Book Description

The numbers contained in this study are released pursuant to the order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Carter v. Department of Commerce, 307 F.3d 1084. These numbers are not official Census 2000 counts. These numbers are estimates of the population based on a statistical adjustment method, utilizing sampling and modeling, applied to the official Census 2000 figures. The estimates utilized the results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.), a sample survey intended to measure net over- and undercounts in the census results. The Census Bureau has determined that the A.C.E. estimates dramatically overstate the level of undercoverage in Census 2000, and that the adjusted Census 2000 data are, therefore, not more accurate than the unadjusted data. On March 6, 2001, the Secretary of Commerce decided that unadjusted data from Census 2000 should be used to tabulate population counts reported to states and localities pursuant to 13 U.S.C. 141(c) (see 66 FR 14520, March 13, 2001). The Secretary's decision endorsed the unanimous recommendation of the Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy (ESCAP), a group of 12 senior career professionals within the Census Bureau. The ESCAP, in its recommendation against the use of the statistically adjusted estimates, had noted serious reservations regarding their accuracy. In order to inform the Census Bureau's planned October 2001 decision regarding the potential use of the adjusted estimates for non-redistricting purposes, the agency conducted extensive analyses throughout the summer of 2001. These extensive analyses confirmed the serious concerns the agency had noted earlier regarding the accuracy of the A.C.E. estimates. Specifically, the adjusted estimates were determined to be so severely flawed that all potential uses of these data would be inappropriate. Accordingly, the Department of Co ... Cf. : http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-STUDY/13400.xml.