “to observe and monitor all aspects of the preparation and implementation of Census 2000 (including all dress rehearsals and other simulations of a census in preparation therefor).” By law, the board ceased to exist on September 30, 2001. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census of Population and Housing reports (CPH): A series of 1990 census reports containing tables that report population and housing data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Operational Managers (COM): Census Bureau. A steering group responsible for designing and conducting efficient operations consistent with Census 2000 policies, goals, objectives, and strategies. This group replaced the 1990 Program Steering Committees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census region: A grouping of states and the District of Columbia, established by the Census Bureau for the presentation of census data. Each region (Midwest, Northeast, South, and West) is subdivided into census divisions. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census statistical areas committee (CSAC): For the 1990 and prior censuses, a committee established by local government officials and other interested individuals to identify, in cooperation with the Census Bureau, the census tracts, block groups, census designated places, and other statistical entities for the area it served. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census statistical areas key person (CSAKP): For the 1990 and prior censuses, a person designated by a census statistical areas committee to act as its contact person with the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census subarea: A statistical subdivision of a borough, census area (county equivalent), or other entity that is the statistical equivalent of a county in Alaska. Census subareas are delineated cooperatively by the state of Alaska and the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census tract: A small, relatively permanent statistical subdivision of a county or statistically equivalent entity, delineated for data presentation purposes by a local group of census data users or the geographic staff of a regional census center in accordance with Census Bureau guidelines. Designed to be relatively homogeneous units with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions at the time they are established, census tracts generally contain between 1,000 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. Census tract boundaries are delineated with the intention of being stable over many decades, so they generally follow relatively permanent visible features. However, they may follow governmental unit boundaries and other invisible features in some instances; the boundary of a state or county (or statistically equivalent entity) is always a census tract boundary. See block numbering area, tribal census tract. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census tract number: A 4-digit basic number, followed by an optional 2-digit decimal suffix, used to identify a census tract uniquely within a county or statistically equivalent entity. For Census 2000, census tract numbers ranged from 0001 to 9999, with 9400 to 9499 reserved for census tracts related to federally recognized American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust land-primarily reservations and trust land that cross county lines. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Tract Street Index (CTSI): An extract of the TIGER File, made available to the public during the 1990s to enable users to relate a city-style address to a 1990 census tract and current Congressional district. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Census Unedited File (CUF): The Decennial Response File, the file containing all responses to Census 2000, is processed using the Primary Selection Algorithm. From this file, two files are created: the Census Unedited File, which contains the individual responses to the short-form questionnaires, and the Census Unedited File - Sample, which contains the individual responses to the long- form questionnaires. The long form, received by approximately one in six households nationwide, included the short-form questionnaire items and additional questions. The CUF is used to generate apportionment data as well as related “raw,” or unedited, census data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Central city: In a metropolitan area (MA), the largest place and, in some areas, one or more additional places that meet official standards issued by the federal Office of Management and Budget. If a place extends beyond an MA, only the portion within the MA is a central city. A few primary metropolitan statistical areas do not have a central city. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Central place: In an urban area (urbanized area or urban cluster), the largest place and, in some areas, one or more additional places that meet specific Census Bureau criteria. If a place is identified as an extended place, only the portion within the urban area represents the central place. For an urban area that does not contain an incorporated or census designated place, there is no central place, and the title of the urbanized area or urban cluster uses the name of a minor civil division, or a local place name recognized by the Board on Geographic Names and recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Check-in: An operation that records a census response into a computer database. Every type of response (mailed-in questionnaire, telephone response, Internet response, or enumerator interview response) is checked in at a data capture center. See check-in rate. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Check-in rate: Questionnaires checked in at the four data capture centers represented the initial step for processing responses to Census 2000. Check-in at the data capture centers was an operation designed to record receipt of census questionnaires into a database for control and workflow management. It provided an estimate of the scanning workload. The check-in count of questionnaires included all mailed-in questionnaires, including responses from mailout/mailback, update/leave, and the Be Counted Program, and enumerator interview responses, including list/enumerate, update/enumerate, and Nonresponse Followup. The check-in count also included questionnaires returned as undeliverable-as-addressed by the U.S. Postal Service. Some questionnaires included in check-in may be duplicate forms from the same household, blank forms, and the like; because questionnaires from all of these sources constitute the questionnaire scanning workload, the Census Bureau does not reduce the check-in count by the number of unusable questionnaires. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• City: A type of incorporated place in all states and the District of Columbia. In Virginia, all cities are not part of any county, and the Census Bureau treats them as county equivalents as well as places for purposes of data presentation; there also is one such independent city in each of three states: Maryland, Missouri, and Nevada. In 23 states and the District of Columbia, some or all cities are not part of any minor civil division, and the Census Bureau treats them as county subdivisions as well as places for purposes of data presentation. In agreement with the state of Hawaii, the Census Bureau does not recognize the city of Honolulu for presentation of decennial census data. See consolidated city, county equivalent, county subdivision, governmental unit, incorporated place, independent city, and independent place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• City and borough: A legally established geographic entity in Alaska. The Census Bureau treats a city and borough as equivalent to a county for data presentation purposes. The Bureau also treats a city and borough as an incorporated place in Alaska. This designation is new for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• City delivery area: An area in which post offices deliver mail to addresses consisting of a house number and street name and that consists of “city delivery routes” as designated by the U.S. Postal Service. Some homes and establishments in a city delivery area may choose to use a post office/drawer or general delivery for their mail. See city-style address, nondelivery area, and rural delivery area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• City-style address: An address that consists of a house number and street or road name; for example, 201 Main Street. The address may or may not be used for the delivery of mail, and may include apartment numbers/designations or similar identifiers. See address, basic street address, house-number-and-street-name address, mailing address, and noncity-style address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Coefficient of variation (CV): The ratio of the standard error (square root of the variance) to the value being estimated, usually expressed in terms of a percentage (also known as the relative standard deviation). The lower the CV, the higher the relative reliability of the estimate. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Collection block: A physical block enumerated as a single geographic area, regardless of any legal or statistical boundaries passing through it. (Note: State, county, American Indian area, and military base boundaries, as recorded in the TIGER database at the time of assigning numbers to collection blocks, are always block boundaries.) See block number, census block, and tabulation block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Collection geography: The geographic entities used by the Census Bureau for taking a census. For Census 2000, the combination of census field office (CFO), early-opening local census office (ELCO), or local census office (LCO)/assignment area (AA)/collection block identified a unique geographic area. See tabulation geography. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS): A system integrating financial and related subsystems for census management and administration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commerce Business Daily (CBD): A newspaper, published by the Department of Commerce, that lists all procurement notices and awards by the federal government. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commercial structure: A building used principally for business purposes. It may contain one or more living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commercially available off-the- shelf software (COTS): Software that may be purchased and implemented for a particular application with minimal or no modification required. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Commonwealth: The legal designation for four states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia), Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Census Bureau does not use this term in presenting data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Community Address Updating System (CAUS): A post-Census 2000 Census Bureau program that provides a systematic methodology for enhancement and update of address and street/road information in areas that the Census Bureau has identified as experiencing major new development. This is information that needs to be added to the TIGER database and the Master Address File after Census 2000, but the information is either not available from or appears to be incomplete in the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File. The Census Bureau issues an invitation to state, local, and tribal governments to encourage participation in the Local Update of Census Addresses program for their area. Where no participation is forthcoming, the CAUS prioritizes which areas should be assigned for field visits by regional office staff. CAUS also is referred to as the American Community Survey Coverage Program. See Automated Listing and Mapping Instrument, Demographic Area Address Listing, and Group Quarters Automated Instrument for Listing. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Compact disk - read only memory (CD-ROM): An optical disk created by a mastering process and used for storing large amounts of data. Unlike standard computer disks and diskettes, CD-ROMs can be used only to read stored data, not to update or change the content. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Complete Count Committee (CCC): A volunteer committee established by local, tribal, and sometimes state governments to include a cross-section of community leaders, including representatives from government agencies; education, business, and religious organizations; community agencies; minority organizations; and the media. The committees were charged with developing and implementing a Census 2000 outreach, promotion, recruiting, and enumeration assistance plan of action designed to target and address the needs of their communities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Computer assisted personal interview (CAPI): A method of data collection in which the interviewer asks questions displayed on a laptop computer screen and enters the answers directly into a computer. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Computer Assisted Survey Research Office (CASRO): Census Bureau. Provides automation and telecommunication technologies to improve the collection, processing, and dissemination of data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Computer assisted telephone interview (CATI): A method of data collection using telephone interviews in which the questions to be asked are displayed on a computer screen and responses are entered directly into a computer. As a component of Telephone Questionnaire Assistance, a census employee offered to conduct a CATI and take responses over the telephone if it was too late to mail a questionnaire to the household or when requested by the caller in certain situations. Telephone interviews could be conducted only for households receiving a short-form questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Computer Services Division (CSvD): Census Bureau. Operates and manages the electronic computers and related ancillary equipment of the Census Bureau; plans and provides the maintenance of this equipment at required hardware performance levels. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Comunidad: A census designated place in Puerto Rico that is not related to a municipio’s seat of government. See census designated place and zona urbana. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Concept of Operations (CONOPS): The U.S. Department of Commerce’s acquisition process. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Confidentiality: The guarantee made by law (Title 13, United States Code) to individuals who provide census information, ensuring nondisclosure of that information to others. See Privacy Act and special sworn status individual. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Confidentiality edit: The name for the Census 2000 disclosure avoidance procedure, in which data for one person or household is switched with that of another person or household in order to maintain data confidentiality. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Congressional Affairs Office (CAO): Census Bureau. Acts as a liaison between the Congress and the Census Bureau. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Congressional district (CD): One of 435 areas established by law for the election of people to the U.S. House of Representatives. Each CD is to be as equal in population to all other CDs in the state as practicable, based on the decennial census counts. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Congressional District Data Summary Files: Data files generated for Congressional districts from the decennial census data and made available to the public. They contain the same types of data as the Hundred Percent Summary Files and Sample Data Summary Files. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Consolidated Boundary and Annexation Survey (C-BAS): Participation in the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) by a single governmental unit (GU) for all or some of the GUs located within it; for example, a county may review and update the boundaries for all or some of the incorporated places and/or minor civil divisions located within it. The reviewing GU must have the consent of the other GUs, which are given the opportunity to review and approve their boundaries after the Census Bureau enters the information into the TIGER database. See Boundary and Annexation Survey and Boundary Validation Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Consolidated city: A type of incorporated place that contains one or more other incorporated places that continue to function as separate governmental units within a consolidated government. See consolidated government, incorporated place, and legal entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Consolidated government: A governmental unit created when the functions of two or more types of governmental units are merged to form a single, common government; for example, a consolidated city-county government. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Consolidated metropolitan statistical area (CMSA): A geographic entity designated by the federal Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. An area becomes a CMSA if it qualifies as a metropolitan area, has a census population of one million or more, has component parts that qualify as primary metropolitan statistical areas based on official standards, and local opinion favors the designation. CMSAs consist of whole counties except for the New England states, where they consist of county subdivisions (primarily cities and towns). See central city and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Content edit: An operation that includes a review of questionnaires for missed answers or multiple entries. The edits are designed to improve data quality and reduce item nonresponse. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Continuation form: A questionnaire used if there were seven or more people in a household. Each continuation form contained the same questions as the original short-form questionnaire for up to six additional household members. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Continuing resolution: Legislation enacted by the Congress to provide budget authority for specific ongoing activities when the regular fiscal year appropriation for such activities has not been enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year. The continuing resolution usually specifies a maximum rate at which an agency may incur obligations, based on the rate of the prior year, the President’s budget request, or an appropriation bill passed by either or both houses of Congress. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP): A method of providing response and disaster recovery plans for each data capture center. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Continuous Measurement System: A reengineering of the method for collecting the housing and socioeconomic data, traditionally collected in the decennial census, to provide data every year instead of once in ten years. This system includes a large monthly survey-the American Community Survey-and estimates through the use of administrative records in statistical models. It is in a developmental stage that started in 1996. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Conventional census: See list/enumerate.
• Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA): An agreement between the Census Bureau and one or more private companies for the purpose of improving databases and products for the benefit of both the Census Bureau and the company (ies). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Correspondence Management Staff (CMS): Census Bureau. Responsible for controlling and processing of incoming and outgoing correspondence directed to or signed by the Director or Deputy Director of the Census Bureau or the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, or an Assistant Secretary, or Under Secretary of the Department of Commerce. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Cost and Progress (C&P): C&P refers to both the system and the reports generated by the system. The C&P System is a component of the Management Information System that reports on the cost and progress of address list development and data collection, capture, processing, and dissemination for Census 2000. See Executive Information System, Management Information System, and Master Activity Schedule. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Count Question Resolution (CQR): A process whereby state, local, and tribal government officials could ask the Census Bureau to verify the accuracy of the legal boundaries used for Census 2000, the allocation of living quarters and their residents in relation to those boundaries, and the count of people recorded by the Census Bureau for specific living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• County: The primary legal division of every state except Alaska and Louisiana. A number of geographic entities are not legally designated as a county, but are recognized by the Census Bureau as equivalent to a county for data presentation purposes. These include the boroughs, city and boroughs, municipality, and census areas in Alaska; parishes in Louisiana; and cities that are independent of any county (independent cities) in Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. They also include the municipios in Puerto Rico, districts and islands in American Samoa, municipalities in the Northern Mariana Islands, and islands in the Virgin Islands of the United States. Because they contain no primary legal divisions, the Census Bureau treats the District of Columbia and Guam each as equivalent to a county (as well as equivalent to a state) for data presentation purposes. In American Samoa, a county is a minor civil division. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• County equivalent: See county.
• County partition: See partition.
• County subdivision: A legal or statistical division of a county recognized by the Census Bureau for data presentation. See barrio, barrio-pueblo, borough, census county division, census subarea, city, legal entity, minor civil division, statistical entity, town, township, unorganized territory, and village. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Coverage Edit Followup (CEFU): A telephone operation in which telephone agents contracted by the Census Bureau called households whose census responses failed population count discrepancies and large household edits. These edits were performed only for mailback and Internet responses. An example of a count discrepancy is a difference between the number of people reported in the household and the number of people for whom census information was provided on the questionnaire. This edit includes the Large Household Followup. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Coverage Improvement Followup (CIFU): A census field operation during which addresses previously identified as vacant or previously deleted from the Master Address File were verified to be sure that their “vacant” or “deleted” status was correct. If the unit was occupied on Census Day, a completed questionnaire was obtained. Also enumerated in CIFU were addresses identified by governmental units for the New Construction program, late-added addresses identified during update/leave and through update partnership efforts with the U.S. Postal Service, and addresses for which mail return questionnaires were lost or returned blank. Field staff visited these addresses to determine the status of each address as of Census Day. If the housing unit was occupied on Census Day, enumerators compledted a questionnaire for the address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Crew leader (CL): The immediate supervisor of a team of listers, enumerators, or other field staff for a decennial census. See crew leader assistant, crew leader district, and field operations supervisor. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Crew leader assistant (CLA): For some field operations, a crew leader may be assigned one or more CLAs from the pool of enumerators, to perform specific crew leader functions. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Crew leader district (CLD): The area assigned to a crew leader, formed by grouping together a number of enumerator assignment areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Crews of vessels: The shipboard populations of U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and merchant marine vessels. For geographic purposes, the population of each ship is assigned to a census tract and census block that includes the ship’s home port (Navy, Coast Guard) or that contains the facility, pier, or dock associated with the ship. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Customer Liaison Office (CLO): Census Bureau. The point of contact between the Census Bureau and its external customers, both public and private. The external customers include government organizations, such as state data centers, business and industry data centers, census information centers, governors’ liaisons for Census 2000, and tribal governmental leaders, and nongovernment entities, such as national labor unions and national nonprofit organizations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Dangerous settlement: A compound where census staff encounters or is aware of dangerous situations, such as militia groups. The listers or enumerators are instructed to note the living quarters as a special place and to not attempt to interview the residents. Though listed as a special place, special place operations are not conducted at these living quarters. Procedures for listing and enumerating these settlements include interviewing the local postmaster and public officials. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS): See American FactFinder.
