在 COVID-19 中调整美国社区调查(ACS)

美国人口普查局在提供有关国家人口和经济的统计信息方面发挥着至关重要的作用。在 COVID-19 疫情期间，人口普查局不得不调整调查和其他数据收集，以确保全国知情的同时保障工作人员和回复人员的安全。 

疫情扰乱了最全面的关于美国人口信息来源之一的数据收集 – 美国人口普查局的美国社区调查（ACS）。 

什么是美国社区调查(ACS) ？

ACS 不像人口普查那样每十年统计一次所有人口，而是每年对人口样本（约 350 万个地址）进行调查，为国家、州和社区创建统计数据，直至“街区”或社区级别。

作为一项年度调查，ACS 是许多美国最新、最可靠和容易获得的地方统计数据来源。这些统计数据在全国范围内具有可比性，并且在其他任何地方都没有。

ACS的范围延伸超过了2020年人口普查问卷上的问题，并提供了针对规划的关键信息，比如： 

• 亚裔人口和语言细分。
• 教育成就。
• 家庭和个人收入。
• 退伍军人状态。
• 就业。
• 通勤时间。
• 住房费用。
• 残疾状态。

结合人口普查，ACS 数据有助于确定每年数千亿美元的联邦和州资金是如何分配的。

我们通常如何收集数据

每个月，我们都会请大约 295,000 个住房单元地址来参与调查。我们将每个月的一组地址称为“小组”。 

我们通过两个阶段为每个小组收集数据：

• 自我回复。我们首先向每个地址发送在线回复邀请。之后，我们会向未回复的地址发送纸质问卷，让他们可以选择通过邮件回复。根据他们是否以及何时回应，一个地址可能会收到最多五封鼓励他们参与的邮件。
• 无应答跟进。如果我们没有在网上或通过邮件收到回复，我们可能会派一名现场代表访问该地址。现场代表使用笔记本电脑引导他们询问调查问题并记录答复。 

疫情对在两个阶段收集 ACS 数据都提出了挑战。   

自我回复的中断

我们从 3 月中旬到 2020 年 6 月暂停了主要活动。与通常的五封邮件不同，我们发送了两封邮件，其中包括：有关如何在线回复的信息，以及针对某些地址的纸质问卷以及针对其他地址的在线回复提醒。

2020 年 10 月，随着更多员工重返工作岗位，我们得以恢复：

• 将问卷包邮寄到当前小组中尚未回复的所有地址。 
• 发送第三封邮件提醒住户回复。

我们继续这样做，直到我们能够在2021年4 月恢复到我们的标准五封邮寄出策略。 

无应答跟进的中断

在疫情期间，我们能够继续跟进未做出回复的家庭。我们于 2020 年 7 月恢复了对我国部分地区的访问，并于2020 年 9 月在所有没有居家令的地区恢复了访问。   

对集体宿舍的影响

疫情还严重影响了我们从居住在疗养院、大学宿舍和监狱等集体宿舍的人那里收集信息的方式。我们通常依靠个人访问从集体宿舍收集数据，而与疫情相关的限制暂时停止了这些活动。

总结

为了保护我们的员工和回复人员，我们暂时关闭了许多业务：

• 向家庭邮寄信息，鼓励他们做出回复。
• 亲自跟进无反应家庭。
• 从集体宿舍收集数据。

我们能够在适应疫情挑战的同时仍然设法收集到我们通常在调查年度收集的大约三分之二的答复。

接下来的问题自然是：这对于ACS 将在今年秋季生成的详细的人口、社会、经济和住房统计数据意味着什么？

我们预计 2020 年的 ACS 统计数据可能与往年有所不同——这既是因为在如此历史性的一年中对我们国家的调查，也因为疫情对调查本身有影响。

Adapting the American Community Survey (ACS) Amid COVID-19

The U.S. Census Bureau serves a vital role in providing statistical information about the nation’s people and economy. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census Bureau has had to adapt surveys and other data collections to keep both the nation informed, and staff as well as the people who respond safe. 

The pandemic has disrupted data collection for one of the nation’s most comprehensive sources of information about the U.S. population — the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). 

What Is the American Community Survey (ACS)?

Instead of counting the entire population once a decade like the census, the ACS surveys a sample of the population (about 3.5 million addresses) every year to create statistics for the nation, states and communities down to the “tract” or neighborhood level.

As an annual survey, the ACS is the nation’s most current, reliable and accessible data source for many local statistics. These statistics are comparable across the nation, and many do not exist anywhere else.

The ACS expands beyond the questions on the 2020 Census questionnaire and provides information on critical planning topics such as:

• Asian population and language breakdown.
• Educational attainment.
• Household and personal income.
• Veterans status.
• Employment.
• Commuting time.
• Housing costs.
• Disability status.

Combined with the census, ACS data help determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and state funds are distributed each year.

How We Usually Collect Data

Each month, we ask about 295,000 housing unit addresses to participate in the survey. We call each month’s set of addresses a “panel.”

We collect data for each panel through two phases:

• Self-Response. We first mail each address an invitation to respond online. Later, we send nonresponding addresses a paper questionnaire, giving them the option of responding by mail. Depending on if and when they respond, an address may receive up to five mailings encouraging them to participate.
• Nonresponse Followup. If we don’t receive a response online or by mail, we may send a field representative to visit the address. The field representative uses a laptop to guide them through asking the survey questions and recording the responses.

The pandemic posed challenges for collecting ACS data during both phases. 

Disruptions to Self-Response

We suspended key activities from mid-March through June 2020. Instead of our usual five mailings, we sent two that included: Information on how to respond online, and paper questionnaires for some addresses and a reminder to respond online for the others.

In October 2020, as more staff returned to in-person work, we were able to resume:

• Mailing questionnaire packages to all addresses in the current panels that had not yet responded. 
• Sending a third mailing to remind households to respond.

We continued doing this until we were able to return to our standard five-mailout strategy in April 2021.

Disruptions to Nonresponse Followup

During the pandemic, we’ve been able to continue following up with households that did not respond. We resumed visits for some areas of the country in July 2020 and in all areas without stay-at-home orders in September 2020.

Impact on Group Quarters

The pandemic also significantly impacted how we collect information from people living in group quarters, such as nursing homes, college dorms and prisons. We typically rely on personal visits to collect data from group quarters, and pandemic-related restrictions temporarily halted those.

Summary

The need to protect our staff and the people who respond temporarily shut down many of our operations:

• Mailing information to households encouraging them to respond.
• Following up in person with nonresponding households.
• Collecting data from group quarters.

We were able to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic while still managing to collect about two-thirds of the responses we usually collect in a survey year.

The natural question is: What does this mean for the detailed demographic, social, economic and housing statistics that the ACS will produce this fall?

We expect the 2020 ACS statistics may look different from prior years — both because of what the survey measured about our nation during such a historic year and because of the pandemic’s effects on the survey itself.