Viewing Participation in Censuses and Surveys through the Lens of Lifestyle Segments
Viewing Participation in Censuses and Surveys through the Lens of Lifestyle Segments (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smaa006) was written by Mary H Mulry, Nancy Bates, and Matthew Virgile in 2021. It was published in the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology (vol. 9, no. 4).
The authors use Esri's proprietary Tapestry segmentation to examine survey nonresponse at the census tract level.
- "Esri’s chief demographer stated in a personal communication (May 4, 2017) that Census and survey response rates did not figure into the development of the Tapestry segments"
- 67 lifestyle segments
- available at census block group and census tract levels
The authors first examine response data from the 2015 Census Test split by segments.
- 2015 test is a soft launch of the 2020 Census self-response internet mode
They estimate the correlation of the tract-level participation rate and the LRS.
The authors then examine if segments are predictive of nonresponse in the 2010 Census and the 2013-2016 ACS.
- Regress response on LRS, segments, and interactions of them.
While LRS alone captures most of the variation (in terms of R2), segments make a modest improvement in the Census and a substantial improvement in the ACS.
- May be due to closer time proximity (2010 vs 2016)
- May be that Census' public outreach campaigns are effective at equalizing response patterns across segments