2010 American Community Survey Match Study: 

Comparing Administrative Records and ACS Data 

by

Adela Luque 

Center for Administrative Records Research & Applications 

 U.S. Census Bureau 

adela.luque@census.gov 

Renuka Bhaskar 

Center for Administrative Records Research & Applications 

 U.S. Census Bureau 

renuka.bhaskar@census.gov 

Proceedings of the 2013 Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) Research Conference

This paper has undergone review according to the Census Bureau publications. However, any views and 

conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Census 

Bureau. 

We wish to thank Amy O’Hara (CARRA), Eric Slud (CSRM), Anthony Tersine (DSSD), Mark Asiala (DSSD) and 

Deborah Griffin (ACSO) for their valuable comments and suggestions. We also thank Kuo M. Tung (ACSO), Donald 

Keathley (DSSD), Steven Hefter (DSSD), Aileen Bennet (ACSO), David Raglin (ACSO), Sonya Rastogi (CARRA), 

James Noon (CARRA) and Teresa A. Schellhamer (CARRA) for their helpful input. 
i 

Abstract 

 

Using administrative records data from federal government agencies and commercial sources, the 2010 ACS Match 

Study measures administrative records coverage of 2010 ACS addresses, persons, and persons at addresses at 

different levels of geography as well as by demographic characteristics and response mode. The 2010 ACS Match 

Study represents a continuation of the research undertaken in the 2010 Census Match Study, the first national-level 

evaluation of administrative records data coverage. 

Results indicate that administrative records provide substantial coverage for addresses and persons in the 2010 ACS 

(92.7 and 92.1 percent respectively), and less extensive though substantial coverage, for person-address pairs (74.3 

percent). In addition, some variation in address, person and/or person-address coverage is found across 

demographic and response mode groups. This research establishes a baseline for future administrative records 

research using the ACS and informs potential uses of administrative records in survey and decennial census 

operations to address the increasing costs of data collection and declining response rates.
2 

1. Introduction 

In response to the increasing costs of providing demographic and socio-economic statistics for a country’s 

population, many industrialized economies have developed alternative and less costly methods to conduct their 

censuses using existing administrative records data from population registers. For example, Austria, Denmark, 

Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland already use administrative records in part or entirely in their 

censuses (Farber and Leggieri 2002, Asher 2010, Mulalic 2011, Ralphs and Tutton 2011). Other European 

countries, such as Spain, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, and Lithuania use a combination of registers and 

field enumeration simultaneously (Valente, 2010).

While the costs of conducting the demographic census have also skyrocketed in the U.S. during the last two decades 

(U.S. GAO, 2012), administrative data have not yet been highly utilized in the Decennial Census or survey 

operations.1 Government agencies and external researchers have used survey and administrative data primarily to 

enhance their datasets and evaluate differences in the reporting of common items.2

In an effort to reduce costs while preserving quality, the U.S. Census Bureau is researching options on the best use 

of administrative records in the Decennial Census. Options investigated range from nonresponse followup (e.g. 

Zanutto and Zaslavsky 2002, Judson and Bauder 2003) to an administrative records census (Farber and Leggieri 

2002, Berning 2003, Bye and Judson 2004). Previous studies, in particular AREX 2000, examined the use of 

administrative records as a source of information for enhancing census operations.3 However, it had some 

limitations, including the use of only federal sources, the restriction of its analysis on count coverage to five 

counties, and a lag between administrative records reference periods and Census Day (April 1). 

Awareness of the need for further research culminated with the 2010 Census Match Study (CMS), the first to link 

administrative records to Decennial Census data to evaluate the quality and coverage of administrative records for 

the entire nation (Rastogi and O’Hara 2012). The 2010 CMS expanded AREX 2000 research capability by utilizing 

nine commercial files as well as four additional federal files, employing data that were close to the Decennial 

Census reference date of April 1, and by conducting a nation-level evaluation, rather than one limited to just five 

counties. 

The 2010 CMS evaluated counts and matches of addresses, persons, and persons at addresses at different levels of 

geography as well as by demographic characteristics and response mode. It also assessed the quality and coverage 

of demographic data in administrative records relative to the 2010 Census, and in addition, evaluated the capability 

of administrative data to identify occupancy status and to estimate household population count. 

