Using Administrative Records to Evaluate Survey Data

After the 2010 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau conducted two separate research projects matching survey data to databases. One study matched to the third-party database Accurint, and the other matched to U.S. Postal Service National Change of Address (NCOA) files. In both projects, we evaluated response error in reported move dates by comparing the self-reported move date to records in the database. We encountered similar challenges in the two projects. This paper discusses our experience using “big data” as a comparison source for survey data and our lessons learned for future projects similar to the ones we conducted.