Background

Program (SCHIP). The existence of the Master Address File (MAF) provides a potentially more cost efficient frame option for these surveys. The Census Bureau is currently conducting evaluations to support the goal of using a MAF-based frame to replace the current multiple frames for the 2010 Demographic Survey Redesign. The current frames include a unit frame, a group quarters (GQ) frame, a permit frame, and an area frame. The unit frame and the GQ frame cover addresses of housing units and group quarters that existed during the time of Census 2000 in blocks that had a high percent complete addresses, i.e., addresses that had a house number, a street name, and a zip code, and had building permit coverage. The permit frame obtains addresses from building permit offices (BPOs) to capture new construction after Census 2000 in blocks that had building permit coverage. For the remaining universe that is primarily in rural areas, an area frame approach is used. The current area frame covers approximately 12 % of the addresses in the U.S. The field operations used to collect addresses for the permit frame and the area frame are expensive. The MAF is an inventory of addresses for all known living quarters in the United States and Puerto Rico and is maintained by the Census Bureau. The MAF is updated by operations related to decennial censuses, by the Delivery Sequence File (DSF) from the United States Postal Service every six months, and also b