views expressed on statistical, methodological, and operational issues are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau. Framework for Census Coverage Error Components

A major goal and challenge for coverage measurement in 2010 is to design a survey that measures the components of coverage error, namely erroneous enumerations and omissions. The Census Bureau’s previous coverage measurement surveys were designed primarily to estimate net census error using Dual System Estimation (DSE). To improve the accuracy of estimates of net error, the Census Bureau’s DSE has relied on balancing some of the components of error, meaning some census omissions offset some erroneous inclusions in a manner that preserved the net error. As a result, the process produced inflated estimates of omissions and erroneous inclusions. This paper provides a framework for overcoming these inflated estimates of component errors. It also explicitly defines the individual components of error and how these components relate to traditional net error concepts