How prenotice letters, stamped return envelopes and reminder postcards affect mailback response rates for census questionnaires - ARCHIVED

In a 1992 National Test Census the mailing sequence of a prenotice letter, census form, reminder postcard, and replacement census form resulted in an overall mailback response of 63.4 percent. The response was substantially higher than the 49.2 percent response rate obtained in the 1986 National Content Test Census, which also utilized a replacement form mailing. Much of this difference appeared to be the result of the prenotice - census form - reminder sequence, but the extent to which each main effect and interactions contributed to overall response was not known. This paper reports results from the 1992 Census Implementation Test, a test of the individual and combined effectiveness of a prenotice letter, a stamped return envelope and a reminder postcard, on response rates. This was a national sample of households (n = 50,000) conducted in the fall of 1992. A factorial design was used to test all eight possible combinations of the main effects and interactions. Logistic regression and multiple comparisons were employed to analyze test results.