The 2010 American Community Survey Match Study (ACS-MS) represents a continuation of the research 

undertaken in the 2010 CMS, and relies on the data compiled by and methodology employed in that study. This 

paper is the first of a series of studies that will extend the evaluation of administrative records coverage and quality 

beyond 2010 using 1-year ACS data. Specifically, this study evaluates administrative records coverage of 2010 

ACS addresses, persons, and person-address pairs at different levels of geography as well as by demographic 

characteristics and response mode. 

The objective of this report is not to show or evaluate administrative records coverage of the underlying 

population(s) that the ACS is designed to represent. Instead, its intent is to assess whether 2010 ACS records are 

present or absent in administrative data, and to establish a baseline for future administrative records research using 

the ACS. This type of baseline evaluation is necessary in order to determine whether there is sufficient 

administrative records coverage of ACS records to pursue the use of the ACS in future administrative records 

 

1Administrative data have, however, been integrated into a number of important Census Bureau programs including the Business 

Register, Intercensal Population Estimates, Local Employer Dynamics, Demographic Analysis Estimates, Small Area Income 

and Poverty Estimates and Small Area Health Insurance Estimates. 

2

 For example, see Meijer et al. 2010, Iams and Dushi 2009, and Groen 2012. 

3

 See Alvey and Scheuren 1982, Edmonston and Schultze 1995, Steffey and Bradburn 1994, Farber and Leggieri 2002, Berning 

2003, Bye and Judson 2004, and the 2010 CMS (pages 2 and 3). 
3 

coverage research.4 Further research will also provide initial evidence for whether administrative records can 

enhance ACS content beyond Decennial Census short-form items, such as household income. 

2. Data and Methodology 

The administrative records data used in this report were compiled in the 2010 CMS. The sections that follow briefly 

describe the methodology, and federal and commercial administrative records data used in this study.5 

2.1. Record Linkage 

To be able to match addresses and persons in the 2010 ACS to addresses and persons in administrative records, both 

data universes must contain common address and person identifiers. Unique address identifiers called master 

address file identification numbers (MAFIDs) and person identifiers called protected identification keys (PIKs) were 

assigned to administrative records. The 2010 ACS data already had MAFIDs, therefore only persons in the 2010 

ACS needed to be assigned PIKs. 

To assign address identifiers, administrative data were matched to an extract from the Census Bureau Master 

Address File (MAF),6 and MAFIDs were then assigned to administrative records with address data that matched to 

the MAF. To assign PIKs to the 2010 ACS and to administrative data, a matching software (Person Validation 

Identification System or PVS) was used to compare Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from the 2010 ACS 

and administrative data to PII on person reference files.7 Many federal administrative files contained SSNs, but the 

2010 ACS and most commercial data did not include them. For these data sets, the search modules in PVS 

compared name, address, and date of birth fields to the person reference file. For more information on this record 

linkage system see Wagner and Layne (2012). 

2.2. Federal Administrative Records Data from Other Agencies 

Below are the eleven federal data sources used in this report.8 It is worth noting that some data sources are meant to 

target coverage of specific populations. For instance, the Medicare Enrollment Database is meant to obtain better 

coverage for older people. 

Individual Income Tax Returns (Form 1040) 

Information Returns (Forms 1099 and W2) 

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Public and Indian Housing Information Center 

(PIC) 

HUD Tenant Rental Assistance Certification System (TRACS) 

HUD Computerized Homes Underwriting Management System (CHUMS) 

Social Security Administration (SSA) Supplemental Security Income Record 

Selective Service System Registration File (SSR) 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicare enrollee data (MEDB) 

Indian Health Service Patient Registration File (IHS) 

U.S. Postal Service National Change of Address File 

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 

 

4

 Including 2020 Decennial Census research. 

5

 See 2010 CMS, pages 3-8 for a more in depth discussion. 

6

 The 2010 CMS uses a Master Address File extract. For the purposes of the report, this will be referred to as the MAF. The 

extract used in this analysis may differ from the full Master Address File. 

7

 See the 2010 CMS. 

8

 In addition to these federal data files, the Death Master File from SSA was used in the 2010 CMS to help determine whether a 

person in administrative records was alive as of April 1, 2010. 
4 

Individual Income Tax Returns provide data for individuals who file a 1040 tax return, and include the mailing 

address on the return (generally as of around April 15, 2010), the name and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) 

for the primary filer, and the name and TIN for any spouse and/or up to four dependents on the form. Information 

Returns 1099 include name, address, and TIN for individuals as reported to the IRS by financial institutions and 

employers on the various Information Returns (1099 forms, W2 forms, etc.). 

