Evaluation of a Reconstruction of the Adjusted 1990 Census for Florida

Meyer and Kadane (1992) report a method for reconstructing the adjusted population (by age, race, and sex) for the half of the census blocks in Florida not made available to them. This article studies the full adjusted data set, which is now available, to examine how well the original reconstruction was done. This is a rare opportunity to learn the exact value of quantities estimated. The results show that the largest difference between the Meyer and Kadane (1992) approximation and the adjusted counts at the Congressional district level was 79 persons for one district. Thus, the approximation could have been used instead of the unavailable adjusted census, had the redistricting decision-makers so chosen.