Census Bureau’s 

Data Linkage Infrastructure 

for program evaluation

October 25, 2022

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology 

Carla Medalia, U.S. Census Bureau

carla.medalia@census.gov

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DGWG report: leverage existing survey and 

administrative data

• Agencies should leverage existing survey and administrative data whenever possible when developing and 

executing program evaluation

• Particularly useful to enable large scale observational studies 

• Enables consistent program evaluation across agencies and facilitates comparisons across variety of 

programs

• Reduces burden of aid awardees when reporting on the work they did with the federal funds

• Allows agencies to answer questions otherwise not possible to answer

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Census Bureau survey 

and census data

People and households

Businesses, governments, and 

economy

Administrative data

Federal

State and local

Third party and commercial

Data linkage

Address level

Organization level

Person level

Legal framework and data 

governance

U.S. Code Title 13

Secure computing environments

Census Bureau’s 

Data Linkage 

Infrastructure

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Census Bureau survey 

and census data

People and households

Businesses, governments and economy

Administrative data

Federal

State/local

Third party/commercial

Data linkage

Address level

Business/organization level

Person level

Legal framework and data 

governance

U.S. Code Title 13

Secure computing environments

Census Bureau’s Data 

Linkage 

Infrastructure

Support high-quality research and 

evaluation, advancing the Census 

Bureau's mission of providing timely 

and unbiased data to support 

evidence-based decision making

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Census data: people and households

Sources

• Decennial censuses

• American Community Survey

• Current Population Survey 

• Survey of Income and Program 

Participation

• American Housing Survey 

Uses

• Sociodemographic characteristics

• Income, poverty, health insurance

• Labor force, occupation, industries

• Data linked over time

• Individuals, families, households

• Geographic information down to 

Census blocks

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Census data: businesses, governments,

and economy

Sources

• Economic Censuses

• Census of Governments

• Firm Surveys

• Establishment Surveys

• Transaction or Trade data

• Longitudinal Employer-Household 

Dynamics (LEHD)

Uses

• Microdata about all U.S. businesses: 

precise geolocations

• Microdata about large samples of U.S. 

business: geolocations, payroll, tax 

records, foreign investments 

• Detailed geographies and industries

• Data linked over time

• Employee and employer linked data

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Administrative data

Federal data

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Bureau of Prisons

Corporation for National and Community Service

Department of Defense

Department of Veteran’s Affairs

Health and Human Services

Housing and Urban Development

Indian Health Service

Internal Revenue Service

Office of Personnel Management

Selective Service System

Small Business Administration

Social Security Administration

U.S. Postal Service

State/local data

Unemployment Insurance

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Women, Infants, and Children

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Low Income Energy Assistance Program

Child Care Subsidy

Homeless Management Information System

Alaska Permanent Fund

Puerto Rico tax data

California tax data

University education data

Criminal Justice Administrative Records System

Third party/commercial data

Mortgage/address data

Contact frame

Property and tax foreclosure

Note: data access subject to approval 7
Data linkage quality depends on PII/BII

Linkage type Linkage method Linkage fields to collect

Address linkage Master Address File Match 

(MAFMATCH)

Full address; coordinates for point of service delivery

Organization linkage TF-IDF (term frequencyinverse document 

frequency), MAMBA

Businesses/non-profits: For both establishment and 

firm collect: EIN, business name, mailing address, 

physical location address, NAICS, company web 

address, UEI, SSN (owner of sole proprietorship)

Governments: name, address, UEI, web address

Person linkage Person Identification 

Validation System (PVS)

Full name (first, middle, last, suffix), complete date of 

birth (age is acceptable but less optimal), full address, 

sex, SSN/ITIN (for administrative records with authority 

to collect)

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Legal framework and 

data governance

• Legal Framework: U.S.C. Title 13

• § 6. Acquire and utilize records to the greatest extent possible

• § 8. Reimbursable studies and joint statistical projects

• § 9. Protect confidential individual and establishment data, limit access, and statistical uses

• § 23(c). Swear in researchers to assist the Census Bureau

• § 214. Wrongful disclosure of information

• Data governance infrastructure

• Data stewardship, disclosure review

• Anonymized data

• Secure computing environments

Protecting Accessing

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Census Bureau’s Data Linkage Infrastructure 

enables measurement of program impacts

• Direct program impacts: defined in legislation 

• Indirect program impacts: second-order effects

• Example: NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) 

Program

• Direct: broadband built

• Indirect: access to internet; educational attainment; commuting patterns

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Prototype library of indirect program impact 

metrics

Category Measure Data source name

Demographic Population characteristics American Community Survey, decennial census

Demographic/ business Business and owner characteristics Annual Business Survey, Nonemployer Statistics by 

Demographics

Economic indicators New business starts Business Formation Statistics and Business Dynamics 

Statistics

Economic indicators Manufacturing Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders 

(M3)

Environment/ Climate Coastal communities and 

businesses

American Community Survey; Annual Business 

Survey; Business Register

Jobs Labor force participation rate Current Population Survey, American Community 

Survey

Other economic Tax revenues Census of Governments

Socioeconomic Poverty Rate CPS ASEC, ACS, administrative data

Underserved communities 

index

At-risk neighborhoods Community Resilience Estimates

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