• Data capture: The process by which respondent information is recorded from the census questionnaires and converted and stored in a computer-readable format. Data capture for Census 2000 was performed in the Census Bureau’s data capture centers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Capture Audit and Resolution (DCAR): An edit and review of the records of responses. An edit compares a derived count of persons to the questionnaire count. Edit failures may be resolved inhouse or referred to Coverage Edit Followup. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data capture center (DCC): A facility that checked in questionnaires, created images of all questionnaire pages, and converted responses to computer-readable format for Census 2000. The DCCs also performed other computer processing activities, including automated questionnaire edits, workflow management, and data storage. There is one permanent DCC, the National Processing Center. For Census 2000, the Census Bureau established three temporary DCCs, which were operated by a private contractor through the Data Capture Services Contract; these DCCs were located in Baltimore, Phoenix, and Pomona (CA). Referred to as a processing office for the 1990 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Capture Management Information System (DMIS): A computerized management information system developed for use in the data capture centers. It provided automated tools to facilitate and support the management of the centers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Capture Services Contract (DCSC): The contract that provided the facilities for data capture center operations and services. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Capture System 2000 (DCS 2000): The data capture system used to capture information from census forms. This system incorporated the following activities: processing more than 120 million incoming forms; digitally capturing and processing billions of bits of information on the forms; automatically converting the forms’ images to text-based data; and editing/repairing data that the system was unable to decipher automatically. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Data Preparation Division (DPD): See National Processing Center.
• Data Stewardship Executive Policy Committee (DSEP (Committee)): A Census Bureau committee established in 2001 to assure that the Census Bureau can effectively collect and use data about the nation’s people and economy while fully meeting the Census Bureau’s legal and ethical obligations to respondents to respect privacy and protect confidentiality. This includes fully meeting the legal, ethical, and reporting obligations required by the Census Act, the Privacy Act, and other applicable statutes, including those of governmental and other suppliers of data to the Census Bureau. The Stewardship Committee, consisting of members of the Census Bureau’s Executive Staff, serves as the Census Bureau’s focal point for decision-making and communication on policy issues releated to privacy, security, confidentiality, and administrative records. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Applicant Name Check (DANC): An automated system used to screen all applicants’ backgrounds for criminal histories to facilitate the selection, hiring, promotion, and payrolling of qualified and suitable applicants for the conduct of Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Applicant, Personnel, and Payroll System (DAPPS): DAPPS is a fully integrated human resources and payroll system that meets financial and regulatory reporting requirements for temporary decennial field staff. This web-based enterprise-wide system supports the recruiting and applicant process, hiring of employees, processing personnel actions, paying employees, providing reports and outputs, and maintaining historical data; that is, it tracks the careers of temporary decennial field employees from recruitment to background check to payroll. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial census: The census of population and housing, taken by the Census Bureau in each year ending in zero. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years for the purpose of apportioning the U.S. House of Representatives. The first census of population was taken in 1790. The Census Bureau first conducted the census of housing in 1940. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Cost Model (DCM): The primary tool for documenting and analyzing budgetary resources needed to support program requirements for Census 2000. It contains assumptions and parameters used to describe and analyze the budget components. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Division Chiefs Steering Committee (DDCSC): Census Bureau. Consists of the various chiefs of the Census Bureau’s divisions and offices, including the Census Operational Managers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Document Management System (DDMS): An electronic library documenting the operations of Census 2000 using Personal Computer Document Organization and Control System software. The files are maintained by Decennial Communications, Decennial Management Division. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial field interface (DFI): The Census Bureau’s control system for field operations for the dress rehearsal and Census 2000. It provided a framework for all software systems used in data collection-related control and tracking activities of the regional census centers, census field offices, early-opening local census offices, and local census offices. It included, among others, the operations control, payroll and personnel, map production, and management information systems. See Operations Control System 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Management Division (DMD): Census Bureau. The DMD directs and monitors the decennial census. It coordinates and provides project management for all census operations; maintains the Cost Model and the Executive Information System, which includes the Master Activity Schedule and the Cost and Progress Reporting System; manages the decennial budget; manages decennial communications, issue resolution/change control, and requirements documentation; and directs development of the census plan. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Master Address File (DMAF): An extract of the Master Address File that the Census Bureau used, with added fields, to control and track the operations and programs of Census 2000. The DMAF supported long-form sampling, questionnaire mailout, response check-in, tracking and reporting, and field enumeration operations. For example, census staff used the DMAF to create address files for questionnaire labeling and delivery and for the check-in of questionnaires and enumerator interview form returns. The universes for field enumeration operations, notably Nonresponse Followup and Coverage Improvement Followup, were extracted from the DMAF. The Census Bureau periodically updated the DMAF with address additions, deletions, and corrections from census and other operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Outlook Report: A monthly report that presented information about the Census 2000 budget, operations, procurements, systems, personnel, and facilities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Response File (DRF): A file that contains every response to the census from all sources. The Primary Selection Algorithm was applied to this file to unduplicate people from multiple returns for a housing unit and to determine the housing unit record and the people to include at the housing unit. The DRF was then combined with the Decennial Master Address File to create the Census Unedited File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS): To help accomplish the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau requires the Decennial Response Integration System (DRIS) contractor to design, build, test, deploy, implement, operate, maintain, secure, and then dispose of the systems, infrastructure, staffing, procedures, and facilities needed to: (1) provide assistance to the public through the telephone; (2) receive, capture, and standardize census data provided by respondents via paper census forms and telephone agents; and (3) organize and standardize data collected in field operations via hand-held computers (HHCs). While the DRIS Contractor must standardize and organize response data from the HHCs, the DRIS contract does not include providing the systems or staffing used for the field operations. The Census Bureau awarded the DRIS contract to Lockheed Martin in October 2005. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Statistical Studies Division (DSSD): Census Bureau. Develops mathematical and statistical techniques for the design and conduct of a census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Systems and Contracts Management Office (DSCMO): Census Bureau. Develops and manages major Census 2000 contracts to process Census 2000 data and disseminate data to the public. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decennial Systems Architecture Team (DSAT): This team is responsible for facilitating communication among the 2010 Census system providers. In addition the team facilitates the documentation of the system architecture and detailed description of the system interfaces. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Decision Memoranda Series: A set of memoranda that document major policy and design decisions as well as major changes to the Census 2000 operational plans. They are issued by the Issue Resolution/Change Control Board, the Census Operational Managers, and the executive staff. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Delete: The status for an address in the Master Address File that does not qualify as a living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Delivery Sequence File (DSF): A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) computer file containing all mailing addresses serviced by the USPS. The USPS continuously updates the DSF as its letter carriers identify addresses for new delivery points and changes in the status of existing addresses. The Census Bureau uses the DSF as a source for maintaining and updating its Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Demographic analysis (DA): An independent, macro-level approach to validate the census results. Estimates using demographic analysis are based on aggregate sets of administrative data including birth and death records, immigration statistics, and Medicare data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Demographic Area Address Listing (DAAL): A post-Census 2000 program that coordinates various operations related to the review and automated update of the geographic content of the TIGER database and the addresses in the Master Address File; the results of the reviews and updates are recorded using laptop computers. See Automated Listing and Mapping Instrument, Community Address Updating System, Group Quarters Automated Instrument for Listing. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Demographic Profile: Five tables that provide Census 2000 population and housing characteristics for geographic entities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Demographic Statistical Methods Division (DSMD): Census Bureau. Develops mathematical and statistical techniques for the design and conduct of demographic sample surveys. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Demographic Surveys Division (DSD): Census Bureau. Performs a wide range of demographic surveys, including the American Community Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Department of Commerce (DOC): U.S. Government. Promotes job creation, economic growth, sustainable development, and improved living standards for all Americans. The Department of Commerce includes the Bureau of Export Administration, Economic Development Administration, International Trade Administration, Patent and Trademark Office, Minority Business Development Agency, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Technical Information Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the various agencies NOAA oversees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Department of Defense (DOD): U.S. Government. Provides the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Deputy Director: Census Bureau. Assists the Director in the direction of the Census Bureau and performs the functions of the Director in his/her absence. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Digital exchange file (DEX file): An electronic map file of roads and streets, together with their names, address ranges, and ZIP Codes, obtained from a local government or commercial source and used to update the TIGER database. See Automated Master Address File Geocoding Office Resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Digital line graph (DLG): Digital information derived by the U.S. Geological Survey from its maps. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Direct access: An entrance to a living quarters directly from the outside of a building or through a common or public hall (such as in an apartment building). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Direct sample followup: A methodology used in Nonresponse Followup sampling, whereby the initial response period stops at a specified date and a sample is selected from all remaining nonresponding units. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Director: Census Bureau. Determines policies and directs the programs of the Census Bureau, taking into account applicable legislative requirements and the needs of users of statistical information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Disclosure avoidance (DA): Statistical methods used in the tabulation of data prior to releasing data products to ensure the confidentiality of responses. See confidentiality. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• District office (DO): A pre-Census 2000 term for local offices established by the Census Bureau to conduct the decennial census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Division (census geographic): See census division.
• Dress rehearsal (DR): A census of population and housing conducted by the Census Bureau in selected areas prior to a decennial census to determine and validate the effectiveness of planned census operations, procedures, and systems. The “United States Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal” was conducted in 1998 in Sacramento city, California; Menominee County, Wisconsin, including the Menominee Indian Reservation; and 11 counties and part of a twelfth in South Carolina, including the city of Columbia. Other census field operations in preparation for a census may also be referred to as “dress rehearsals.” See test census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME): This term was used for the 1990 census. See Geographic Base File/Dual Independent Map Encoding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Dual System Estimation (DSE): The estimation method used for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.). This operation uses a geographic sample of block clusters to find people missed by the census or A.C.E. and any errors from the census. The people from the Census Unedited Files are computer matched and then clerically matched to the data collected from the A.C.E. person interviews. After the computer and clerical matching, the person matching continues through Field Followup to resolve discrepancies and a final clerical matching. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• E-911 address: A number assigned to a structure that, in conjunction with a street or road name, identifies the location of the structure in the event of an emergency. E-911 addresses generally are posted on or near the structure, primarily in rural and outlying suburban areas, and may or may not be used for mail delivery. See address, fire number, house-number/street-name address, mailing address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• E Sample: Housing units enumerated in sample block clusters for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Early opening local census office (ELCO): A temporary census office that opened earlier than other local census offices to conduct selected Census 2000 precensus operations, primarily in mailout/mailback areas. See local census office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economic census (EC): The collective name for the censuses of construction, manufactures, minerals, minority- and women-owned businesses, retail trade, service industries, transportation, and wholesale trade, conducted by the Census Bureau every five years in years ending in 2 and 7. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economic Development Administration (EDA): Department of Commerce. Helps generate new jobs, protect existing jobs, and stimulate commercial and industrial growth in economically distressed areas in the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA): Department of Commerce. Much of the statistical, economic, and demographic information collected by the federal government is made available to the public through the ESA. The ESA has two principal agencies: the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Embedded housing unit (EHU): One of two kinds of housing units found at a special place. An embedded housing unit is a housing unit situated within a group quarters, but whose occupants live separately from people living in the group quarters. An example of an embedded housing unit is a house parent’s room in a dormitory. “Embedded” means located within the building and not freestanding. See freestanding housing unit. The concept of embedded housing unit will not be used for the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Emergency shelter: A shelter that operates on a first-come, first-served basis, and people must leave in the morning and have no guaranteed beds for the next night, or where people know they have a bed for a specified period of time even if they leave the building every day. Shelters also include facilities that provide temporary shelter during extremely cold weather (such as churches) and facilities that provide emergency shelter for runaway or neglected children or abused women. See hotels, motels, and other facilities; regularly scheduled mobile food van; shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing; soup kitchen; and transitional shelter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Enterprise Information System (EIS): See Executive Information System.
• Enumeration: The process of interviewing people and recording the information on census forms. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Enumeration district (ED): Obsolete term. Now called an assignment area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Enumerator: A Census Bureau employee who interviews people to obtain information for a census or survey questionnaire. Enumerators also may update address registers and Census Bureau maps. The term also applies to field personnel who perform activities associated with update/leave and urban update/leave. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Enumerator questionnaire: See simplified enumerator questionnaire.
• Executive Information System (EIS): A software tool used to access reports and data in the Census 2000 Management Information System. The EIS is used to report to the Department of Commerce on decennial issues, the schedule, and the cost framework. The Department of Commerce’s EIS is an Intranet application providing information from the Management Information System. See Cost and Progress, Management Information System, and Master Activity Schedule. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Executive State of the Census report (ESOC): A weekly report that summarized major accomplishments, issues, upcoming events, and other important information about Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Executive Steering Committee: Census Bureau. Consists of the Assistant to the Associate Director for the Decennial Census, Associate Director for the Decennial Census, Principal Associate Director for Programs, Principal Associate Director/Chief Financial Officer, Associate Director of Field Operations, and Deputy Director. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy (ESCAP): Census Bureau. Established to advise the Director in determining policy for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) and the integration of A.C.E. results into the census for all purposes except Congressional reapportionment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Expert coding: Unusual text responses on census questionnaires are directed to an expert team for coding into a numerical classification. See general coding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Extended city: See extended place.
• Extended place: A place that contains both urban and rural territory; i.e., an incorporated place or census designated place that is partially within and partially outside of an urbanized area or urban cluster. The term is first used for Census 2000. Previously referred to as an “extended city,” which applied only to incorporated places, subject to very specific criteria. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Facility Questionnaire: See Special Place Facility Questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• False entity: A legal geographic entity of one type that is used to complete the coverage of another part of the Census Bureau’s geographic hierarchy. The Census Bureau uses these false entities to ensure complete area coverage for certain levels of the hierarchy; for example, to ensure that all area in the nation is assigned to a geographic entity at the county level. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Feature: See map feature, nonstreet feature.
• Feature and Reference Source Assessment Survey (FARSAS): A 1994-95 Census Bureau survey of governments and commercial organizations to determine the availability and usefulness of reference sources that would enable the Census Bureau to geocode city-style addresses in the Master Address File that did not geocode when matched to the TIGER database. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS): A set of numeric and/or alphabetic codes issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to ensure uniform identification of geographic entities (and other electronic data) throughout all federal government agencies. The entities covered are states, counties, metropolitan areas, Congressional districts, named populated and other locational entities (such as places, county subdivisions, and American Indian and Alaska Native areas), and geopolitical entities of the world. See census code and geographic code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field assignment (FA): A combination of the assignment areas used in a previous operation to form a better workload for an enumerator. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field Data Collection Automation Program (FDCA): The Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) program consists of automation resources, applications, and infrastructure necessary to support field data collection operations in the 2010 Census. FDCA includes office automation at Regional Census Centers (RCCs) and Local Census Offices (LCOs); a secure mobile computing environment for over 500,000 field workers; communications services linking together field workers, office staff, and Census headquarters; interfaces to other census systems; and a variety of support services. It supports all field data collection operations in the RCCs/LCOs regardless of whether they are conducted using paper and pen or using an automated device. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field Division (FLD): Census Bureau. Plans and directs the collection of national sample survey, census, and other information at the local level. Information is collected through a field organization of regional offices in 12 cities across the country. The offices employ part-time interviewers who gather data for survey and special operations by direct contact with the public. During a decennial census, the FLD administers temporary regional census centers and local offices. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field Followup (FFU): A data collection procedure involving personal visits by enumerators to housing units in list/enumerate and update/enumerate areas, to perform the following operations: resolve inconsistent and/or missing data items on returned questionnaires identified during content edit and possible enumeration errors discovered in coverage edit; conduct a vacant/delete check; obtain information for blank or missing questionnaires; and visit housing units for which no questionnaire was checked in. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field operations supervisor (FOS): A Census Bureau employee who directs the activities of crew leaders and enumerators. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field operations supervisor district (FOS district): A group of crew leader districts assigned to one field operations supervisor. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Field verification (FV): For questionnaires without Master Address File identification numbers, enumerators verified the existence of units that had been geocoded to a census block, but did not match an address in the Master Address File. See no identification number, Invalid Return Detection, and Local Update of Census Addresses Field Verification. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers (FOSDIC): A device that reads microfilmed questionnaires and transfers the information to magnetic tape for the Census Bureau’s mainframe computers. This device was created by the Census Bureau for the 1960 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Final Housing Unit Matching: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. This operation followed the Housing Unit After Followup Matching. During the census, addresses were added and deleted in the DMAF. For the Final Housing Unit Match, the final Census Housing Unit file from the DMAF was matched to the A.C.E. independent address list. The results were used to estimate the number of housing units missed or erroneously included in the census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Fire number: A number assigned to a structure to identify it for firefighters. It is not a house-number-and-street-name address, but a special identification assigned by a local fire department. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Fiscal year (FY): Any yearly accounting period. The fiscal year for the federal government begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Followup (FU): A secondary census or survey operation carried out to successfully complete an initial census or survey operation. It is usually a telephone or personal visit interview to obtain missing information or clarify original responses. See Field Followup, Coverage Improvement Followup, and Nonresponse Followup. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Foreign Language Assistance Guide: Documents in more than 50 languages that explained how to complete an English-language census questionnaire. The guides were distributed at Questionnaire Assistance Centers and other sites identified by the Census Bureau’s local partners, on request through Telephone Questionnaire Assistance, and via the Internet. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Legislation enacted in 1974 to require federal agencies to provide access to and copies of existing agency records to the public. Access can be denied only if records are within specific exempted categories, such as Title 13 information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Freestanding housing unit (FSHU): One of two kinds of housing units found at a special place. A freestanding housing unit is a living quarters that is physically separate from the group quarters at a special place. An example of a freestanding housing unit is the president’s house at a college. See embedded housing unit. The concept of freestanding housing unit will not be used for the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Frontloading: The Census Bureau’s practice of hiring and training approximately twice as many enumerators as needed for decennial field operations to compensate for no-shows, dropouts, and expected turnover. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Functional status: The classification of a geographic entity as a legal or statistical entity. It further identifies a legal entity as an active, inactive, false, functioning, or nonfunctioning entity and, if active, denotes its fiscal independence and whether it provides general or limited, special services. Functional status determines an entity’s eligibility to participate in various Census Bureau programs. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Functioning entity: A generic term that refers to both active and inactive governmental units. See active entity, governmental unit, inactive entity, nonfunctioning entity. (Even though inactive, a governmental unit has the legal capacity to carry out governmental functions; local people simply choose not to do so.) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Gated community: A community composed of houses, duplexes, townhouses, and/or apartment buildings that are surrounded by a secured fence or other barrier to limit access to a secured gate. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• General Accounting Office (GAO): U.S. Government. An investigative arm of the Congress that performs audits and evaluations of federal government programs and activities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• General coding: A software program that matches responses to language, ancestry, race, and Hispanic or Latino origin from the census questionnaires into a numerical classification and a dictionary. Unmatched responses are directed to a team of experts for coding. See expert coding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• General Services Administration (GSA): U.S. Government. A central management agency that sets federal policy in such areas as federal procurement, real property management, and information resources management. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geocode (geographic code): A code used to identify a specific geographic entity. For example, the geocodes needed to identify a census block for Census 2000 data are the state code, county code, census tract number, and block number. Every geographic entity recognized by the Census Bureau is assigned one or more geographic codes. “To geocode” means to assign an address, living quarters, establishment, etc., to one or more geographic codes that identify the geographic entity(ies) in which it is located. See census code, Federal Information Processing Standards, geocoding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geocoding: The assignment of an address, structure, key geographic location, or business name to a location that is identified by one or more geographic codes. For living quarters, geocoding usually requires identification of a specific census block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Base File/Dual Independent Map Encoding (GBF/DIME): The predecessor of the TIGER database. Used for the 1980 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Catalog of Legal and Statistical Entities (GEO-CAT): A file that controls and describes the inventory of the higher-level geographic entities maintained by the Census Bureau, including their names, codes, and hierarchical relationships. The GEO-CAT, which is part of the TIGER System, does not include lower-level entities, such as census tracts, block groups, and census blocks. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic code: See geocode.
