The fifth cell

The fifth cell

Report Number
570
Authors
K.W. Wachter and D.A. Freedman
Citation
EJP Vol 5 (2000) Paper 12
Abstract

One form of error that can affect census adjustments is correlation bias, reflecting people who are doubly missing-- from the census and from the adjusted counts as well. This paper presents a method for estimating the total national number of doubly-missing people and their distribution by race and sex. Application to the 1990 U.S. census adjustment leads to an estimate of 3 million doubly-missing people. Correlation bias is likely to be a serious problem for census adjustment in 2000. The methods of this paper are well suited for measuring its magnitude.

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