HUD PIC data are maintained by HUD for persons participating in the public housing program and other rental 

assistance programs. HUD TRACS contains data for persons receiving rental assistance and participating in other 

assisted housing programs through HUD. HUD CHUMS contains data for persons who have obtained or applied for 

mortgages insured under HUD/Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance programs. These files include 

information such as name, address, date of birth or age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and Social Security Number 

(SSN). 

The 2010 Social Security Administration (SSA) Supplemental Security Record file includes address, personal 

identifiers, and date of birth for Supplementary Security Income (SSI) recipients. The 2010 CMS (as well as this 

study) primarily used 2010 SSA Supplemental Security Record file for SSI recipients and appended information on 

children and spouses from a separate 2011 file. 

The MEDB from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contains Medicare enrollee data and name, 

address, date of birth, race, Hispanic origin, sex, and SSN. The SSR Registration File contains address and date of 

birth information on males, ages 18 to 25, who register with Selective Services for the purpose of creating a database 

which would be used in the event of a draft. 

The IHS Patient Registration File contains information on American Indians or Alaska Natives (AIAN) who 

participate in the IHS System. Spouses and children of AIANs that are not in this race group are eligible to receive 

these services as well. 

The National Change of Address file is maintained by the U.S. Postal Service and includes name, address, and move 

information such as the move date, the original address, and the new address. 

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) files include national level data for adults and children who 

participate or receive benefits through states’ TANF programs. These files include SSN, date of birth, sex, race, 

Hispanic origin, and basic geographic information (state, county, and zip code). Since addresses were not included 

in this file, TANF is only used for the person section of this report. TANF data could not be used for the address or 

person-address analysis as the TANF file does not include addresses on the file. 

2.3. Commercial Administrative Records Data 

The U.S. Census Bureau acquired nine data files containing identifying information and demographic characteristics 

from five commercial data vendors (Experian, Targus, Veteran Service Group of Illinois, InfoUSA and Melissa Data 

Base Source). 9

 Most of the files contain current information on address, name, race, Hispanic origin, age, and sex 

data, and a few contained historical data on the same variables. One of the files provided by Targus only contained 

addresses. Thus, this file was not used for the person and person-address analyses as the file does not contain person 

data. 

2.4. 2010 ACS Data 

Two 2010 ACS files were used in this study: the address response file and the person response file for the fifty 

states and the District of Columbia in the United States.10

 Persons living in households that were sent a 

questionnaire but never responded are not part of the analysis. 

 

9

 Commercial data vendors are described by name in the Data & Methodology section of this report, but all results in the 

Address, Person, and Person-Address sections reflect aggregated and unduplicated commercial data. License agreements with 

each vendor prohibit direct comparisons across companies. 

10 Puerto Rico was not included as part of the analysis in this report. 
5 

Note that the analysis conducted in this report uses unweighted ACS response data. Weights are omitted because 

this study is not using the ACS to evaluate administrative records coverage of the U.S. population, but simply to 

assess whether addresses, persons and person-address pairs in the 2010 ACS response files are also present (or are 

observed) in the administrative records data at hand. 

The analysis conducted in this study is a descriptive one-to-one match between records in administrative data and 

records in the 2010 ACS response data. Weighting the ACS data would imply in some cases a 1-to-2 or 1-to-3 

match. The results of this type of exercise would have implications that deviate from the intent of this study.11

 For 

instance, a particular individual in CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview) that receives a weight of 3 in the 

ACS may be in administrative records data, but that does not imply that administrative records would necessarily 

have the other two individuals that the weighted individual represents. Analogously, the absence of that individual 

in administrative records does not imply that the other two individual he/she represents are also absent in 

administrative records. 

The address response file consists of all housing unit and group quarter addresses that either responded to the survey 

or were determined to be vacant. The person response file contains all the persons living at the non-vacant 

addresses that responded to the survey by either mail, computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) or computerassisted personal interview (CAPI). The CAPI category can be further subdivided into those that were directly 

sampled into CAPI, and those that were included in CATI, but did not respond via CATI and were then subsampled 

into CAPI. Households that were directly sampled into CAPI are those with unmailable/undeliverable or Remote 

Alaska addresses. Table 1 in Appendix II presents the race, Hispanic origin, age and sex distributions of each mode 

and CAPI subcategory. 