• Geographic Comparison Table (GCT): A table in the American FactFinder that provides census data for one or more selected sets of geographic entities of the same type; e.g., data for all counties in a state. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic entity: A spatial unit of any type, legal or statistical, such as a state, county, place, county subdivision, census tract, or census block. See census geography, geographic hierarchy, legal entity, and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic hierarchy: A geographic presentation that shows the geographic entities in a superior/subordinate structure. In this system of relationships among geographic entities, each entity (except the smallest one) is subdivided into lower-order units that in turn may be subdivided further. The Census Bureau uses three sets of hierarchies; one is based on states and counties; another on American Indian areas, Alaska Native areas, and Hawaiian home lands; and a third on metropolitan or urban areas. See census geography, tabulation geography. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic identifier: A code, name, geographic coordinate value, etc., relevant to a geographic entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic information system (GIS): A computer system for the input, storage, processing, applications development, retrieval, and maintenance of information about the points, lines, and areas that represent the streets and roads, rivers, railroads, geographic entities, and other features on the surface of the Earth-information that previously was available only on paper maps. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Program Participant database (GPP): A database that contains information about governmental units and organizations eligible to participate in the Census Bureau’s geographic programs that expand and/or improve the content of the TIGER database and/or the Master Address File. The database links a contact person, where available, and related information to a geographic entity and/or an organization. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Quick Report (GQR): An economic census report that displays all industries for a geographic entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Reference File (GRF): A generic term for a file containing geographic information, such as area names, geographic codes, and selected coordinate (latitude and longitude) values. The Census Bureau uses these files to organize the address list for field activities and for the tabulation and presentation of census data. The Geographic Reference File-Codes (GRF-C) is a computer file that lists the geographic codes associated with each census block record and contains the code combinations that relates the collection geographic entities to the tabulation geographic entities; the Geographic Reference File-Names (GRF-N) is a computer file that lists the name of each geographic entity and its associated attributes (code, type, etc.). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Support System (GSS): The TIGER System plus all other geographic activities supporting the Census Bureau’s censuses and surveys. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Update System (GUS): The operations in the regional offices (ROs) and regional census centers (RCCs) that implemented the update of the information in the TIGER database. Also, a computer software package for the 1990 census that enabled census staff in the Census Bureau’s ROs/RCCs and the National Processing Center to view, analyze, and interactively update and revise the information in the TIGER database as a result of various field operations; see Geographic Update System for X Window. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Update System for X Window (GusX): The Census 2000 version of the Geographic Update System (GUS) software. It is more flexible, object-oriented, and user-friendly than the GUS, with operators at various decentralized sites using the Bureau’s UNIX workstations to access and manipulate information in the TIGER database. The X refers to the software that runs the X Window Utility Program, together with a Motif graphical user interface, on a UNIX platform. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographic Update System in Support of Intercensal Estimates (GUSSIE): A post-Census 2000 computer system used by the Population Division to update the estimates geographic base, which supports the estimates and projections for selected general-purpose governmental units and school districts. The geographic updates are based on corrections and updates applied by the Geography Division to the TIGER database and the Master Address File. See Geographically Updated Population Certification Program, Population Estimates Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geographically Updated Population Certification Program (GUPCP): A fee-paid program sponsored by the Population Division that, during the intercensal period after Census 2000, provides certified Census 2000-based population counts to government officials requesting such information for new governmental units or specific geographic areas, or to reflect revised boundaries for previously existing governmental units. See Geographic Update System in Support of Intercensal Estimates, Population Estimates Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geography Division (GEO): Census Bureau. Identifies and collects or delineates the boundaries and attributes of decennial census geography; creates and maintains the Master Address File; spatially locates addresses using the TIGER database; maintains and updates the TIGER database; and provides geographic support for government censuses and surveys. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Geoprocessing: The computer and/or clerical processing of geographic and address information in order to refine and update a geographic database, such as the TIGER and GEO-CAT databases. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Government Printing Office (GPO): U.S. Government. Informs the nation by producing, procuring, and disseminating printed and electronic publications of the Congress as well as the executive departments and establishments of the federal government. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Governmental unit (GU): A geographic entity established by legal action for the purpose of implementing specified general- or special-purpose governmental functions. Most governmental units have legally established boundaries and names, and have officials (elected or appointed) who have the power to carry out legally prescribed functions, provide services for the residents, and raise revenues. To meet Census Bureau criteria, a government must be an organized entity that, in addition to having governmental character, has sufficient discretion in the management of its own affairs to distinguish it as separate from the administrative structure of any other governmental unit. To have governmental character, an entity must exist as a legally organized entity and have legally defined responsibilities to its residents. See active entity, false entity, functioning entity, functional status, inactive entity, legal entity, and nonfuctioning entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group quarters (GQ): A group quarters is a place where people live or stay that is normally owned or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or services for the residents. These services may include custodial or medical care as well as other types of assistance, and residency is commonly restricted to those receiving these services. People living in group quarters are usually not related to each other. Group quarters include such places as college residence halls, residential treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities, group homes, military barracks, correctional facilities, workers’ dormitories, and facilities for people experiencing homelessness. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group Quarters Advance Visit (GQAV): An operation designed to confirm the location of a group quarters and other information to aid in the preparation for enumeration and to establish a pre-enumeration contact with an official to facilitate the actual enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group Quarters Automated Instrument for Listing (GAIL): Post-Census 2000 software that enables regional office and headquarters staff to use laptop computers to record address, location, and related information about group quarters and special places in the Special Place/Group Quarters Master File, which is subsequently reflected in the Master Address File and, often, in the TIGER database. During the Census Bureau’s post-Census 2000 current surveys, when the Automated Listing and Mapping Instrument (ALMI) encounters a group quarters, it automatically requests the GAIL so information can be reviewed and recorded for the facility. The GAIL can be used for other programs without reference to the ALMI when the Census Bureau updates information only for group quarters. Eventually, the GAIL will be accessed automatically to record information about group quarters found during other Census Bureau operations. See Automated Listing and Mapping Instrument, Demographic Area Address Listing, group quarters, special place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group quarters enumeration (GQE): A method of data collection designed to count people living or staying in group quarters. Enumerators visit each group quarters, list the names of the people living or staying in the group quarters (including staff who live or stay there), and leave an Individual Census Report for each person or a staff member to complete. Enumerators return at a later date to pick up the questionnaires and, if necessary, conduct interviews to obtain any missing information and conduct interviews with nonrespondents. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group quarters population: The portion of the population of a geographic entity that is living in group quarters on the official date of a census or survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Group quarters validation (GQV): A field operation designed to verify and classify Other Living Quarters (OLQs) identified in Address Canvassing. Listers from the GQV staff will visit each identified OLQ, and through a series of questions, determine if the address is a group quarters, a housing unit, or not a living quarters, such as a commercial property. During the interview, the lister will be able to correctly classify and type code the address determined to be group quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hard to enumerate (HTE): An area for which the environment or population may present difficulties for enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hawaiian home lands (HHL): are areas held in trust for Native Hawaiians by the state of Hawai‘i, pursuant to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended. The Census Bureau obtains the names and boundaries for HHLs from state officials. The names of the home lands are based on the traditional ahupua‘'a names of the Crown and government lands of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i from which the lands were designated or from the local name for an area. Being lands held in trust, HHLs are treated as equivalent to off-reservation trust land areas with the American Indian Trust Land/Hawaiian Home Land Indicator coded as “T.” Each HHL is assigned a national four-digit census code ranging from 5000 through 5499 based on the alphabetical sequence of each HHL name, a five-digit Federal Information Processing Series (FIPS) code in alphabetical order within the state of Hawai‘i, and an eight-digit National Standard (ANSI) code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Headquarters (HQ): A term sometimes used to designate the Census Bureau facility, staff, and operations located primarily in Suitland, MD. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Headquarters data processing (HQDP): HQDP provides a number of functions, including the software that interacts with the Master Address File, Operations Control System, Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operations, data capture centers, Telephone Questionnaire Assistance, Internet Data Collection, and multiple divisions (at headquarters). HQDP conducts editing operations as well as operations that convert address updates found in the field into computer- readable form. HQDP operations include the headquarters check-in and followup control activities for census data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Heterogeneity: Heterogeneity occurs when housing units assigned to sampling strata or groupings do not have equal chances of being included or missed by a census or survey. Heterogeneity creates difficulty for the small-area estimation process because the correction factor is applied to all people with the specified characteristic in that sampling poststratum even though some of them do not actually have the coverage characteristics. See homogeneity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Highest elected official (HEO): The elected or appointed person who is the chief executive official of a governmental unit and is most responsible for the governmental activities of the governmental unit, such as the governor of a state, chair of a county commission, or mayor of an incorporated place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Historic Areas of Oklahoma: A term used in the 1980 census for an area encompassing the former American Indian reservations that had legally established boundaries during the period 1900 through 1907, but were dissolved during the 2- to 3-year period preceding the establishment of Oklahoma as a state in 1907. It excluded territory within urbanized areas delineated for the 1980 census. The 1980 census tabulated data for this entity, which was replaced for the 1990 census by tribal jurisdiction statistical areas. See Oklahoma tribal statistical area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Homogeneity: Homogeneity assumes that all people in a particular sampling stratum or poststratum have an equal chance of being included or missed by a census or survey. A lack of homogeneity in a particular sample block is not an error, but it does create difficulty for the small-area estimation process. This happens because the correction factor is applied to all people with the specified characteristic in that poststratum even though some of them do not exhibit the same coverage characteristic. See heterogeneity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hotels, motels, and other facilities: Hotels, motels, and other facilities for which vouchers are provided or that operate under contract to provide shelter to people without housing are included in the service-based enumeration. See emergency shelter; regularly scheduled mobile food van; shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing; soup kitchen; and transitional shelter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• House-number-and-street-name address or house-number/street-name address (HN/SN address): An address assigned to a specific structure, consisting of a number and the street name with which the structure is associated. The address may or may not be used for mail delivery. See address, basic street address, city-style address, E-911 addresses, and mailing address. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Household (HH): A person or group of people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. The number of households equals the number of occupied housing units in a census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Household and Address Field Verification (HA FV): See Invalid Return Detection.
• Householder: The member of a household who lives at a housing unit and owns, is buying, or rents the housing unit. If there is no such person present when the Census Bureau contacts the household, any household member who is at least 15 years old can serve as the householder for the purposes of a census or survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division (HHES): Census Bureau. For a census or survey, compiles, analyzes, and publishes data on the physical, social, and financial characteristics of the nation’s housing and on the socioeconomic characteristics of the nation’s population. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Housing unit (HU): A single-family house, townhouse, mobile home or trailer, apartment, group of rooms, or single room that is occupied as a separate living quarters or, if vacant, is intended for occupancy as a separate living quarters. See separate living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Housing Unit After Followup Matching: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. After the Housing Unit Field Followup is complete, clerks use the information collected to resolve the remaining unmatched cases and assign an After Followup match code to each address. The next operation is the Final Housing Unit Matching. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Housing Unit Followup (HUFU): An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. After the Housing Unit Matching, the addresses that remain unmatched and require additional information are sent to Housing Unit Followup for interviewing. The followup interviews attempt to gather more information about unmatched housing units in order to resolve differences between the A.C.E. listing and the census listing. The next operation is Housing Unit After Followup Matching. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Housing Unit Matching: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. The independent list of housing units from the A.C.E. is matched to the census inventory of housing units, first by a computer match and then by a clerical match. Cases still unmatched after this operation go to the Housing Unit Followup for resolution. See independent listing. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• How America Knows What America Needs (HAKWAN): A Census 2000 public relations program that disseminated response rates for governmental units on a Census 2000 Internet site. It included the ’90 Plus Five program and the Because You Count program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred Percent Census Edited File (HCEF): A computer file that contains the edited characteristics and records for all households and people in Census 2000. The edits are performed on the Hundred Percent Census Unedited File. The edits include consistency edits and imputation for items or people where the data are insufficient for the hundred percent data items from both the short- and long-form questionnaires. The HCEF provided the census counts for apportionment purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred Percent Census Unedited File (HCUF): The Decennial Response File was combined with the Decennial Master Address File to create the HCUF and the Sample Census Unedited File. The HCUF contains the individual responses to the hundred percent data items from both the short- and long-form questionnaires. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred percent data: Population and housing information collected for all living quarters in the United States as of Census Day. These questions appeared on both the short- and long-form questionnaires. The questions include age, Hispanic or Latino origin, race, relationship to the householder, sex, and whether the housing unit is owned or rented. See sample data, long form, and short form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred Percent Detail File (HDF): A file resulting from the application of disclosure avoidance and tabulation geography to the Hundred Percent Census Edited File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred Percent Edited Detail File (HEDF): A file resulting from the application of Small Area Estimation to the Hundred Percent Detail File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hundred percent general coding: See general coding.
• Hundred Percent Summary File: There are two types of Hundred Percent Summary Files: 1) Statistically corrected data derived from the hundred percent data items. These data include the corrections measured in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey. 2) To fulfill the requirements of Public Law 105-119, data derived from the hundred percent data items without statistical correction. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Hybrid mailing: A national concept, considered for Census 2000 but not implemented, that involved a combination of targeted and blanket mailings of replacement questionnaires within the mailout/mailback, update/leave, and urban update/leave areas covered by a local census office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Identification number: See census identification number.
• Imputation: The assignment of values by the Census Bureau when information is missing or inconsistent. Imputation relies on the tendency of households of the same size within a small geographic area to be similar in most characteristics. For example, the value of “rented” is likely to be imputed for a housing unit not reporting on owner/renter status in a neighborhood with multi-unit structures for which other respondents reported “rented” on the census questionnaire. There are two major types of imputation: 1) allocation, in which missing values for individual items are entered on the basis of other reported information for the person or household (or from other persons or households with similar characteristics) and 2) substitution, in which all of the information for a person or household is created from other persons or households with similar characteristics. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Inactive entity: A legal entity that has the power to have officials to carry out legally prescribed functions, but is not currently exercising those powers. See active entity, functioning entity, governmental unit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Incorporated place: A type of governmental unit, incorporated under state law as a city, city and borough, municipality, town (except in New England, New York, and Wisconsin), borough (except in Alaska and New York), or village, that has legally prescribed limits, powers, and functions. A few incorporated places do not have a legal description. See consolidated city, governmental unit, independent city, independent place, legal entity, and place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Independent city: An incorporated place that is independent - that is, not part - of any county. All incorporated places classified as cities in Virginia are independent cities, as are Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Carson City, Nevada. The Census Bureau treats an independent city as an incorporated place and as equivalent to a county, and, where appropriate, as a county subdivision for data presentation purposes. See city, county, county subdivision, incorporated place, and independent place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Independent listing: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation that creates a list of housing units in an operation that is separate from the decennial census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Independent place: In a state in which the Census Bureau recognizes minor civil divisions (MCDs), an incorporated place that is not legally part of any MCD. The Bureau treats an independent place as equivalent to a county subdivision and as an incorporated place for data presentation purposes. Independent places exist in 23 states and the District of Columbia. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Index map: A map that shows the relationship between the map sheets, including inset maps, that cover a specific mapped geographic entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Indian reservation: See American Indian reservation.
