This assessment 2010 Census Island Areas Assessment: Preparing for and Conducting the Field Operations looks at the management of data collection operations conducted in the Island Areas and the efforts leading up to the data collection.

The U.S. Census Bureau has conducted a census of each outlying area of the United States’ for over a century. In previous censuses, a Memorandum of Agreement with the Census Bureau and each Island Areas’ government was used to provide funding to conduct the census. For the 2010 Census, contracts were deemed the appropriate vehicle for negotiating agreements. T he Census Bureau contracted with local government agencies to conduct the 2010 Census of the Island Areas. The Local Census Offices — two in the United States Virgin Islands, and one each in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam — were opened and operated under the auspices of separate sole-source contracts.

Field operations in the Island Areas consisted of a blanket mailing of questionnaires to residential postal patrons. This was followed by a List/Enumerate methodology designed to have an enumerator visit, list an address or location description, spot on a paper map each living quarters in the area, and collect a completed questionnaire or conduct an interview. The Island Areas were the only areas that used List/Enumerate for the 2010 Census.