It is important to note that the characteristics and response rates of households (and persons) underlying these 

response modes are different from one another in a non-random manner. That is, there is self-selection into 

response mode, and this self-selection tends to be correlated with administrative records presence. With this in mind, 

selected match results by mode category and CAPI subcategories are presented and discussed in Appendices IV, V 

and VI of this report. 

Administrative records specific to group quarters were not sought or acquired at the time of this report.12 Thus, as 

shown in the Results sections, the coverage of group quarter addresses and people was quite low. Hence, much of 

the analysis in this report is restricted to addresses corresponding to housing units and the population living in them. 

2.5. Duplicates 

The same people and addresses may be present multiple times within the same administrative records data source. 

When this occurs, administrative records address, person and person-address pair files were unduplicated in order to 

match and evaluate them relative to the 2010 ACS. 

The 2010 ACS also contained person records with duplicate PIKs. These duplicate PIKs were not removed or 

unduplicated since research13 suggests that most duplicate PIKs cannot be decisively categorized as true duplicate 

person records. Instead, they are likely to be the result of assigning the same PIK to two different persons in error. 

 

11 Furthermore, future research will evaluate the quality of race and Hispanic origin administrative records data. This type of 

evaluation can only be done using unweighted data since the exercise necessitates linking persons in the ACS to the same persons 

in administrative records. 

12 A group quarter is “a place where people live or stay, in a group living arrangement, that is owned

or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or services for the residents”. Group quarters include such places 

as college residence halls, residential treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities, group homes, military barracks, correctional 

facilities, and workers’ dormitories. For further information on group quarters, see 

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/data_documentation/GroupDefinitions/2011GQ_Definitions.pdf 

13 This research refers to an upcoming paper examining duplicate PIKs in the 2009 and 2010 ACS and CPS by A. Luque and B. 

Clark. 
6 

2.6. Differences in Address, Person and Person-Address Data between the 2010 ACS and Administrative 

Records Data 

As it is known, the ACS is a rolling sample where households are interviewed and data are collected throughout the 

year by using independent monthly samples.14 The survey reference date, thus, varies across households depending 

on when they were interviewed. While future work will be conducted to identify the living status of a person in 

administrative records at a given point in time, creating such indicator was beyond the scope of this study. Hence in 

this report, all persons in the administrative records universe were included regardless of their alive status (according 

to administrative records). 

It is also worth noting that there are differences in the timing of the administrative data relative to the ACS. The 

administrative data used in this study had reference dates of April 1, 2010 or prior, whereas as already pointed out, 

the ACS was conducted throughout all twelve months of 2010. So, there is a time frame misalignment between the 

ACS and the administrative data used in this study. 

In addition, there is a lag for small children in administrative records data. Tax data are an important source of 

information on children, but babies born in 2010 would not be claimed on 2009 taxes. As a result, they are not in 

administrative records – however, there are babies that were born throughout 2010 that are in the 2010 ACS. This 

phenomenon will be referred to as “the tax code” effect.

Administrative data sometimes have conflicting information regarding person-address pairs - as the data can have a 

given person living at multiple (different) addresses. For instance, one data source may have a person living at an 

address in New York, while another data source has the same person living in Florida. To compare administrative 

records to the 2010 ACS, all available unique person-address pairs in administrative records were used in the match 

to 2010 ACS person-address records. This is in contrast to the 2010 CMS, where a best address was chosen (as of 

April 1, 2010, Census Day) for persons with multiple addresses in administrative records.15 It is beyond the scope of 

this study to select a best address for a given person at a given point in time during the survey year. 

Another source of discrepancy between the ACS and administrative records regarding a person’s residence is the 

ACS’ residency rules. According to the ACS, anyone who is currently living or staying at the sample address for 

more than two months is considered a resident of that address. Therefore, the ACS may place persons at addresses 

that are not their usual residence (as long as they stay there for more than two months). By contrast, administrative 

records addresses are mailing addresses, which normally are not temporary short-term addresses. 

2.7. Match Ratio Definition 

The match ratio or rate is a measure meant to evaluate the coverage of administrative records data with respect to the 

2010 ACS response files. It is calculated by dividing the unweighted count of 2010 ACS records that match to 

administrative records by the 2010 ACS record count and multiplying the result by 100. That is, it simply represents 

the percentage of 2010 ACS addresses, persons or person-address pairs that match to administrative records by 

MAFID, PIK, and PIK-MAFID, respectively. 