• Individual Census Questionnaire (ICQ): A Census 2000 questionnaire that contains population questions for one person. The questionnaire was used for soup kitchens and regularly scheduled mobile food vans. It asked if the person had a usual residence, but did not ask housing questions. It also asked about his/her use of services at shelters, soup kitchens, and mobile food vans. Enumerators conducted personal interviews using this questionnaire. See service-based enumeration and targeted nonsheltered outdoor location. The Individual Census Questionnaire will not be used for the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Individual Census Report (ICR): A census questionnaire used during group quarters enumeration, including service-based enumeration. It contains population questions for one person. The questionnaire asks if the person has a usual residence, but does not ask housing questions. Enumerators distribute this questionnaire. At targeted nonsheltered outdoor locations, enumerators conduct personal interviews using this questionnaire. In Census 2000, there were both long- and short-form versions of the ICR. For the 2010 Census, the ICR will be used at all Group Quarters Enumeration sites and will contain only short-form version. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Industry and occupation (I&O): A person’s current or most recent job activity reported on the long-form questionnaire. The responses require coding and classification processing. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Information Systems Support and Review Office (ISSRO): Census Bureau. Provides program management of information technology budgeting, procurements, and administrative support. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Information technology (IT): Refers to telecommunications and computer hardware and software. See Information Systems Support and Review Office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Informational Memorandum Series: Memoranda issued by the Decennial Management Division to document Census 2000 information other than that documented in the Decision Memorandum Series. The series includes Program Master Plans. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Initial mail response rate: The percentage of responses in relation to the mailout or delivery of the Census 2000 questionnaires, based on early returns of the questionnaires. The Census Bureau released the results to local and tribal governments as part of the ’90 Plus 5 portion of the How America Knows What America Needs program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Inmover: A person who moved into a housing unit after Census Day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Inset map: A Census Bureau map that displays an area at a larger scale that the scale of its parent sheet. Inset maps generally cover a densely developed area that cannot be shown clearly at the map scale of the parent sheet. See map inset. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Inspector General (IG): Department of Commerce. Conducts and supervises audits, inspections, and investigations of Department of Commerce programs and operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Institutionalized population: People under formally authorized, supervised care or custody in institutions at the time of enumeration. Such people are referred to as patients or inmates. See group quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Integrated Coverage Measurement (ICM): An operation that was proposed for Census 2000, but was not implemented. The objective of this operation was to measure how well the Census Bureau counted people and housing in the census through a large-scale sample survey conducted independently of regular census operations. This operation also was called the Quality Check Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Integrated Product Team (IPT): An inter-divisional team responsible for project management over a development of a product. The teams will develop a schedule, initiate change request, ensure the development of product workflows, define and document functional requirements, document issues and resolve and/or elevate them to the CIG, and facilitate communication among the teams (OITs, ISTs, and IPTs). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Integrated System Team (IST): An inter-divisional team responsible for project management over a system. The teams will develop a schedule, initiate change request, ensure the development of system workflows, define and document functional requirements, document issues and resolve and/or elevate them to the CIG, and facilitate communication among the teams (OITs, ISTs, and IPTs). These teams will work on the 2008 Dress Rehearsal and the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Integrated Working Group (IWG): An inter-divisional team responsible for project management over development of a system. The team will develop a schedule, initiate change request, ensure the development of system workflows, define and document functional requirements, document issues and resolve and/or elevate them to the CIG, and facilitate communication among the other Dress Rehearsal teams (OITs, ISTs, and IPTs). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Interactive voice recognition (IVR): An automated telephone system that offers callers different menu choices covering a variety of predetermined topics. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Interim census tract: A 1990 census tract or block numbering area used for Census 2000 data collection operations. Its boundary may have been revised by the Census Bureau to reflect the boundaries of Census 2000 collection blocks. These were temporary areas used for some early field operations pending the final delineation of Census 2000 census tracts and their subsequent insertion into the TIGER database. Also referred to as a pseudo-tract. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Internal point: A set of geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) that is located within a specified geographic entity. For many entities, this point represents the approximate center of the entity; for some, the shape of the entity or the presence of a body of water causes the central location to fall outside the entity or in water, in which case the point is relocated to land area within the entity. The geographic coordinates are shown in degrees to six decimal places in census products. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• International Trade Administration (ITA): Department of Commerce. Responsible for nonagricultural United States trade issues; works with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in coordinating trade policy. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Internet Questionnaire Assistance (and Data Collection) (IQA): An operation that allowed people to use the Census Bureau’s Internet site to seek information about the census questionnaire, job opportunities, and the general purpose of the census, and to provide responses to the short form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Invalid Return Detection (IRD): A procedure for identifying invalid questionnaires without Master Address File identification numbers; that is, forms returned for Census 2000 as an attempt to introduce error into the population count. See Be Counted/Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Field Verification. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Invisible feature: A map feature that is not visible on the ground, such as the boundary of a legal entity (a county line, city limit, etc.), a property line, an imaginary street extension, or a point-to-point line. See feature, nonstreet feature, and visible feature. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Island Areas (IAs): For Census 2000, several legal entities under the jurisdiction of the United States: American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The Census Bureau treats these entities as equivalent to states for data presentation purposes. The term also includes several small islands in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Government agencies outside the Census Bureau may refer to the Island Areas as “Island Territories” or “Insular Areas.” Formerly referred to as the Outlying Areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Issue Resolution/Change Control Board (IR/CC Board): Census Bureau. Handles operational decisions having major budget and policy implications. The Census Operational Managers refers issues outside its scope to this board. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Joint use area: Territory that is administered, claimed, and/or used by two or more American Indian tribes-either adjoining American Indian reservations or adjoining Oklahoma tribal statistical areas. Such territory was referred to as joint area for the 1990 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Journey to work: The decennial census provides data on where people work and on their commute between home and workplace. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Key From Image (KFI): An operation in which keyers enter questionnaire responses by referring to a scanned image of a questionnaire for which entries could not be recognized by optical character recognition with sufficient confidence. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Key From Paper (KFP): An operation in which keyers enter information directly from a hard-copy questionnaire that could not be read by optical character recognition. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Kit: A collection of materials gathered together to give to each enumerator, lister, or other field staff to accomplish a specific job within a particular operation. The materials are packaged together to make their distribution easier, consistent, and more efficient. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Large household (LHH): A housing unit with more than six persons. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Large Household Followup (LHFU): A Census 2000 operation in which a telephone interview was conducted to obtain additional information for households that reported, on the census questionnaire, that more than six people lived in that housing unit. Because the questionnaire allowed the reporting of information for only six people in a household, this operation had to be implemented to obtain information for the other residents. This operation was included in the Coverage Edit Followup. See continuation form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Late mail return (LMR): A questionnaire received by mail after the cutoff date for identifying nonresponding housing units for the Nonresponse Followup operation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Legal entity: A geographic entity whose origin, boundary, name, and description result from charters, laws, treaties, or other administrative or governmental action, such as the United States, states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Island Areas, counties, cities, boroughs, towns, villages, townships, American Indian reservations, Alaska Native villages, Congressional districts, and school districts. The legal entities and their boundaries that the Census Bureau recognizes for a census are those in existence on January 1 of the census year. See functional status, governmental unit, and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Legal/statistical area description (LSAD): The type of a geographic entity in terms of its legal status or the Census Bureau’s statistical area terminology. The LSAD for an entity is appended to the entity’s name as a prefix or suffix, and may be truncated; the LSAD can be blank if an entity does not have a legal description. Previously referred to as political statistical area description (PSAD). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• List/enumerate (L/E): A method of data collection in some of the more remote, sparsely populated areas of the United States and the Island Areas, where many of the households do not have mail delivery to city-style addresses. Enumerators list the residential addresses within their assignment areas on blank address register pages, map spot the location of the residential structures on Census Bureau maps, and conduct an interview for each household using either a short- or long-form enumerator questionnaire. See Remote Alaska enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Lister: A census employee who obtains addresses and related information and records the information on address listing pages and Census Bureau maps. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Living quarters (LQ): Any site where people live, stay, or could live. Living quarters are classified as housing units or group quarters. They are usually found in structures intended for residential use, but also may be found in structures intended for nonresidential use as well as tents, vans, shelters for people without housing, dormitories, barracks, and so forth, or they might not be associated with a structure at all. See separate living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Local area network (LAN): A group of computers linked within a network to exchange and share information within a building or among several buildings. See wide area network. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Local census office (LCO): A temporary office established for Census 2000 data collection purposes. These offices managed address listing field work, conducted local recruiting, and visited living quarters to conduct various Census 2000 operations. Called district office in previous censuses. See early opening local census office, pseudo-LCO. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Local Knowledge Update (LKU): For this Census 2000 operation, the special place staff at each local census office reviewed the special place inventory for completeness and accuracy by using local sources and reference materials and their own knowledge of the facilities and locations in their area. This concept does not apply to the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA): A Census 2000 program, established in response to requirements of Public Law 103-430, that provided an opportunity for local and tribal governments to review and update individual address information or block-by-block address counts from the Master Address File and associated geographic information in the TIGER database. The goal was to improve the completeness and accuracy of both computer files. Individuals working with the addresses had to sign a confidentiality agreement before a government could participate. Also called the Address List Review program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Local Update of Census Addresses Field Verification (LUCA FV): An operation to determine the existence and residential status of addresses reported by local officials for the Local Update of Census Addresses program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Location description: See physical/location description.
• Locator map: A Census Bureau map that displays an assignment area and a substantial amount of surrounding area, to help users, such as field staff, identify where the assignment is located and determine an efficient route of travel to it. The assignment area is shown as shaded area. See block locator map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Long form (LF): The decennial census questionnaire containing 100-percent and sample questions. See hundred percent data, sample data, and short form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Long-form sampling: Distribution of the long form uses a variable-rate sampling plan to determine which households receive the long form. The Census Bureau samples housing units within each governmental unit using one of four rates, as determined by the precensus count of housing units for governmental units. Nationwide, one in six housing units and people in group quarters received a long form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mail census area: The area covered by the mailout/mailback, update/leave, and urban update/leave methods of enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mail return questionnaire: A questionnaire returned by a respondent by mail. These questionnaires were received from mailout/mailback and update/leave areas, and also included questionnaires obtained through the Be Counted program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mail return rate: The total number of households returning a questionnaire by mail divided by the number of occupied housing units that received a questionnaire by mail or from a census enumerator (the only units that can return a questionnaire). This measure cannot be derived until the enumeration is completed and the final number of occupied housing units is determined. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mailing address: The address used by a living quarters, special place, business establishment, and the like to receive mail. It can be a house number and street or road name, which may be followed by an apartment, unit, or trailer lot designation; a building or apartment complex name and apartment designation; a trailer park name and lot number; a special place/group quarters name; a post office box or drawer; a rural route or highway contract route, which may include a box number; or general delivery. A mailing address includes a post office name, state abbreviation, and ZIP Code. A mailing address may serve more than one living quarters, establishment, etc. See basic street address, city delvery area, city-style address, house-number-and-street-name address, noncity-style address, nondelivery area, rural delivery area, and ZIP Code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mailing package: A package that includes a short- or long-form questionnaire, an introductory letter, and a postage-paid return envelope preprinted with the data capture center address corresponding to a housing unit’s geographic location. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mailout/mailback (MO/MB): A method of data collection in which the U.S. Postal Service delivers addressed questionnaires to housing units, based on geocoded addresses (usually city-style mailing addresses) recorded in the Census Bureau’s Decennial Master Address File. Residents are asked to complete and mail the questionnaires to a specified data capture center. For Census 2000, this method was used for more than 80 percent of the housing units in the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Management Information System (MIS): A computer system that provides the Census Bureau with decision support functions, such as critical-path analysis and what-if analysis. It provides information on dates, the responsible organization, budget, cost to date, and current progress of Census 2000 operations. It includes the Master Activity Schedule and the Cost and Progress System. See Cost and Progress, Executive Information System, and Master Activity Schedule. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Management Integration Team (MIT): Census Bureau. The MIT and the Program Steering Committee provided the structure for the early planning of Census 2000. They were replaced by the Census Operational Managers, the Issue Resolution/Change Control Board, and the Decennial Division Chiefs Steering Committee. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map feature: Any part of the landscape that is portrayed on a map as a point, line, or area, including invisible boundaries of legal entities, such as city limits or county lines. See invisible feature, nonstreet feature, and visible feature. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map Image Metafile (MIM): A computer file that provides a full-image description of a Census Bureau map in digital form (a human-readable format). The regional offices, regional census centers, and National Processing Center use MIMs to create printed maps or to record maps on CD-ROMs, from which other offices (especially local census offices for Census 2000) can print maps. See Single MIM-Based Integrated Mapping System. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map inset: A sketch map drawn by an enumerator, lister, etc., to represent an enlargement of an area that, on the original Census Bureau map, is too small to clearly display added streets and/or map spots and map spot numbers. The map usually is drawn on the back of the map sheet that contains the enlarged area, but a separate sheet of paper may be used for this purpose. See inset map. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map legend: An illustrated list of map content: the symbols, type styles, and, if appropriate, shading or colors shown on a map or map series, and the meaning of each. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map Plotting System (MAPS): The MAPS site or area is the portion of the regional office/regional census center in which maps are produced, assembled, and stored. The terminology is a carryover from the 1990 census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map scale: The mathematical relationship between a distance on a map compared with the actual distance on the ground. This relationship is shown in the margin of each Census Bureau map by several bar scales that represent distance in miles, kilometers, yards, feet, etc., on the map. The relationship also can be expressed as a ratio, showing the actual numeric relationship between distance on the map and on the ground; e.g., 1:2400 means that 1 inch on the map equals 2,400 inches, or 200 feet, on the ground. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map sheet: One of a set of sheets that comprise a Census Bureau map. Many Census Bureau maps consist of a single map sheet. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map spot: A dot drawn on a census block map by a lister or enumerator to show the location of a structure that contains one or more living quarters. The enumerator assigns a number, unique within the census collection block, to each map spot to correspond to the entry(s) in the address register for a basic street address or residential structure. The map spots and numbers are entered into the TIGER database, and are printed on subsequent block maps as a box, oval, or combination with the map spot number inside. For Census 2000, map spots are identified primarily by census listers and enumerators during address listing and list/enumerate operations, but also may be created during the Local Update of Census Addresses Field Verification, update/enumerate, update/leave, and some followup operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Map spot number: The number assigned uniquely to each map spot within a census collection block. The same number can represent more than one living quarters located in a multi-unit structure, in which case the number on the map is followed parenthetically by the number of living quarters in that structure. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Maritime/military vessel enumeration: A type of group quarters enumeration for which the Census Bureau conducts a special operation to enumerate the crews of ships. The Census Bureau worked with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Maritime Administration, and others to identify military and maritime vessels homeported to, or in port or leaving a port in, the United States, Puerto Rico, or the Island Areas at the time of the census. The Census Bureau mailed enumeration materials to those vessels for completion by individual crew members. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Marketing Services Office (MSO): Census Bureau. Creates innovative and effective marketing communication channels, enhances the corporate marketing infrastructure, infuses a marketing culture and customer orientation, institutionalizes internal customer information systems, and assists in new product development. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Activity Schedule (MAS): A schedule of the activities involved in the planning, preparation, conduct, and data capture, processing, and dissemination of Census 2000. See Cost and Progress, Executive Information System, and Management Information System. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Address File (MAF): A computer file of every address and physical/location description known to the Census Bureau, including their geographic locations. The file was created by combining the addresses in the 1990 address file with U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence Files, and supplementing this with address information provided by state, local, and tribal governments. Census Bureau staff updated and supplemented the file with address information obtained by several census programs. The MAF is linked to the TIGER database. The MAF was used to create the Decennial Master Address File, which provided the addresses for mailing and delivery of Census 2000 questionnaires. See Decennial Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Address File Geocoding Office Resolution (MAFGOR): An operation in which the regional offices and regional census centers try to find the location of addresses from the U.S. Postal Service that did not match to the records in the TIGER database. Staff use atlases, maps, city directories, and the like to locate these addresses and add their streets and address ranges to the TIGER database. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Address File Identification Number (MAFID): A number associated with each living quarters or special place recorded in the Master Address File. It also is called the census identification number. See no identification number. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Address File Quality Improvement Program (MAF QIP): An operation designed to assess the completeness and accuracy of the coverage, as well as the block-level geocoding, of the addresses in the initial MAF before the Census Bureau conducted its Census 2000 coverage improvement operations. After a pilot study in six counties in 1997, field staff listed addresses in selected mailout/mailback areas in 1998 for this program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Address File Update File (MAFUF): Census Bureau staff do not individually key new addresses and address revisions directly into the Master Address File (MAF). Instead, using a specified format, they key the relevant information into a file-MAFUF-that stores the information until the Geography Division is ready to merge the complete updated file into the MAF in a batch process. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Master Control System (MCS): A system for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey for tracking the assignments, computer assisted personal interviews, and data transmission. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Matching, Reviewing, and Coding System (MaRCS): A two-part system used for the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey. First, the computer matches housing units and persons. Second, cases not resolved by the computer matching are assigned to clerks in the National Processing Center in Jeffersonville, IN, for review and coding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mean: The arithmetic average of a set of numbers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Median: The middle value in a set of numbers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Memorandum of understanding (MOU): A formal memorandum defining and explaining agreements and decisions reached on specific issues by two or more parties. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Method of equal proportions: A mathematical function that computes priority values based on each state’s apportionment population. The priority values are calculated by dividing the population of each state by the geometric mean of its current and next seats. The priority values are ranked and used to assign seats in the House of Representatives to the states starting with the 51st seat. (The Constitution provides each state with a minimum of one seat in the House.) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Metropolitan area (MA): A large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that nucleus. This collective term was established by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 1990 to refer to metropolitan statistical areas, consolidated metropolitan areas, primary metropolitan statistical areas, and New England County Metropolitan Areas. The OMB establishes MAs based on census data related to a set of published official standards. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Metropolitan statistical area (MSA): A geographic entity designated by the federal Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. An MSA consists of one or more counties, except in New England, where MSAs are defined in terms of county subdivisions (primarily cities and towns). See central city, consolidated metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area, New England County Metropolitan Area, primary metropolitan statistical area, and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Migration (MIG): A change of a household’s or person’s residence from 5 years ago. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Military Census Report (MCR): A questionnaire used to enumerate persons living or staying in military group quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Military enumeration: In Census 2000, a type of group quarters enumeration for which the Census Bureau conducted a special operation to enumerate military personnel and others living or staying on military bases. The Census Bureau worked with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard to identify housing units and other living quarters on their installations. Various enumeration methods, such as mailing census questionnaires to housing units on military installations and enumerating people at their work station, were used. See maritime/military vessel enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
