Updates on a Research Agenda for the Sexual 

Orientation and Gender Identity Questions on 

the Experimental Household Pulse Survey

Zachary Scherer and Jacqueline Banks

U.S. Census Bureau

Presented at the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Research and Policy Conference

October 25, 2023

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This presentation is released to inform interested parties of ongoing research and to encourage discussion. Any views expressed are those of the 

authors and not those of the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has reviewed this data product to ensure appropriate access, use, and disclosure 

avoidance protection of the confidential source data used to produce this product (Data Management System (DMS) number: P-7527238, Disclosure 

Review Board (DRB) approval number: CBDRB-FY23-0282 and CBDRB-FY23-SEHSD003-045).
Outline

• Overview of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions 

on the Household Pulse Survey (HPS)

• Past research

• Research agenda

• Sexual orientation write-ins

• Record linkage

• Breakoffs

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HPS Background

• HPS remains an experimental survey.

• HPS has relatively low overall response rate (~4-7%).

• Questions asked only of respondents (i.e., no proxy response).

• Questions asked only of those aged 18 years and over.

• Self-response, online survey (no interviewer-administered option).

• Quick turnaround: data released less than two week after collection ends.

• Census Bureau dissemination policies determine granularity of products. 

• Limited time for the Census Bureau to cognitively test revisions to baseline 

SOGI items.

• SOGI items added to HPS in Cycle 34 (July 2021).

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Overview of SOGI Questions on the HPS

Sexual Orientation

Q1. Which of the following best represents how you think of yourself?

• Gay or lesbian 

• Straight, that is not gay or lesbian 

• Bisexual 

• Something else __________________ 

• I don’t know 

Write-in line for ‘something else’ included for half of respondents beginning in Cycle 52.

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Overview of SOGI Questions on the HPS

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Gender Identity

Q1. What sex were you assigned at birth, on your original birth certificate?

o Male 

o Female 

Q2. Do you currently describe yourself as male, female, or transgender?

o Male 

o Female 

o Transgender 

o None of these 

Q3. Just to confirm, you were assigned {FILL} at birth and now you describe yourself as {FILL}. Is that correct?

o Yes

o No <skip back to Q1 and/or Q2 to correct>
Existing SOGI Evaluations

• Impact of allocated sex at birth (SAB) values on transgender 

estimates.

• Performance of SAB/gender identity confirmation check.

• Question order experiment.

• Evaluation of characteristics of ‘residual’ respondents and 

nonrespondents to SOGI questions.

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Sexual Orientation Write-ins

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Sexual Orientation Write-ins: Research 

Questions

• Does the inclusion of a write-in line affect the overall distribution of 

responses to the sexual orientation question?

• What type of write-ins are being collected?

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Sexual Orientation Write-ins

• Analysis of 631 responses from Cycle 52 of the survey.

• Responses were independently coded by two people.

• Where coding differed, a third coder adjudicated the category to use for the 

response.

• Coding followed scheme used in past Census Bureau research.

• Estimates are unweighted unless noted and conclusions are not 

generalizable beyond this dataset.

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Sexual Orientation Write-ins

Distribution of sexual orientation responses by treatment

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Category Combined 

weighted

Unweighted w/o 

write-in line

Unweighted w/ 

write-in line

Gay or Lesbian 3.1% 3.3% 3.4%

Straight, that is, not 

gay or lesbian

86.7% 88.0% 87.5%

Bisexual 4.7% 4.4% 4.2%

Something else 2.1% 1.7% 1.8%

I don’t know 1.6% 1.2% 1.4%

Did not report 1.8% 1.4% 1.6%

Unweighted N 70,690 35,400 35,290

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Household Pulse Survey, Cycle 52.

No substantive differences in distributions between those receiving the question 

version with the write-in line and question version without the write-in line.
• Alternative sexual orientations (e.g., pansexual, asexual, queer) 

represented 46.8 percent of write-in responses.

• ‘Trolling’ responses represented 8.4 percent of write-in responses.

• Hard refusals represented 9.5 percent of write-in responses.

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Sexual Orientation Write-ins
Sexual Orientation Write-ins: Tentative 

Conclusions

• Addition of a write-in line does not alter distribution of responses to 

sexual orientation question and provides a space for people 

identifying as an ‘alternative’ sexual orientation to report this 

information.

• Write-in responses could be used to inform additional reporting 

categories depending on sample size of the survey.

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Record Linkage

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Record Linkage: Research Questions

• How do rates of matching to protected identification keys (PIKs) compare across 

HPS reporting categories?

• PIKs are the field that the Census Bureau uses to link respondents across datasets, and are 

assigned by pulling in a variety of attributes for respondents, including sex.

• How do HPS response distributions to the sex assigned at birth and gender 

identity questions compare to the ‘gender’ distribution from the Census 

Numident?

• What can be learned from the gender difference flag on the Census Numident

when evaluating responses to SOGI questions?

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Record Linkage

• Merged Cycles 34 through 52 of the HPS with the Census Numident

via PIKs

• Total N = approximately 900,000 that were successfully linked to a 

Numident record, omitting:

• Un-PIKed HPS records and PIKed HPS records without a matching Numident

record

• Those who appeared in the HPS multiple times and provided different sex at 

birth responses.

• Those who appeared in the HPS multiple times and provided different gender 

identity responses.

• Estimates are unweighted and conclusions are not generalizable 

beyond this dataset.

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Record Linkage

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Record Linkage

• Almost 100 percent concordance between HPS sex at birth and 

‘gender’ on Numident

• The Numident ‘gender’ is used in constructing the PIKs, so instances where 

the HPS sex does not match the Numident ‘gender’ would be unlikely to be 

successfully matched

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Record Linkage

• The vast majority (>90%) of those with a ‘gender difference’ flag in 

the Numident-HPS dataset are cisgender, and few individuals 

identifying as transgender have a gender difference flag. This likely 

reflects: 

• Individuals who have changed their name and/or sex not being successfully 

PIKed

• A large number of gender differences reflecting individuals correcting errors, 

rather than transitioning

• SSA rules requiring documentation to change gender value were adjusted in 

late 2022

• Changing ‘gender’ values on the SSA record may not be a priority for 

individuals who are transitioning, and does not have any 

practical/administrative implications 

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Record Linkage: Next Steps

• Explore how to augment the methodology for generating linkage keys 

for likely transgender respondents by making use of other attributes 

available across datasets

• Linking all three datasets to evaluate concordance between HPS, 

Numident, and the 2020 Census

• Analyzing those who appear in the HPS data multiple times across 

cycles and provide different responses to sex assigned at birth or 

provide different responses to current gender identity.

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Breakoffs

Research Questions:

• What percentage of HPS respondents are exiting the survey during 

the SOGI question sequence?

• How does this compare to other demographic items, and to other 

potentially sensitive questions (income, etc.)?

Consultations with Qualtrics ongoing on a way to generate a field that 

could capture the relevant information.

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Summary

• Sexual orientation: write-ins do not appear to affect question 

response distributions.

• A plurality of write-ins are alternative sexual orientations.

• Record linkage:

• Large differences in PIK rates across HPS reporting categories

• Some substantive differences in response patterns to Census Numident

among different HPS reporting categories.

Much more to do!

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Thank you!

Zachary Scherer 

Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division

U.S. Census Bureau

zachary.scherer@census.gov

Jacqueline Banks 

Population Division

U.S. Census Bureau

jacqueline.l.banks@census.gov

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