In most tables in the person and person-address coverage results, the match ratio is expressed both as a percentage of 

all persons in the ACS (regardless of whether or not the person obtained a PIK), and as a percentage of only persons 

with PIKs.16 Expressed this way, the match ratio provides a measure of administrative records coverage for those 

persons in the 2010 ACS that were “matchable” to administrative records. In this manner, the percent of persons 

that match is not comingled with the effect of PIK assignment rates. Throughout the document, the term ‘match 

ratio’ implicitly refers to the ratio expressed as a percentage of all persons in the 2010 ACS. Otherwise, it is 

explicitly stated. 

 

14 For more information about the ACS, see U.S. Census Bureau (2009). 

15 The best address for a given person was selected by a logistic model. For more information on the best-address model, see the 

2010 CMS. 

16 The 2010 CMS reports match ratios only as a percentage of all persons in the 2010 Census. 
7 

This study reports general address, person and person-address coverage results for housing units and group quarters 

independently. This is in contrast with the 2010 CMS, which did not distinguish between housing unit and group 

quarter addresses, or between people living in housing units and those residing in group quarters. However, because 

existing administrative records coverage of group quarters is considerably lower than that of housing units, only the 

universe of housing units is used in the in-depth coverage analyses by demographic characteristics, geographic area 

and response mode. 

2.8. Limitations 

The 2010 ACS-MS includes validated addresses and persons in administrative data; that is, addresses with MAFIDs 

and persons with PIKs. Administrative records lacking complete or quality data to match to the MAF or the person 

reference file were omitted from the analysis. Meanwhile, although the analysis includes all ACS person records 

regardless of whether they have a PIK, these records are not part of the “matchable” set. Further research on 

improving PIK assignment is underway. 

The administrative records data used in this study do not contain information on many ACS items such as tenure or 

relationship information. Future research will evaluate how administrative records can be used to enhanced the 

imputation of such items when missing. 

2.9. Caveats for Comparison to 2010 Census Match Study Results 

No strict comparison can be made between the results obtained in this study and those in the 2010 CMS. First and 

foremost, the CMS represents the universe of the U.S. population while, as mentioned earlier, this study employs 

unweighted 2010 ACS response data. Results presented in this study are not intended to represent the administrative 

records coverage of the underlying U.S. population.17

 For instance, the match ratio among Hispanics in the 2010 

CMS was 77.2 percent, indicating that 77.2 percent of Hispanics in the 2010 Census population were found in 

administrative records. In this study, the match ratio among Hispanics was 84.3 percent. This simply indicates that 

84.3 percent of Hispanics for whom a response was obtained in the 2010 ACS were present in administrative 

records.18

In addition, and as stated earlier, this study uses all unique person-address combinations available in the 

administrative records at hand. On the other hand, the 2010 CMS employed a best-address model to select a unique 

address for each individual as of April 1, 2010. In addition, the 2010 CMS applied an “alive” status indicator to 

persons in administrative records and only included in the analysis those persons that were alive according to the 

indicator on Census Day. The current study does not employ an alive flag indicator. Finally, the 2010 CMS did not 

present separate coverage results for housing units and group quarters. By contrast, the 2010 ACS-MS differentiates 

between the two types of living quarter. It presents overall coverage results separately for both, and detailed results 

for just housing units. 

With these strong caveats, a descriptive, non-statistical comparison to the main 2010 CMS results is presented in this 

report. Such a comparison adds value to this study since it will help identify potential red flags in administrative 

records coverage of the ACS, and serve as a baseline for future ACS-administrative records research throughout the 

decade.19 For instance, the 2010 CMS found that administrative records coverage among older age groups is higher 

 

17 Weights in the ACS are meant to produce representative estimates of the underlying population. However, it is not clear 

whether they would produce representative estimates of the underlying population that matches to administrative records. This is 

because the matching subset may be different from the ACS sample in a non-random manner. It could also be argued that this 

non-randomness may be exacerbated for the matching subset of person-address pairs. 

18 Nevertheless, as indicated earlier, there is self-selection into response mode, and this self-selection tends to be correlated with 

administrative records presence. To shed some light on this issue, selected match results by mode category and CAPI 

subcategories are presented and discussed in Appendices IV, V and VI of this report. 