- For the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau will conduct a special operation to enumerate military personnel living or staying in military group quarters. The Census Bureau works with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard for this operation. People living in group quarters are enumerated using a Military Census Report. People living in housing units are mailed a census questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Minor civil division (MCD): A type of governmental unit that is the primary governmental or administrative division of a county or statistically equivalent entity in 28 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas. MCDs are represented by several types of legal entities, such as townships, towns (in eight states), and districts. See county subdivision and governmental unit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA): Department of Commerce. Helps minority-owned and operated businesses achieve effective and equal participation in the American free enterprise system. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mobile computing device (MCD): An MCD is a small electronic device that has self-contained processing units, contains wireless telecommunications capabilities, and is easily transportable. These devices also are referred to as personal digital assistants, palm tops, and hand-held computers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Mobile home/trailer park: A group of five or more mobile homes/trailers or sites, occupied or intended for occupancy at a single location. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Multiple Response Processing (MRP): A two-stage operation that identifies and flags for removal person and housing unit records that are redundant. The stages are the Within-Block Search and the Primary Selection Algorithm. More than one response can be received for a person or housing unit because the Census Bureau offers several methods for responding to the census. These methods include Be Counted questionnaires, Telephone Questionnaire Assistance, Internet responses, and non-English language forms. The Within-Block Search looks within the census block for person records for the same person appearing on two questionnaires. The Primary Selection Algorithm eliminates duplicate responses for the same identification number (housing unit) and determines the final housing unit record and the people to include at the housing unit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Multiplicity estimation: A statistical procedure that adds an estimate of people not enumerated on the day of enumeration to the count of people missed (because the enumeration was limited to one visit) during the enumeration of shelters and soup kitchens. This estimator was not used for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Multi-unit structure: A building that contains more than one housing unit (for example, an apartment building). Townhouses are not considered to be multi-unit structures for census purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Municipality: A legally established entity in Alaska and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Census Bureau treats a municipality as equivalent to a county for data presentation purposes. The municipality (Anchorage) in Alaska is also treated as an incorporated place; this designation in Alaska is new for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Municipio: A governmental unit that is the primary legal subdivision of Puerto Rico. The Census Bureau treats a municipio as equivalent to a county in the United States for data presentation purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Academy of Sciences (NAS): U.S. Government. A private, nonprofit society of scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): U.S. Government. Oversees the management of federal government records, including individual census records after 72 years, presidential diaries, historic correspondence, and a display of presidential gifts from around the world. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Content Survey (1996): One of the test censuses performed by the Census Bureau in its planning and testing for Census 2000. It was the principal vehicle for testing and evaluating subject content for Census 2000. It also provided information on questionnaire design and on mailing strategy and techniques to improve coverage. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Department of Commerce. An organization under the Technology Administration. The NIST promotes United States economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Department of Commerce. Studies climate and global change, ensures protection of coastal oceans and management of marine resources, provides weather services, and manages worldwide environmental data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Operations Center (NOC): Census Bureau. The staff and facilities at the National Processing Center that served as one of the data capture centers for the decennial census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Processing Center (NPC): Census Bureau. The permanent Census Bureau processing facility in Jeffersonville, Indiana. It includes the National Operations Center. Until 1998, it was called the Data Preparation Division (DPD). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Research Council (NRC): U.S. Government. The principal agency of the National Academy of Sciences for advising the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Technical Information Service (NTIS): Department of Commerce. An organization under the Technology Administration. The NTIS promotes the nation’s economic growth and job creation by providing access to federally produced information for the public and production services to federal agencies. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• National Telecommuni-cations and Information Administration (NTIA): Department of Commerce. The Executive Branch’s principal voice on domestic and international telecommunications and information technology issues. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• New Construction program: An operation conducted shortly before Census 2000 to capture addresses of recently built living quarters. Address lists were sent to local and tribal governments in mailout/mailback areas. They could report new living quarters built since the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) operation through April 1, 2000. The adds identified by the governments were matched to the Master Address File, which was updated with valid adds. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• New England County Metropolitan Area (NECMA): A county-based area designated by the federal Office of Management and Budget to provide an alternative to the county subdivision-based metropolitan areas in New England. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• No identification number (non-ID): A completed census questionnaire without a census identification number. The census identification number associates the response with a specific address in the Master Address File. Non-ID’d addresses may be obtained from Be Counted questionnaires, Individual Census Reports, Individual Census Questionnaires, Shipboard Census Reports, Military Census Reports, and questionnaires from Telephone Questionnaire Assistance. In addition, some questionnaires from census enumerator operations did not have an ID number. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Noncity-style address: A mailing address that does not use a house number and street or road name. This includes rural routes and highway contract routes, which may include a box number; post office boxes and drawers; and general delivery. See address, city-style address, E-911 address, fire number, mailing address, nondelivery area, and rural delivery area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nondelivery area: An area in which the U.S. Postal Service does not deliver mail to homes, businesses, etc. Instead, the residents must pick up their mail at a local post office, using either a post office box or drawer or general delivery. See city delivery area, noncity-style address, and rural delivery area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonfunctioning entity: A legal entity that cannot have elected or appointed officials to provide services or raise revenues. Such entities include administrative areas, such as voting districts, and areas from which people are elected to a legislative body, such as Congressional districts and state legislative districts. Some counties and minor civil divisions are nonfunctioning entities. See legal entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nongovernment organization (NGO): A national or local organization or community group that is not under the jurisdiction of a government. See partnership. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Noninstitutionalized population: People who live in group quarters other than institutions. See group quarters, institutionalized population. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonmover: A person who lived in the same housing unit at the time of an interview and on Census Day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonproxy: An interview in which the respondent is a member of the household being enumerated. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonresponse (NR): A housing unit for which the Census Bureau does not have a completed questionnaire and from which the Bureau did not receive a telephone or Internet response. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonresponse Conversion Operation (NRCO): A step in the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey process during Person Interviewing. At a cutoff date, all Person Interviewing cases are brought in from the field. The best interviewers are assigned to the unresolved cases. This is a last attempt to convert refusals to responses. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonresponse Followup (NRFU): An operation whose objective is to obtain completed questionnaires from housing units for which the Census Bureau did not have a completed questionnaire in mail census areas (mailout/mailback, update/leave, and urban update/leave). Enumerators visited addresses for which the Census Bureau had no questionnaire and no Internet or telephone response. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonsampling error: Any error that occurs during the measuring or data collection process. Nonsampling errors can yield biased results when most of the errors distort the results in the same direction. The full extent of nonsampling error is unknown. Decennial censuses traditionally have experienced nonsampling errors, most notably undercount, resulting from people being missed in the enumeration processes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Nonstreet feature: A natural or manmade part of the landscape, such as a stream, ridge, railroad, or power line, that is not used primarily by cars, trucks, or similar vehicles. A legal or imaginary boundary (point-to-point line, imaginary street extension, etc.) also is a nonstreet feature. See feature, invisible feature, and visible feature. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Occupied housing unit: A housing unit that is the usual place of residence of the person or people living in it at the time of enumeration, even if the occupants are only temporarily absent; for example, away on vacation. Occupied rooms or suites of rooms in hotels, motels, and similar places are classified as housing units only when occupied by permanent residents; that is, individuals for whom the facility is their usual place of residence. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Off-reservation trust land: See American Indian off-reservation trust land.
• Office of Management and Budget (OMB): U.S. Government. Assists the President in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM): U.S. Government. The federal government’s human resources agency. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Office of Technology Policy (OTP): Department of Commerce. An organization under the Technology Administration. The OTP promotes technology-based industry through a variety of programs. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Oklahoma tribal statistical area (OTSA): A statistical entity identified and delineated by the Census Bureau in consultation with federally recognized American Indian tribes in Oklahoma that once had a reservation in that state. Called a tribal jurisdiction statistical area for the 1990 census. Also see Historic Areas of Oklahoma. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• One-number census: A single set of census results based on a predetermined enumeration process, which might employ any combination of traditional counting methods, administrative records, and statistical estimation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Operational Integration Team (OIT): An inter-divisional team responsible for project management over a set of operations. The teams will develop and monitor the schedule, track the development and production of deliverables, initiate change request, ensure the development of operational workflows, define and document operational requirements, document issues and resolve and/or elevate them to the CIG, and facilitate communication among the teams (OITs, ISTs, and IPTs). These teams will work on the 2008 Dress Rehearsal and the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Operational Status and Assessment Meetings (OSAM): Meetings of census managers with executive staff during the height of the census to report on the status of activities and to engage in real-time problem-solving. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Operational Test Dry Run (OTDR): A practice test of the operations of the data capture centers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Operations Control System 2000 (OCS 2000): One of the decennial field interface systems used for control, tracking, and progress reporting for all field operations conducted for the census, including production of materials used by field staff to do their work. It was one system of the Decennial Field Interface. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Optical character recognition (OCR): Technology that uses an optical scanner and computer software to “read” human handwriting and converts it into electronic form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Optical mark recognition (OMR): Technology that uses an optical scanner and computer software to scan a page, recognize the presence of marks in predesignated areas, and assign a value to the mark depending on its specific location and intensity on a page. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Outlying Areas: The 1990 census term for the Island Areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Outmover: A person who lived in a specific housing unit on Census Day, but lived elsewhere at the time of the census interview. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Overseas enumeration: A method of data collection for counting federal employees assigned overseas (including members of the Armed Forces) and their dependents, and persons on board United States military ships assigned to a foreign home port. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Oversight and Appropriations (O&A) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
Senate:
- The Committee on Appropriations and its subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary.
- The Committee on Governmental Affairs
House of Representatives:
- The Committee on Appropriations and its subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary.
- The Committee on Government Reform and its subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on the Census.
• P Sample: People who were residents of an Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey housing unit on Census Day and were enumerated by the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Paper assisted personal interview (PAPI): A method of data collection in which the enumerator uses a paper form to record information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Parish: A type of governmental unit that is the primary legal subdivision of Louisiana, similar to a county in other states. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP): A Census 2000 program that provided local and tribal officials with the opportunity to review and revise existing statistical entities and identify new ones. The program included census tracts, block groups, census designated places, and census county divisions. See statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Partition: A portion of the TIGER database separated to effectively manage the size of that database in order to support operations such as updating, processing, and mapping of a specific part of the database. A partition usually consists of an entire county or statistically equivalent entity, but a county that has many records in the database may be divided into multiple partitions to allow the computer to process, and enable staff to work with, smaller files. Also referred to as a county partiti (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Partnership: An agreement with a state, local, or tribal government or a community group that gave such an organization an opportunity to participate in various ways in Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Patent and Trademark Office (PTO): Department of Commerce. Administers the nation’s patent and trademark laws. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Person After Followup Coding: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. This operation followed the Person Followup Interview operation. During After Followup Coding, the results of the person followup interviews were used to assign a final residence or enumeration status for each person. These final status codes were used for Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation estimation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Person Followup Interview: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. The Person Followup Interview was conducted after Person Matching. Interviewers conducted person followup interviews for persons or households for which the Census Bureau required more information for coding and matching. The next operation was Person After Followup Coding. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Person Interviewing: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. Interviewers collected information about the current resident(s) of each housing unit and anyone who had moved out of the sample block between Census Day and the time of the interview. The interviewers asked questions about alternate residences to establish where people lived on Census Day according to census residence rules. Interviews were conducted either by telephone or personal visit, both using a computer assisted personal interview (CAPI) instrument. The next operation was Person Matching. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Person Matching: An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation operation. This operation was conducted after Person Interviewing. Information about individuals obtained during Person Interviewing was matched to the information collected in the census for the same geographic entities. Residence or enumeration status codes were assigned for each A.C.E. and census person. These codes were used during the estimation operations to determine the number of people missed or erroneously included in the census. The next operation was the Person Followup Interview. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Person record: A record for an individual created from data captured from a census form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Personal Computer Document Organization and Control System (PCDOCS): Software for maintaining and accessing an electronic library of documents. See Decennial Document Management System. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Personal visit (PV): Face-to-face contact between a member of the public and a Census Bureau enumerator to obtain information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Physical/location description: A short written description of the location and physical characteristics of a living quarters that does not have a house-number/street-name address, to help Census Bureau staff recognize this living quarters. For post-2000 operations, this term has been changed to “Physical description,” and a location description is no longer required; the location of the map spot provides the location information. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• P.L.: See entries under “Public Law.”
• Place: A concentration of population either legally bounded as an incorporated place or delineated for statistical purposes as a census designated place. See census designated place, comunidad, consolidated city, incorporated place, independent city, independent place, legal entity, statistical entity, and zona urbana. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Place of birth (POB): The state, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Island Area, or foreign country in which a person was born. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Place of work (POW): The street address, establishment name, or location where a person worked on Census Day or the target date for a Census Bureau survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Planned dates: The start and finish dates in the Master Activity Schedule, determined by the Census Operational Managers to be the desired times to start and complete an activity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Planning database: A geographic database containing prior census housing, demographic, and socioeconomic variables correlated with nonresponse and undercounting data and used to identify specific geographic areas (for example, interim census tracts) that could benefit from special enumeration methods to improve coverage. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Planning, Research, and Evaluation Division (PRED): Census Bureau. Provides technical expertise and executive leadership for planning future censuses and surveys. Coordinates policy and program-related activities for future censuses and surveys. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Policy Office (POL): Census Bureau. The central coordinating point for the analysis, development, and implementation of Bureau-wide policy in the program and legislative areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Political entity: See governmental unit and legal entity.
