NORC to Evaluate 2010 Census Communications Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact

Cathleen Savage

(301) 634-9411

BETHESDA, MD – National Opinion Research Center announced today that the Census Bureau has awarded NORC a contract to design and conduct an independent evaluation of the communications campaign for the 2010 Decennial Census. Because the communications campaign is a major public expenditure that has great potential to affect the quality and cost of the Census, a rigorous and independent evaluation of the campaign is essential to assess its success and plan for the 2020 Census.

The 2010 Census, the Census Integrated Communications Campaign will use a mix of mass media advertising, media outreach to specific populations, national and local partnerships, grassroots marketing, school-based programs, and special events designed to ensure that everyone, especially the hard to count, is reached.

The NORC evaluation will allow stakeholders to determine if the significant investment in the 2010 communications plan was justified by such outcomes as reduced non-response follow-up burden, reduced differential undercount, and increased cooperation with enumerators. It is designed as a multi-method approach that will increase the depth and breadth of evidence available for the assessment and will support valid, robust, and actionable conclusions about the impact of the communication plan.

The evaluation will determine whether the communications campaign achieved its three primary goals:

increasing the mail response rate
improving the overall accuracy of the 2010 Census by reducing differential undercounting of population by race/ethnicity; and
improving cooperation with census enumerators by directly and indirectly influencing public awareness, attitudes, intentions, and ultimate behaviors.

In selected markets, the Census Bureau will purchase additional advertising and NORC will measure self-reported campaign awareness and exposure and Census attitudes and knowledge as a way to further evaluate the impact of the increased media buys. For comparison, NORC will collect the same data in similar markets for which no additional advertising was purchased.

Chet Bowie, Senior Vice President of NORC’s Economics, Labor and Population Studies Department, will serve as the project director for the evaluation.

For more information about NORC and its mission, visit http://www.norc.org.