From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Watchdog Report: Looking Back on the 2010 Census

Audio interview by GAO staff with Robert Goldenkoff, Director, Strategic
Issues

Related GAO Work: GAO-11-193: 2010 Census: Data Collection Activities
Were Generally Completed as Planned, but Longstanding Challenges Suggest
Need for Fundamental Reforms

Released on: December 14, 2010

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[ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and
information from the Government Accountability Office. It's December 14,
2010. The constitution requires the federal government to count the
population of the United States every 10 years. The most recent of these
enumerations, the 2010 census, has just come to a close. A group led by
Robert Goldenkoff, a director in GAO's Strategic Issues team, reviewed
the challenges that arose in this latest census. GAO's Jeremy Cluchey
sat down with Robert to learn more. 

[ Jeremy: ] The 2010 census enumeration process is finally over. How did
the count go?

[ Robert Goldenkoff: ] Well, the data collection phase was an
operational success. And by that, I mean, the bureau met its goals of
recruiting 3.8 million census workers. The bureau completed key
activities on schedule, which is important for making certain data
reporting dates at the end of the census. Nonresponse follow up, which
is the largest and costliest and most complex of the Census Bureau's
operations, was also completed on schedule and it was also completed
under budget. I also want to make a distinction between some of the
operational successes and operational measures that I just cited, and
then the quality of the count. While we have information on how the key
census activities performed, the data on the quality of the count won't
be known, probably, until sometime in 2012—and by quality, I mean the
accuracy of the count.

[ Jeremy: ] You mentioned some of the more expensive components of this
decade's census; and one thing that made the 2010 census distinctive was
the fact that it was the costliest census in the nation's history,
coming in at about $13 billion. What were some of the major factors that
contributed to this cost?

[ Robert Goldenkoff: ] Well, you would always expect to see some cost
growth from census to census, mainly because the population increases
with each decennial, and so the Census Bureau just has a greater
workload. And there were two very broad reasons for this: One is
external challenges, and that is just that the nation is getting more
difficult to count. People are speaking more languages, the population
is more diverse. And so as a result of that, the Census Bureau just has
to do more to make sure everybody gets included. So, to give you an
example of that, the Census Bureau hired 3,000 partnership specialists
in 2010—and these are people who help with promoting the census and
reaching out to different populations—so they hired 3,000 partnership
specialists for 2010, compared to 600 in 2000. They had materials
available in 124 languages in 2010, versus 35 in 2000. Advertising, the
Census Bureau did more of that, so they spent $297 million in 2010,
versus $240 million in 2000. And so that's just some of the external
challenges that the bureau needs to address that drive up the costs. But
then, the Census Bureau in 2010 also experienced a number of internal
challenges. One of them was the reliability of the key IT systems. So,
what really needs to be done is that the bureau needs to rethink its
fundamental approach to taking the census, really revisit the basic
methodology. It's also important to note that a complete and accurate
census will always be a difficult challenge. There's 120, 130 million
housing units out there that need to be counted. The nation's population
is growing larger, more diverse and more reluctant to participate in the
census. So whether or not the 2020 census will be on our high-risk list,
you know, certainly we hope not. And there's certain steps that the
bureau can take to position itself so that it will be in a better
position at the end of the decade to stay off the high-risk list. For
example, early and very rigorous planning will be essential. Operational
reforms, refinements to existing operations will be necessary.
Re-examining the entire approach to taking the census, which was already
mentioned. And then also, management and cultural changes need to take
place. These are just things within the Census Bureau that could help it
conduct a more successful census. And then I also, it will also be
important for Congress to do its part through regular oversight.

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[ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO's Web site at gao.gov and be sure
to tune in to the next edition of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from
the congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office.