• Population: All people living in a geographic area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Population and Housing Characteristics reports (PHC): A series of Census 2000 reports containing tables that report population and housing data. The series is available in printed form and on the Internet in PDF format. It is comparable to the 1990 census’s CPH (Census of Population and Housing) series of reports. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Population density: The population of an area divided by the number of square miles or square kilometers of land area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Population Division (POP): Census Bureau. Provides regularly updated information on the population of the United States and its demographic, geographic, and social characteristics. The division’s International Programs Center conducts demographic and socioeconomic studies, strengthens statistical development around the world through technical assistance, training, and software products, and provides demographic and socioeconomic data on foreign countries as well as the United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Population Estimates and Projections Program (PEPP): A post-Census 2000 Census Bureau program sponsored by the Population Division to produce annual estimates and projections of population, households, and housing units for selected governmental units. For population estimates, the program includes the United States; states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; counties and statistically equivalent entities; governmentally functioning minor civil divisions; incorporated places, including consolidated cities; metropolitan areas and their successor entities; and school districts. Estimates for households and housing units are porduced for states and the District of Columbia, and the Bureau plans to do so for counties and statistically equivalent entities. Projections cover population, voting age population, households, and families for the United States, states, and the District of Columbia. The program reflects new governmental units and boundary changes reported to the Census Bureau for previously existing governmental units. See Geographic Update System in Support of Intercensal Estimates, Geographically Updated Population Certification Program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Postal Validation Check (PVC): The review and update of mailing addresses in the Census Bureau’s address file by U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers within selected ZIP Codes in the mailout/mailback area. This check was not conducted for Census 2000; instead, the USPS took special steps to improve the completeness of its Delivery Sequence File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Postcensus Local Review (PCLR): A 1990 census program that enabled local governments to review counts of housing units and the group quarters population after the census in order to identify missed and mis-allocated living quarters and unusual situations. They also reviewed the Census Bureau maps for errors. Not conducted for Census 2000. See Count Question Resolution. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Post-Enumeration Survey (PES): A survey used for the 1990 census to evaluate census coverage on a case-by-case basis, using the Dual System Estimation method. It provided undercount information for detailed categories, such as renter/homeowner and racial and ethnic group, which is not possible with demographic analysis. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Postmaster Return (PMR): See undeliverable-as-addressed.
• Poststratum: The grouping of people within a particular stratum; for example, all white, non-Hispanic male renters ages 18-22 (poststratum) in a rural area (stratum). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Pre-appointment Management System/Automated Decennial Administrative Management System (PAMS/ADAMS : An integrated structure of administrative management programs that supports applicant tracking and processing, background checks, selection records, recruiting reports, personnel and payroll processing, and archiving of historical information. This system is used by the Census Bureau in the hiring of temporary workers for a census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Precanvass: See block canvassing.
• Prelist: See address listing.
• Primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA): A geographic entity designated by the federal Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. If an area that qualifies as a metropolitan statistical area has a census population of 1 million or more, two or more PMSAs may be designated within it if they meet published official standards and local opinion favors the designation. When PMSAs are established within a metropolitan area, that metropolitan area is designated a consolidated metropolitan statistical area (CMSA). See central city, consolidated metropolitan statistical area and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Primary Selection Algorithm (PSA): A computer program applied to the Decennial Response File (DRF) to eliminate duplicate responses for the same identification number and to determine the housing unit record and the people to include for a housing unit. After this procedure, the DRF is merged with the Decennial Master Address File to create the Census Unedited File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Primavera Project Planner (P3): The project management and scheduling software used to develop the Census 2000 Master Activity Schedule. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Principal Associate Director (PAD): Census Bureau. The Principal Associate Director/Chief Financial Officer reports to the Director and Deputy Director, and is responsible for the overall management activities of the Census Bureau. The Principal Associate Director for Programs reports to the Director and Deputy Director, and is responsible for the overall management of demographic programs, the decennial census, economic programs, and statistical methodology and standards. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Privacy Act: A 1974 law (Title 5, Section 5520) that places restrictions on the collection, use, maintenance, and release of information about individuals, their household, and their place of residence. It gives individuals the right to see records about themselves, to obtain copies of their records, to have records corrected or amended with Census Bureau approval, and to have a statement of disagreement filed in their records if the Census Bureau does not approve the correction or amendment. See confidentiality and special sworn status individual. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Privacy Act Notice: A document that advises people of the authority under which the Census Bureau collects information, how it will use the information, and the effect of not answering a question. Also called Form D-31. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Processing office: See data capture center.
• Production rate: A performance measure calculated as the number of cases completed within a specified time period; for example, cases completed per hour or cases completed per day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Profiles: Tables showing demographic and housing characteristics for various geographic entities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Program for Address List Supplementation (PALS): A program conducted in 1996 to provide governmental units and regional and metropolitan agencies an early opportunity to submit lists of city-style mailing addresses for their areas to the Census Bureau for use in building the Master Address File for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Program Master Plan (PMP): A document that explains the preparatory, field, processing, and statistical requirements for each major Census 2000 operation. The plans are coordinated by the Decennial Management Division’s Program Management Staff. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Program Steering Committee (PSC): Census Bureau. The PSC and the Management Integration Team provided the structure for the early planning of Census 2000. They were replaced by the Census Operational Managers, the Issue Resolution/Change Control Board, and the Decennial Division Chiefs Steering Committee. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Proxy: An interview in which the respondent is not a member of the household being enumerated. The respondent might be a neighbor or some other knowledgeable person. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Pseudo-LCO: For Census 2000, where the land area under the authority of an American Indian tribe or the populated area of a military base was situated in more than one state or included widespread noncontiguous parcels of land that could not satisfactorily be included within the boundary of a single local census office (LCO), the Census Bureau assigned such lands to the LCO that contained the administrative offices or headquarters of the tribe or base. As a result, each tribe or base worked with only one LCO for the census. The Bureau informally referred to the lands involved in the reassigned areas as pseudo-LCOs, since they were not actually LCOs in their own right. Each pseudo-LCO was assigned a unique code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Pseudo-tract: See interim census tract.
• Pseudo-voting district (pseudo-VTD): An area for which the Census Bureau reports voting district (VTD) data, even though the boundary of the actual VTD was adjusted by the reviewing officials for purposes of data presentation, so that it no longer matches the legally established boundary. See voting district. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Information Office (PIO): Census Bureau. Manages relations with the news media, produces radio and video news releases, distributes daily newspaper clippings of census-related stories, administers the foreign visitors program, and writes and edits a variety of publications, including Counterparts, Census and You, and Census Briefs. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Law 94-171 (P.L. 94-171): A 1975 law that requires the Census Bureau to provide state governments with selected decennial census data tabulations and related geographic products for specific geographic entities by April 1 of the year following the census. These data and products are used by the states to redefine their Congressional districts and the areas used for state and local elections-a process called redistricting. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Law 94-171 Summary Files: Data provided in response to the requirements of P.L. 94-171, by census tract and census block, including four matrixes: data for race, Hispanic or Latino and not Hispanic or Latino, race for the population 18 years and older, and Hispanic or Latino and not Hispanic or Latino for the population 18 years and older. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Law 94-311 (P.L. 94-311): A 1976 law that requires the use of Spanish-language forms and Spanish-speaking interviewers in areas having a significant concentration of Hispanic population. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Law 103-430 (P.L. 103-430) : Federal legislation-the Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994-that amends Title 13, U.S. Code, to allow local and tribal government officials to review the address information in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File to verify its accuracy and completeness, subject to the Census Bureau’s confidential requirements. This law also requires the U.S. Postal Service to provide its address information to the Census Bureau to improve the Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public Law 105-119 (P.L. 105-119): A 1997 appropriations bill that also established the Census Monitoring Board and required the Census Bureau to make publicly available, for specific levels of geography, “the number of persons enumerated without using statistical methods.” (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public use form (PUF): A form issued by a federal agency to obtain information from the public. A PUF that is to be administered to ten or more persons requires prior approval and clearance by the Office of Management and Budget. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public use microdata area (PUMA): A geographic entity for which the Census Bureau provides specially selected extracts of raw information from a small sample of long-form census records. PUMAs, which must have a minimum census population of 100,000 and cannot cross a state line, receive a 5-percent sample of the long-form records; these records are presented in state files. These PUMAs are aggregated into “super-PUMAs,” which must have a minimum census population of 400,000 and receive a 1-percent sample in a national file. PUMAs for Census 2000 were delineated by state officials, and comparable officials in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Census Bureau provided a single 10-percent sample file each for Guam and the Virgin Islands of the United States. See public use microdata sample. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Public use microdata sample (PUMS): Computerized files containing a small sample of individual long-form census records showing the population and housing characteristics for the unidentified people included on those forms. The records are screened to maintain confidentiality. See public use microdata area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Puerto Rico Area Office (PRAO): An office established in Puerto Rico to take the decennial census. It was equivalent to a mini-regional census center, and oversaw nine local census offices for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Quality assurance (QA): A systematic approach to building accuracy and completeness into a process. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Quality check: See Integrated Coverage Measurement.
• Quality control (QC): Various statistical methods that validate that products or operations meet specified standards. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Questionnaire: The census or survey form on which a respondent or enumerator records information requested by the Census Bureau for a specific census or special survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Questionnaire Assistance Center (QAC): A center established by a local census office to assist people with completing their questionnaires. For Census 2000, the centers were established in community centers, large apartment buildings, and so forth. The centers are staffed by volunteers and Census Bureau employees. Also called walk-in questionnaire assistance centers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Questionnaire mailing strategy: For Census 2000, an advance notice letter, a questionnaire, and a reminder/thank-you postcard sent to every address in mailout/mailback census areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Questionnaire Reference Book (QRB): A document that provides detailed instructions to enumerators on how to fill out a census form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Quick Tables (QT): Predefined tables that display selected population and housing characteristics for a single geographic area selected by a data user. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees (REAC): An in-house term referring to the five separate advisory committees on the race and ethnic populations: the Census Advisory Committee on the African American Population, Census Advisory Committee on the American Indian and Alaska Native Populations, Census Advisory Committee on the Asian Population, Census Advisory Committee on Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Populations, and Census Advisory Committee on the Hispanic Population. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Race and Ethnicity Targeted Test (RAETT): A test conducted in selected areas of the United States to evaluate alternative formats and sequencing of the race, Hispanic, and ancestry questions for the Census 2000 questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Ready for use (RFU): The installation of hardware and software when it has passed testing and is ready to be used. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Reapportionment: The redistribution of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the several states on the basis of the most recent decennial census, as required by Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution. See apportionment and redistricting. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Reconciliation: There are two definitions for this term: The U.S. Postal Service’s resolution and verification of additions and deletions to the Census Bureau’s Master Address File. The resolution and verification of addresses obtained by the Census Bureau during the Local Update of Census Addresses program. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Recycle: A process a questionnaire undergoes when it fails an edit. The record is examined by a clerical process and corrected, if possible, or sent to a telephone followup operation. The questionnaire is captured again and edits are run on this new capture. This process continues until the record passes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Redistricting: The process of revising the geographic boundaries of areas from which people elect representatives to the U.S. Congress, a state legislature, a county or city council, a school board, and the like to meet the legal requirement that such areas be as equal in population as possible following a census. See apportionment and reapportionment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Redistricting Data Program: A decennial census program that permitted state officials to identify selected map features they wanted the Census Bureau to use (or not use) as census block boundaries and specific areas, such as voting districts and state legislative districts, for which they need census data. See Block Boundary Suggestion Project, redistricting, and Voting District Project. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Refusal: Reluctance by residents, apartment managers, local officials, or others to cooperate with Census Bureau employees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Region (census geographic): See census region.
• Regional census center (RCC): One of 12 temporary Census Bureau offices established for Census 2000 to manage census field office and local census office activities, and to conduct geographic programs and support operations. The Census Bureau also opened an “area office” to manage census operations in Puerto Rico. See Puerto Rico Area Office and regional office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Regional Director (RD): Census Bureau. The head of a regional office and regional census center. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Regional Elected Officials Meeting (REOM): One of a series of regional meetings conducted by the Census Bureau with elected officials of local and state governments to encourage their support for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Regional office (RO): One of 12 permanent Census Bureau offices established for the management of all census operations for the Census Bureau’s censuses and surveys in specified areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Regularly scheduled mobile food van: A van that regularly visits designated street locations for the primary purpose of providing food to people without housing. See emergency shelter; hotels, motels, and other facilities; shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing; soup kitchen; and transitional shelter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Reinterview: A quality control operation to verify that enumerators collected accurate information. A sample of households in an assignment area is contacted again in person or by telephone. An enumerator re-asks certain questions and compares the answers to the original questionnaire. This verifies that the enumerator visited the correct address and that the original questionnaire was completed accurately. This operation is performed after list/enumerate, update/enumerate, and Nonresponse Followup. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Reminder/thank you card: A postcard sent to addresses on the Decennial Master Address File to remind people to return their Census 2000 questionnaires and to thank them if they already did. All addresses in mailout/mailback areas received a postcard. The Census Bureau also had the U.S. Postal Service deliver unaddressed postcards to all residential postal patrons in update/leave areas. See advance letter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Remote Alaska enumeration: A modified version of the list/enumerate methodology used to enumerate the most sparsely settled, isolated parts of Alaska-areas accessible only by small plane, boat, snowmobile, 4-wheel-drive vehicle, dog sled, or a combination of these-in January-April 2000. Remote Alaska enumeration begins in mid-January so enumerators can reach people living in these remote locations before the spring thaw. (Once the spring thaw begins, travel to these areas may be difficult.) Questions are asked as of Census Day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Replacement questionnaire: A second questionnaire that was to be sent to addresses on the Decennial Master Address File in mailout/mailback areas to increase mail response rates as part of the questionnaire mailing strategy. This strategy was not used for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Request for proposal (RFP): A government announcement in the Commerce Business Daily and on the Internet requesting vendors to propose a technical solution, with costs, for a statement of need or a statement of work. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Requirements initiative (RI): The documentation of business plans in support of expenditure of funds for acquisition of information technology products and services. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Research and experimentation (REX): The program of studies used to evaluate a census, to research new procedures and techniques, and to conduct experiments under true census conditions. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Residence status: A code identifying each person as either a resident or nonresident of a housing unit on Census Day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Residential Finance Survey (RFS): A Census Bureau survey conducted in the year following the decennial census since 1951. The survey collects information about the acquisition and financing of 68,000 non-farm residential properties in the United States for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Respondent: The person supplying survey or census information about his or her living quarters and its occupants, or a knowledgeable person if a resident is not available. See householder and proxy. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Response rate: The percentage of housing units for which the Census Bureau received completed questionnaires for an area. The numerator includes responses from the following sources: mailed-in questionnaires (including responses from mailout/mailback, update/leave, and urban update/leave areas, and the Be Counted Program), responses collected from Telephone Questionnaire Assistance, and Internet responses. To avoid double-counting, the Census Bureau tallies only one response (the first valid response received) for each census identification number. The denominator represents the total number of housing unit identification numbers (a code assigned to each unique address) from the mailout/mailback, update/leave, and urban update/leave universes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Restricted access building/secured building: An apartment building (that is, a multi-unit building) that can be entered only through doors that are locked to the public or through an entrance where a guard is stationed. See gated community. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Return rate: See initial mail response rate, mail return rate, and response rate.
• Reverse CATI: See telephone interview (reverse CATI).
• Road Tour: A Census 2000 public relations operation conducted between February 15 and April 15, 2000, for which the Census Bureau used 12 recreational vehicles to promote Census 2000 across the conterminous United States. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Rural: All territory, population, and housing units located outside of urbanized areas and urban clusters. Because “urban” and “rural” are delineated independent of any geographic entity except census block, the rural classification may cut across all other geographic entities; for example, there is generally both urban and rural territory within both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. See urban. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Rural Addressing Program (RAP): An early-1990s program to update the information in the TIGER database as local governments established new city-style address systems, and to determine the feasibility of using local information to insert geocodable noncity-style addresses into the Master Address File and their address ranges in the TIGER database. It was replaced by the 1996 Address System Information Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Rural delivery area: An area within which a post office delivers mail to residents living on rural delivery routes, as designated by the U.S. Postal Service. While many housing units in a rural delivery area use noncity-style addresses, some rural delivery routes deliver mail to a substantial number of housing units that use house-number- and-street-name addresses. See address, city delivery area, E-911 address, noncity-style address, and nondelivery area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample Census Edited File (SCEF): A file containing 100-percent and sample characteristics for housing units and people in the long-form sample. Processing for the SCEF included merging the results of industry and occupation coding and place-of-work and migration coding, coding several other items, and weighting the long forms. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample Census Unedited File (SCUF): The Decennial Response File is combined with the Decennial Master Address File to create the Hundred Percent Census Unedited File and the Sample Census Unedited File. The SCUF contains the individual responses to items on the long-form questionnaires. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample coding: Coding and classification of write-in responses (for example, place of work) for the tabulation of sample data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample data: Census data derived from additional questions asked of about 17 percent of the population on the long-form questionnaire for Census 2000, and on a continuous basis for areas covered by the American Community Survey. The person questions cover social characteristics, such as ancestry, disability, grandparents as caregivers, education, marital status, and veteran status, and economic characteristics, such as 1999 income and work status and industry, occupation, and class of worker. The housing questions cover physical characteristics, such as the number of rooms, type of heating fuel, and telephone service availability, and financial characteristics, such as rent, mortgage, utilities, taxes, and fuel costs. See hundred percent data and long form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample data products: See Sample Data Summary Files.
