Coverage and content errors in the 1980 U.S. Decennial Census

Abstract

The U.S. Census Bureau has two main programs for estimating the coverage of the population in the 1980 census. Preliminary estimates from these programs show improvement in coverage over the 1970 census, particularly for the Black population. Even so, the preliminary estimates show that the coverage of Blacks and Hispanics is still poorer than the coverage of Whites. The Census Bureau will continue to examine the use of different undercount measurement and adjustment techniques to determine whether it can develop a valid procedure for adjustment of the census counts. It also conducts reinterview, matching, and record-check studies of the quality of the data it collects. Most of these studies are in their preliminary stages and final results have not been released yet. While no major data quality problems are apparent, there are some inconsistencies in the data and the Bureau will examine these further as it plans for the 1990 census.