The CPS-Census Retrospective study took one rotation panel (about one-eighth of the full sample) from the March 1977 CPS and searched the census to determine a match status for the sample persons. In order to determine a match status, the person had to be found in the 1980 census or the person had to be contacted to verify the person’s address on census day. The main purpose of this study is to examine the no match rates and the not traced rates for this measurement method. Tracing is the ability to find someone after the original contact.

There were five stages in determining a match status for each person. The first stage searched for the people at their March 1977 address in the census files. If they were not found in the census at their 1977 address, the second stage searched for a new address in the 1979 IRS/IMF. Only matched persons or persons out of scope can be determined from the first two stages, since a person not found may live at a different address April 1, 1980. The third stage was mail follow-up where each household was mailed a questionnaire and was asked to mail it back to the Census Bureau. Nonresponse and postmaster returns from mail follow-up were sent to telephone follow-up, the fourth stage. A person could be determined to be a match, no match, refusal, or out of scope case at stages three or four when a 1980 address was obtained. Step five was field follow-up. For those contacted the person could be categorized as above. After the five stages there was still a group of people who the Census Bureau could not find and contact after field follow-up. These were the not traced cases.

Table 1 shows the number of sample persons assigned a code of matched, no matched, no interviewed, not traced and out of scope for each of the five operations.