• Sample Data Summary Files: Files generated from the decennial census data and made available to the public. They include social, housing, and economic characteristics. Summary File 3 presents population counts for ancestry groups. Summary File 4 presents population and housing unit characteristics iterated for many detailed race and Hispanic or Latino categories, American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, and ancestry groups. See sample data. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sample Edited Detail File (SEDF): The census data file resulting from application of disclosure avoidance techniques to the individual responses and assignment of tabulation geography to the housing units in the Census Edited File and Sample Census Edited File. Staff applies the results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey to these files to create the Hundred Percent Edited Detail File (HEDF) for the short-form questionnaire items and the Sample Edited Detail File (SEDF) for the long-form questionnaire items. These files are used for tabulation purposes only and are not released to the public. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sampling error: An error that occurs because only part of the population is contacted directly. As with any sample, differences are likely to exist between the characteristics of the sampled population and the larger group from which the sample was chosen. Sampling error, unlike nonsampling error, is measurable. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sampling stratum: A grouping or classification that has a similar set of characteristics, based on the previous census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Scanner: Equipment used to capture images from documents for the purpose of entering the information into an electronic format. For Census 2000, scanners replaced some keying operations. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• School district: A geographic entity delineated by state, county, or local officials, the U.S. Department of Defense, or the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to designate the school(s) that students in a particular locale must attend. Census 2000 provides data for elementary, secondary, unified, and selected special school districts. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Seasonal/recreational-occasional use housing unit: A housing unit held for occupancy only during limited portions of the year, such as a beach cottage, ski cabin, or time-share condominium. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Segment: A cluster of one or more housing units used in a sample survey conducted by the Census Bureau. For example, the Current Population Survey uses segments or clusters of 4 housing units. The reliability of an estimate from a sample survey is affected by the cluster size. Assuming clusters of all sizes are the same for a given characteristic, the larger the cluster, the higher the variance; in practice, for economic purposes, smaller clusters are preferred. See street segment. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Self-enumerating place: A group quarters, such as a hospital or prison, where the safety of the residents and/or the enumerators is a concern. A staff member of the facility lists the names of all people staying in each group quarters at the facility, and he/she or the residents complete the Individual Census Report packets. A crew leader returns to collect the completed materials. Note: Military Census Reports are used at military installations and Shipboard Census Reports are used for crews of vessels. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Separate living quarters: Living quarters in which one or more occupants live separately from any other individual(s) in the building and have direct access to the living quarters without going through another living quarters, such as from outside the building or through a common hall. For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Service-based enumeration (SBE): A method of data collection designed to count people at facilities that primarily serve people without conventional housing in the United States and Puerto Rico. These facilities include emergency or transitional shelters, soup kitchens, and regularly scheduled mobile food van stops. In addition, service-based enumeration counts people at targeted nonsheltered outdoor locations where people might have been living in March (before Census Day, April 1) without paying to stay there and who did not usually receive services at soup kitchens, shelters, or mobile food vans. These facilities and locations need special procedures separate from the group quarters enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing: Includes shelters and group homes that provide temporary sleeping facilities for juveniles. See emergency shelter; hotels, motels, and other facilities; regularly scheduled mobile food van; soup kitchen; and transitional shelter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Shelter/Street Night (S-Night): This operation was not used for Census 2000. It was a national operation during the 1990 census to count the homeless and others not covered by usual census procedures. The operation had a shelter phase and a street phase. See service-based enumeration and Transient Night Enumeration. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Shipboard Census Report (SCR): A census questionnaire used for military and maritime (civilian) personnel aboard ships on Census Day. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Short form (SF): The decennial census questionnaire containing only the 100-percent questions. See hundred percent data and long form. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Simplified Enumerator Questionnaire (SEQ): A questionnaire that enumerators used for Transient, or T-Night, Enumeration, Nonresponse Followup, and Coverage Improvement Followup. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Single MIM-Based Integrated Mapping System (SMIMS): A software system that enables the Census Bureau’s Geography Division to create Map Image Metafiles (MIMs) from the TIGER database according to the cartographic design for a specific mapping project. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Small-Area Estimation: The process of applying the results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation survey’s estimation process to the Hundred Percent Detail File to create the Hundred Percent Edited Detail File. The process provides population estimates for selected geographic entities, such as census blocks, census tracts, counties, and Congressional districts. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Soup kitchen: A soup kitchen, food line, or other program that distributes prepared breakfasts, lunches, and/or dinners. These programs may be organized as food service lines, bag or box lunches, or tables where people are seated and served by program personnel. These programs may or may not have a place for clients to sit and eat the meal. See emergency shelter; hotels, motels, and other facilities; regularly scheduled mobile food van; shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing; and transitional shelter. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Source Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB): A group of professionals who evaluate proposals to perform work for the Census Bureau and select the source for a contract award. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Source selection official (SSO): A person who uses the factors established by the Source Selection Evaluation Board to evaluate and select contracts for award purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special census: A federal census conducted at the request and expense of a local governmental agency to obtain a population count between decennial censuses. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special notice: A page in an address register or address binder to remind the enumerator of the confidentiality of the information being collected and to remind the enumerator to make legible entries. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special place (SP): A facility containing one or more group quarters where people live or stay, such as a college or university, nursing home, hospital, prison, hotel, migrant or seasonal farm worker camp, or military installation or ship. While a special place usually consists of one or more group quarters, and may contain embedded or free-standing housing units, it may consist entirely of housing units, such as a campground that has only trailer, RV, and/or tent sites. See embedded housing unit, freestanding housing unit, group quarters, and housing unit. The concept of special place will not be used for the 2010 Census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special Place Advance Visit (SPAV): An operation designed to confirm the location of a group quarters and other information to aid in the preparation for enumeration, and to establish a pre-enumeration contact with an official at a special place (including military bases) to facilitate the actual enumeration. This concept does not apply to the 2010 Census. See Group Quarters Advance Visit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special Place Facility Questionnaire (SPFQ): In Census 2000, this was a questionnaire used to interview an official at a special place for the purpose of collecting and updating name and address information for the special place and associated group quarters and housing units, determining the type of special place/group quarters, and collecting additional administrative information about each group quarters at the special place. See Special Place Facility Questionnaire operation (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special Place Facility Questionnaire operation (SPFQ operation): For Census 2000, this was a census operation for which interviewers at telephone centers call each special place on the Census Bureau’s special place file to conduct computer assisted telephone interviews. They collect or update address information for the special place and associated group quarters and housing units, determine the type of special place and associated group quarters, and collect additional information about each group quarters at the special place. If the interview cannot be completed by telephone, an enumerator visits the facility to conduct the interview. See Special Place Facility Questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Special sworn status (SSS): The designation for a temporary employee hired to assist the Census Bureau on work authorized by Title 13, subject to the same confidentiality requirements as regular Census Bureau employees. See confidentiality and Privacy Act. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Standard deviation: A measure of the dispersion of values in a frequency distribution from the average; i.e., it shows the average variability of a population from the mean. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Standard error: A measure of the deviation of a sample estimate from the average of all possible samples. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State: The primary governmental division of the United States. The Census Bureau treats the District of Columbia as the equivalent of a state for data presentation purposes. It also treats a number of entities that are not legal divisions of the United States (Puerto Rico and the Island Areas) as equivalent to a state for data presentation purposes. See Island Areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State certifying official (SCO): An official designated by the governor of each state to review and certify that the Census Bureau’s inventory of local governmental units in that state is accurate, and that reported boundary changes were accomplished in accordance with state law. See Boundary and Annexation Survey. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State code: A 2-digit Federal Information Processing Standards code assigned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to identify each state and statistically equivalent entity. Also, a 2-digit code assigned by the Census Bureau to sort states geographically within census divisions. See code, Federal Information Processing Standards code, and geographic code. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State Data Center (SDC): A state agency or university facility identified by the governor of each state or statistically equivalent entity to participate in the Census Bureau’s cooperative network for the dissemination of census data. An SDC also may provide demographic data to local agencies participating in the Census Bureau’s statistical areas programs and may assist the Census Bureau in the identification and delineation of various geographic entities. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State designated American Indian statistical area (SDAISA): A statistical entity delineated for an American Indian tribe that does not have a land base (reservation) and is recognized as a tribe by a state government, but not the federal government. SDAISAs are identified and delineated for the Census Bureau by a liaison identified by a state’s governor’s office. A SDAISA generally encompasses a compact and contiguous area that contains a concentration of people who identify with a state recognized American Indian tribe and in which there is structured or organized tribal activity. A SDAISA may not be located in more than one state unless the tribe is recognized by both state governments, and it may not include area within an American Indian reservation, off-reservation trust land, Oklahoma tribal statistical area, tribal designated statistical area, or Alaska Native village statistical area. SDAISAs were included with tribal designated statistical areas for the 1990 census; this designation is new for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• State legislative district (SLD): The area represented by a member of the upper or lower chamber of a state legislature (or, for Nebraska, its unicameral legislature). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statement of need (SON): A description of the services and/or final product solicited by a government agency. See statement of work. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statement of work (SOW): A description of the objectives and/or tasks required to be accomplished as part of a request for proposal or in a contract for professional services. See statement of need. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statistical Administrative Records System (StARS): The StARS is a research project designed to build annual databases of personal and address data using administrative records from various government agencies. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statistical design: The development of the methods for all statistical programs in the census. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statistical entity: A specially defined and delineated geographic entity, such as a metropolitan area, urbanized area, tribal designated statistical area, census county division, census designated place, census tract, block group, or census block, for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. Statistical entity boundaries generally are not legally defined, and designation as a statistical entity neither conveys nor confers legal ownership, entitlement, or jurisdictional authority. See legal entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Statistical Research Division (SRD): Census Bureau. Conducts statistical and methodological research motivated by practical problems arising in all phases of data collection, processing, and dissemination. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Street segment: The portion of a street or road between two features that intersect that street/road, such as other streets/roads, railroad tracks, streams, and governmental unit boundaries. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Structure: Usually a separate building that has open space on all sides. However, the Census Bureau treats each townhouse as a separate structure. Some nonresidential structures may contain one or more residences, as in the case of an apartment located above a grocery store or in the basement of a church. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Sub-MCD: A legal subdivision of a minor civil division (MCD). For Census 2000, only Puerto Rico has sub-MCDs (subbarrios). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Subbarrio: The primary legal subdivision of a barrio or barrio-pueblo in 23 municipios in Puerto Rico. See sub-MCD. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary File (SF): One of series of Census 2000 state and national computer files containing great subject matter detail for a large number of geographic entities, ranging down to the block group or census block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary File 1 (SF 1): This Census 2000 file presents 100-percent population and housing data for the total population, for 63 race categories, and for many other race and Hispanic or Latino categories. The data include age, sex, households, household relationship, housing units, and tenure (whether the residence is owned or rented). Also included are selected characteristics for a limited number of race and Hispanic or Latino categories. The data are available for the U.S., census regions, census divisions, states and statistically equivalent entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, county subdivisions, places, census tracts, block groups, census blocks, metropolitan areas, urban areas, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, tribal subdivisions, Hawaiian home lands, Congressional districts, and ZIP Code tabulation areas. Data are available down to the block level for many tabulations, but only to the census tract level for others. Available on CD-ROM, DVD, and American FactFinder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary File 2 (SF 2): This Census 2000 file presents data similar to the information included in Summary File 1. These data are shown down to the census tract level for 250 race, Hispanic or Latino, and American Indian and Alaska Native categories. For data to be shown in SF 2, a population category must meet a population size threshold of 100 or more people of that specific population category in a specific geographic entity. Available on CD-ROM, DVD, and American FactFinder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary File 3 (SF 3): This Census 2000 file presents data on population and housing long-form subjects, such as income and education. It includes population totals for ancestry groups. It also includes selected characteristics for a limited number of race and Hispanic or Latino categories. The data are available for the U.S., census regions, census divisions, states and statistically equivalent entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, county subdivisions, places, census tracts, block groups, metropolitan areas, urban areas, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, tribal subdivisions, Hawaiian home lands, Congressional districts, and ZIP Code tabulation areas. Available on CD-ROM, DVD, and American FactFinder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary File 4 (SF 4): This Census 2000 file presents data similar to the information included in Summary File 3. The data are shown down to the census tract level for 336 race, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native, and ancestry categories. For data to be shown in SF 4, there must be at least 50 unweighted sample cases of a specific population category in a specific geographic entity. In addition, data for the specific population category for the specific geographic entity must have been available in Summary File 2. Available on CD-ROM, DVD, and American FactFinder. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary table: A collection of one or more data elements that are classified into some logical structure, either as dimensions or data points. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Summary Tape File (STF): One of series of four 1990 census summary tabulations of hundred percent data and sample population and housing data, available for public use on computer tape, CD-ROM, and the Internet. These files will not be produced for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Super-PUMA: See public use microdata area.
• Switching: The name for a 1990 census disclosure avoidance procedure. Called the confidentiality edit for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tabulation block: The smallest area for which the Census Bureau provides decennial census data. A tabulation block cannot be split by the boundary of any legal or statistical entity recognized by the Census Bureau for data presentation. See block number, census block, and collection block. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tabulation geography: The geographic entities for which the Census Bureau tabulates and presents data, such as the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, states and statistically equivalent entities, counties and statistically equivalent entities, county subdivisions, places, Congressional districts, metropolitan areas, census tracts, block groups, and census blocks. See collection geography, geographic entity, and geographic hierarchy. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted Canvassing (TC): A procedure used in the Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal to find addresses missing in selected blocks in mailout/mailback areas. Replaced by block canvassing for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted Extended Search (TES): An Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) operation to offset geocoding problems in the census. During person matching, the search area for nonmatches was expanded to blocks surrounding the A.C.E. sample blocks. Enumerators conducted interviews to gather additional information to aid in matching addresses on census records to addresses on the ground. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted Field Address Conversion (TFAC): A post-Census 2000 attempt to improve the Master Address File by having field staff visit blocks that contain housing units whose MAF address consists only of a physical/location description, and have a high probability of containing residential structures with city-style addresses. The goal was to record a city-style address if field staff could observe one posted on or near a targeted housing unit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted mailing: The mailing of replacement questionnaires to Census 2000 nonrespondents in mailback areas; that is, households that did not return a completed questionnaire by a certain time. The Census Bureau decided not to implement this operation for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted Map Update (TMU): An operation for which census employees (“updaters”) go into the field to find city-style address ranges that the regional offices and regional census centers (RCCs) were unable to resolve by Master Address File Geocoding Office Resolution. The updaters identify the streets and address ranges by annotating Census Bureau maps and lists of uncoded address ranges. They return the maps and lists to the RCCs, which insert the information into the TIGER database and flag errors in the Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted Multi-Unit Check (TMUC): A procedure used in the Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal to find missing units in multi-unit structures in mailout/mailback areas. Replaced by block canvassing in Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeted nonsheltered outdoor location (TNSOL): A geographically identifiable outdoor location, open to the elements, where there is evidence that people might be living without paying to stay and without receiving services at soup kitchens, shelters, or mobile food vans. The sites must have a specific location description that allows a census enumeration team to physically locate the site; for example, “under Brooklyn Bridge at the corner of Bristol Drive” or “700 block of Taylor Street behind Smith Warehouse.” These locations are enumerated during service-based enumeration. Excludes pay-for-use campgrounds, drop-in centers, post offices, hospital emergency rooms, and commercial sites (including all-night theaters and all-night diners). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Targeting database: See planning database.
