Estimation Issues for the Continuous Measurement Survey

The Continuous Measurement Survey (CMS) is a proposed monthly survey whose content will be roughly equivalent to the decennial census long form or sample data. During each calendar year it will include sample housing units and special places from all block groups in the nation. Monthly sample size will be 400,000 for the first three years, then decrease to 250,000 in year four. The data collection for each month's sample will take place in three phases: self-response by mailout/mail return; computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for mail nonresponse addresses whose phone numbers can be obtained; and computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) for a subsample of the remaining nonresponse units. Approximately one month would be allowed for each of these phases. Housing unit (HU) status will be defined as of the time of first response: either mail return, CATI contact or CAPI contact. Nonrespondents are defined as of the time of attempted CAPI interview.