• Technologies Management Office (TMO): Census Bureau. Develops and implements computer assisted data collection and related support operations. Oversees the development of automated instruments for computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) applications. Serves as liaison with production software contractors. Coordinates the activities of the data collection centers. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Technology Administration (TA): Department of Commerce. Serves the needs of technology-based industry. It includes three major organizations: the Office of Technology Policy, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and National Technical Information Service. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Telecommunications Office (TCO): Census Bureau. Provides telecommunications support throughout the Census Bureau, including support for Field Division surveys, and provides external customers with access to the Internet. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Telephone followup (TFU): Telephone contact from a local census office or a data capture center to an occupied housing unit to complete or correct inadequate entries for mail-return questionnaires that failed an edit. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Telephone interview (reverse CATI): When the assistance provided by the menu-driven recording in Telephone Questionnaire Assistance is not sufficient in assisting a caller to complete his or her census questionnaire, a census operator offers to take an interview over the telephone. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Telephone Questionnaire Assistance (TQA): A service provided by telephone centers contracted by the Census Bureau to answer questions about Census 2000 or the census questionnaire. People could call six foreign-language toll-free telephone numbers (English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog) to obtain assistance with filling out their questionnaires, obtain replacement questionnaires, obtain language assistance guides, or provide their census questionnaire information. Interactive voice recognition (a menu-driven recording) offered a first level of assistance, and a live census operator offered a second level of assistance. The National Processing Center’s telephone center offered Telephone Device for the Deaf. The telephone centers could support approximately 11 million calls. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Field Verification (TQA FV): An operation to verify the existence and residential status of addresses given to the Census Bureau from the TQA operation. Addresses verified by an enumerator were added to the Master Address File. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tenure: The status of an occupied housing unit as either owner-occupied or renter-occupied. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Test census: A partial or complete census of population and housing that the Census Bureau conducts in selected areas prior to a full-scale census to test the validity and effectiveness of a variety of operations, including alternatives. See dress rehearsal. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• TIGER: See Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing database. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• TIGER Improvement Program (TIP): An operation that provided local and tribal governments and regional and metropolitan agencies in mailout/mailback areas the opportunity to assist the Census Bureau in locating and updating street features, street names, and address ranges in the TIGER database. This information enabled the Census Bureau to link U.S. Postal Service addresses with the TIGER database. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• TIGER/Line file: A computer-readable extract of the TIGER database that the Census Bureau makes available to the public. It contains data representing the position of roads and streets, railroads, bodies of water, boundaries of legal and statistical entities, and other visible and invisible features, along with selected attributes (names, address ranges, geographic codes, census feature class codes, and the like). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Title 13 (U.S. Code): The law under which the Census Bureau operates. The law guarantees the confidentiality of census information, and establishes penalties for disclosing this information. It also provides the authorization for conducting censuses in Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tool kit: Special census methods and procedures available for improving cooperation or enumeration in hard-to-enumerate areas. These are not normally scheduled operation, but are available to the regional census centers as needed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing database (TIGER database): A digital (computer-readable) geographic database that automates the mapping and related geographic activities required to support the Census Bureau’s census and survey programs. The database contains a digital representation of all census-required map features (streets and roads; railroads; hydrographic features, such as rivers and lakes; boundaries of legal, statistical, and data collection entities; etc.) and the attributes associated with each feature and geographic entity (name, city-style address ranges, map spots and map spot numbers, appropriate codes, etc.). It is stored in multiple partitions (counties or portions of counties), which together represent all the territory covered by the decennial census-the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas-as a single seamless data inventory. Previously referred to as the TIGER File. TIGER was preceded by the GBF/DIME (Geographic Base File/Dual Independent Map Encoding) Files and Address Coding Guides (ACGs). See TIGER/Line file. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing System (TIGER System): The TIGER database plus the specifications, procedures, computer programs, and related source (input) files and materials required to build, use, and maintain it. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Touchtone data entry (TDE): An automated data capture technology that allows a respondent, using the keypad of a touchtone telephone, to reply to computer generated prompts. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Town: A type of minor civil division in the New England states, New York, and Wisconsin; a type of incorporated place in 30 states and the Virgin Islands of the United States. In New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota, towns are incorporated places that are not part of any minor civil division, and the Census Bureau treats them as county subdivisions as well as places for data presentation purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Township: A type of minor civil division in 16 states. In some states, many or all townships are nonfunctioning entities. In Michigan, some townships are legally designated as “charter townships.” (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tract: See census tract.
• Tract number: See census tract number.
• Traditional census: See list/enumerate.
• Traffic analysis zone (TAZ): A statistical entity delineated by state and/or local transportation officials for tabulating traffic-related data-especially journey-to-work and place-of-work statistics-from a decennial census. A TAZ usually consists of one or more census blocks, block groups, or census tracts. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Trailer park: See mobile home/trailer park.
• Transient location: Living quarters for people who have no usual home elsewhere. They were enumerated during Transient Night Enumeration. Examples include YMCAs, YWCAs, campgrounds at racetracks, recreational vehicle campgrounds and parks, commercial and public campgrounds, fairs and carnivals, and marinas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Transient Night (T-Night): A type of group quarters enumeration in which special procedures are used to count people at transient locations, such as campgrounds at racetracks, recreational vehicle campgrounds and parks, commercial and public campgrounds, fairs and carnivals, and marinas. Enumerators conduct a personal interview using a (Simplified) Enumerator Questionnaire. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Transitional shelter: A shelter providing a maximum stay for clients of up to two years and offering support services to promote self-sufficiency and to help clients obtain permanent housing. See emergency shelter; hotels, motels, and other facilities; regularly scheduled mobile food van; shelter for children who are runaways, neglected, or without housing; and soup kitchen. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tribal block group (tribal BG): A block group within a tribal census tract. Where a census tract numbered in the 9400 series crosses a county line, a tribal BG may be located on both sides of that boundary. See block group and tribal census tract. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tribal census tract: A census tract or a portion of a census tract located within a federally recognized American Indian reservation and/or off-reservation trust land. Thus, the boundary of a federally recognized American Indian reservation and off-reservation trust land is always a tribal census tract boundary. Some of these census tracts are numbered in the 9400 series, primarily if they cross a county line. See census tract and tribal block group. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tribal designated statistical area (TDSA): A statistical entity delineated for the Census Bureau by a federally recognized American Indian tribe that does not have a land base (a federally recognized reservation or off-reservation trust land). A TDSA generally encompasses a compact and contiguous area that contains a concentration of people who identify with a federally recognized American Indian tribe and in which there is structured or organized tribal activity. A TDSA may not include area within an American Indian reservation, off-reservation trust land, Oklahoma tribal statistical area, state designated American Indian statistical area, or Alaska Native village statistical area. For the 1990 census, it could not cross a state line, but it may do so for Census 2000. For the 1990 census, TDSAs included state recognized tribes without a land base; these are now called state designated American Indian statistical areas. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tribal jurisdiction statistical area (TJSA): See Oklahoma tribal statistical area.
• Tribal Review Program: A Census Bureau program that in 1997 enabled officials of all federally recognized American Indian tribes with a land base and the tribes in Oklahoma to review and update the Census Bureau maps for their areas. Beginning with the 1998 Boundary and Annexation Survey, federal tribes with a land base were included in that survey. Other programs involving map review for American Indian/Alaska Native areas included Address Listing Map Review, Block Definition Project, Boundary and Annexation Survey, Census Map Preview, and Local Update of Census Addresses. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Tribal subdivision: See American Indian tribal subdivision.
• Trust land: See American Indian off-reservation trust land.
• Turnover rate: The total number of enumerators who quit during a field operation divided by the total number of enumerators hired for that operation. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Two Pass: A data capture procedure in which the hundred percent data are keyed from image in a first pass and the sample data are keyed from image in a second pass. The objective was to ensure collection of the hundred percent data prior to operational deadlines. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Type of enumeration area (TEA): A classification identifying how the Census Bureau obtained addresses for, and subsequently took the decennial census of, a census collection block. The TEA for a block could be changed after a precensus operation. The Census Bureau identified nine TEAs for Census 2000. Examples of TEAs include: • block canvassing, and then mailout/mailback areas • address listing, and then update/leave areas • list/enumerate areas (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA): A U.S. Postal Service notification that a mailing piece could not be delivered to the designated address. Formerly called a Postmaster Return. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Undeliverable-as-Addressed Redistribution: An operation that was a cooperative effort between the Census Bureau and the U.S. Postal Service to attempt to have Census Bureau field staff redistribute a portion of the questionnaire packages that the U.S. Postal Service could not deliver because of incorrect ZIP Codes, lack of residential delivery in the area, and other reasons. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Unit designation: The number or letter of a specific unit in a multi-unit structure, such as Apt 101, 102; Apt A, B, C; or Basement, Left, Lower, Right, Upper. Also refers to a lot number in a mobile home/trailer park. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• United States (U.S., US): The 50 states and the District of Columbia. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• United States Geological Survey (USGS): U.S. Government. Provides reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth, especially the United States, including preparation of topographic, geologic, and other maps; to minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; and to manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• United States Postal Service (USPS): U.S. Government. The organization responsible for delivering pre-addressed questionnaires in mailout/mailback areas for Census 2000 and the producer of the Delivery Sequence File and associated files. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Unorganized territory (UT): In a state in which the Census Bureau provides data for minor civil divisions (MCDs), the portion of a county that is not included in a legally established MCD or in an incorporated place that is independent of an MCD. For data presentation purposes, the Census Bureau recognizes such area as one or more separate county subdivisions, each designated as an unorganized territory. See county subdivision and statistical entity. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Update/enumerate (U/E): A method of data collection conducted in communities with special enumeration needs and where many housing units may not have house-number-and-street-name mailing addresses. Enumerators canvassed assignment areas to update residential addresses, including adding living quarters that were not included on the address listing pages, update Census Bureau maps, and complete a questionnaire for each housing unit. For Census 2000, these areas included selected American Indian reservations, colonias (small, usually rural Spanish-speaking communities), and resort areas with high concentrations of seasonally vacant living quarters. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Update/leave (U/L): A method of data collection in which enumerators canvassed assignment areas to deliver a census questionnaire to each housing unit. At the same time, enumerators updated the address listing pages and Census Bureau maps. The household was asked to complete and return the questionnaire by mail. This method was used primarily in areas where many homes do not receive mail at a city-style address; that is, the majority of United States households not included in mailout/mailback. Update/leave was used for all of Puerto Rico in Census 2000. See urban update/leave. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban: For Census 2000, all territory, population, and housing units in urbanized areas and urban clusters. Because “urban” and “rural” are delineated independent of any other geographic entity, the urban classification may cut across other geographic entities; for example, there is generally both urban and rural territory within both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Prior to Census 2000, “urban” referred to all territory, population, and housing units located within urbanized areas and, outside of urbanized areas, most incorporated places with a population of 2,500 or more. See rural and urban area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban area: A generic term that refers to both urbanized areas and urban clusters. This terminology is new for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban cluster (UC): A densely settled area that has a census population of 2,500 to 49,999. This entity is new for Census 2000. See central place, urban area and urbanized area. NOTE: Any urban area delineated in Guam is classified as an urban cluster regardless of its population size. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban growth area, urban growth boundary (UGA, UGB): In Oregon, an “urban growth boundary” is delineated around each incorporated place or a group of incorporated places by state and local officials, and subsequently confirmed in state law, to control urban development. The U.S. Census Bureau refers to the resulting geographic entities as “urban growth areas” (UGAs). UGAs are new for Census 2000. (“Urban growth boundary” is a legal term; “urban growth area” is a Census Bureau term.) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban update/enumerate (UU/E): A 1990 census method of data collection within mailout/mailback areas in selected cities to enumerate blocks occupied almost entirely by boarded-up structures. Enumerators completed a census questionnaire for each occupied and inhabitable vacant housing unit, and updated their address registers and Census Bureau maps. The Census Bureau did not use this type of enumeration for Census 2000. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urban update/leave (UU/L): A method of data collection used in selected mailout/mailback collection blocks where mail delivery may be a problem, such as apartment buildings where the mail carrier may leave the questionnaires in a common area. Enumerators canvassed each block, delivered census questionnaires for residents to complete and mail, and updated their address registers and Census Bureau maps. See update/leave. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Urbanized area (UA): A densely settled area that has a census population of at least 50,000. See central place, urban areas and urban cluster. NOTE: Any urban area delineated in Guam is classified as an urban cluster regardless of its population size (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• User-Defined Areas Program (UDAP): A 1990 census program that provided data for geographic areas that did not correspond to standard census geographic areas. Users identified the geographic areas of interest to them by compiling census blocks. The Census Bureau then performed special tabulations to create a set of predefined tables of information for these areas. The Bureau charged a fee for compiling the data. For Census 2000, in many cases, the data user can obtain or create the needed data via the American FactFinder (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Usual home elsewhere (UHE): A housing unit that is temporarily occupied by one or more people who have a usual residence elsewhere. The unit is classified as vacant, and the residents are counted at their usual residence. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Usual residence: The living quarters where a person spends more nights during a year than any other place. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Vacant housing unit: A housing unit in which no one is living on Census Day, unless its occupants are only temporarily absent. Units temporarily occupied at the time of enumeration by individuals who have a usual home elsewhere are classified as vacant. (Transient quarters, such as hotels, are housing units only if occupied. Thus, there are no vacant housing units at hotels and the like.) New units not yet occupied are classified as vacant housing units if construction has reached a point where all exterior windows and doors are installed and final usable floors are in place. Vacant units are excluded from the housing unit inventory if they are open to the elements, have a posted “condemned” sign, or are used entirely for nonresidential purposes (except storage of household furniture). (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Village: A type of incorporated place in 20 states and American Samoa. All villages in New Jersey, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and some villages in Ohio, are incorporated places that are not part of any minor civil division, and the Census Bureau treats them as county subdivisions for data preparation purposes. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Visible feature: A feature that can be seen on the ground, such as a street or road, railroad track, power line, stream, shoreline, fence, ridge, or cliff. A visible feature can be a manmade (cultural) or natural (physical) feature. See map feature and invisible feature. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Voice recognition entry (VRE): An automated data capture technology that allows a respondent, speaking over a telephone, to reply to computer generated prompts. It is a component in the modular data management network maintained by the Computer Assisted Survey Research Office. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Voting district (VTD): The generic name for a geographic entity, such as an election district, precinct, or ward, established by state, local, and tribal governments for the purpose of conducting elections. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Voting District Project (VTDP): This is the second phase of the Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Program for Census 2000. It provided state officials with the opportunity to identify the state legislative districts-for each house of their legislative body, if appropriate-and the voting districts or similar areas for which they want the Bureau to provide census data. See Block Boundary Suggestion Project, Public Law 94-171, Redistricting Data Program, voting district. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Walk-in questionnaire assistance center: A site, such as a post office, library, store, shopping mall, school, community center, or other place that people frequent, where unaddressed questionnaires, called Be Counted forms, were offered in an attempt to ensure everyone had an opportunity to be counted in Census 2000. The centers were staffed by volunteers and Census Bureau employees. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Whole household usual home elsewhere (WHUHE): See usual home elsewhere.
• Wide area network (WAN): A group of computers linked within a network, such as, the Census Bureau’s regional offices, to exchange and share information. A local area network may link computers within a building or among several buildings, whereas a WAN covers more area and distance. See local area network. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Within-Block Search: A Census 2000 operation that searched within a census block for a person record for the same person appearing on two or more questionnaires. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Work breakdown structure (WBS): An organized list, in outline form, of all tasks needed to complete a project. For the Master Activity Schedule, the tasks are organized by major programs or functions. All Census 2000 program documentation and planning are keyed to this. For example, the scope and content of the Program Master Plans are keyed to lines in the WBS, and documents in the Census 2000 library are referenced to the WBS. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP+4: A 4-digit code that follows a 5-digit ZIP Code established by the U.S. Postal Service for the purpose of expediting and automating mail delivery. The 9-digit code generally identifies a small postal delivery area, such as one side of a street segment, an entire cul-de-sac or similar dead-end street, a group of post office boxes, a floor within a commercial building, or a division within a company. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP Code: An administrative unit established by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for the distribution of mail. It is a 5-, 7-, 9-, or 11-digit code assigned by the USPS to a street or portion of a street, a collection of streets, a business or other establishment or structure, or a group of post office boxes to expedite the delivery of mail. The Census Bureau used only 5-digit ZIP Codes for the addresses and address ranges in most Census 2000 operations. ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan. See ZIP Code area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP Code area: The addresses served by a 5-digit ZIP Code established by the U.S. Postal Service to expedite the delivery of mail. Most ZIP Codes do not have specific boundaries, and their implied boundaries do not necessarily follow clearly identifiable visible or invisible map features; also, the carrier routes for one ZIP Code may intertwine with those of one or more other ZIP Codes, and therefore this “area” is more conceptual than geographic. See ZIP+4, ZIP Code, ZIP Code tabulation area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• ZIP Code tabulation area (ZCTA): A statistical entity developed by the Census Bureau to approximate the delivery area for a U.S. Postal Service 5-digit ZIP Code, based on the residential mailing addresses in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File. ZCTAs are aggregations of census blocks that have the same predominant ZIP Code associated with their addresses. Thus, the Postal Service’s delivery areas have been adjusted to encompass whole census blocks so that the Census Bureau can tabulate census data for the ZCTAs. Where the Census Bureau did not have 5-digit ZIP Code information, it used 3-digit codes followed by a suffix of HH for water area and XX for land area so that a ZCTA would be assigned to every block in the United States and Pureto Rico. The 3-digit ZCTAs for the dress rehearsal used two blank spaces instead of suffixes. ZCTAs do not include all ZIP Codes used for mail delivery. The Bureau first created ZCTAs for the Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal census. See ZIP Code, ZIP Code area. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Zona urbana (ZU): In Puerto Rico, a census designated place consisting of the municipio seat of government and the adjacent builtup area. A zona urbana cannot cross its municipio’s boundary. See census designated place and comunidad. (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
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