19 Changes to the ACS sample will be taken into consideration as administrative records coverage research progresses throughout 

the decade –as these changes may impact administrative records coverage of the ACS overtime. 
8 

than among younger ones. If this study revealed otherwise, a closer examination would have to be undertaken. In 

some cases, a drill-down analysis was conducted to shed light into the administrative records coverage behavior of a 

particular type of address or demographic group.20

3. Address Count and Match Results 

This section presents results on the number and percent of ACS addresses that match to administrative records by 

various housing, geographic, household demographic characteristics, and response mode subcategories. Match 

results among demographic groups by mode subcategories are presented and discussed in Appendix IV. This 

section also discusses results in relation to those found in the 2010 CMS. 

The match counts and ratios that follow represent the match of the 2010 ACS to federal and commercial 

administrative records. However, in order to assess the contribution of commercial data to administrative records 

coverage, the state table presents state-level match ratios for federal and commercial data separately. As discussed 

earlier, all the numbers and percentages presented below do not include any weights. 

3.1. Overall 

Figure 1 below shows the number of addresses in the 2010 ACS response file and administrative records. As 

already mentioned in the section 2.1, unique identifiers called MAFIDs are assigned to addresses and are used to 

facilitate record linkages between the 2010 ACS and administrative records. 

There were 1.9 million addresses in the 2010 ACS response file, and all of these address had MAFIDs. There were 

151.3 million addresses in administrative records that had a unique MAFID and 349.6 million addresses that did not 

have a MAFID.21

 As expected, there were more addresses in the administrative records relative to the 2010 ACS 

response file since the ACS is a sample dataset. 

Of the 1.9 million addresses in the 2010 ACS response file, 1.8 million (or 92.7 percent) matched to MAFIDs in 

administrative records. There were 140,000 addresses that were in the ACS but were not in administrative records. 

Definitional differences between addresses in the 2010 ACS and administrative records contributed to the address 

non-matches. For example, the 2010 ACS included some physical descriptions of addresses such as “yellow house 

near fork in the road,” which cannot be matched to administrative data since administrative records only contain 

mailing addresses. 

 

20 As mentioned earlier, key match results are presented for demographic-mode groups (including CAPI subcategories) in order 

to better assess their administrative records coverage behavior, which tends to be correlated with response mode. 

21 Current research is examining the reasons for these addresses not obtaining a MAFID and exploring ways to increase MAFID 

assignment.
9 

Figure 1. Count and Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Addresses 

Universe: All addresses 

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

3.2. Housing Units and Group Quarters 

The 2010 ACS includes both housing units and group quarters. Most of the MAFIDs in the 2010 ACS represented 

housing units, thus the match ratios for all MAFIDs are similar to those of the housing units. As shown in Table 1, 

of the 1,917,799 million housing unit MAFIDs, administrative records matched to 1,783,705 million or 93.0 percent. 

The match ratio was notably lower for group quarters at 54.4 percent, implying that administrative records coverage 

of group quarters addresses is lower than the coverage of housing unit addresses. 

Table 1. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Address Match by Type of Living Quarter 

Universe: All addresses 

ACS Type of Living Quarter

2010 ACS 

Address 

Count

Match of 2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Addresses

Match Ratio

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Addresses

Total 1,931,199 1,790,997 92.7

Housing Units 1,917,799 1,783,705 93.0

Group Quarters 13,400 7,292 54.4

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

As mentioned earlier, the majority of federal and commercial administrative records data used in this analysis did 

not include records specific to group quarters. Because of the low coverage for group quarters, the remainder of this 

section focuses on housing unit addresses only.

Administrative records 

addresses 500.9 million 

Administrative records 

addresses without 

MAFID or state

349.6 million 

Administrative records 

addresses with a unique 

MAFID 

151.3 million 

Administrative records 

addresses with a MAFID 

not in the 2010 ACS

 149.5 million 

Administrative records 

addresses with a MAFID 

in the 2010 ACS

 1,790,997

2010 ACS addresses, all with MAFIDs

 1,931,199

2010 ACS addresses not 

in administrative records

 

 140,000
10

3.3. Region 

Table 2 below shows the number of 2010 ACS addresses as well as the administrative records and 2010 address 

match numbers and ratios by region. 

Table 2. 2010 ACS Address Count and Administrative Records Match Counts and Ratios by Region

Universe: Housing Units

ACS Region 2010 ACS Address 

Count

2010 ACS 

Percent

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Address Match

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Address Match Ratio

Total 1,917,799 100.0 1,783,705 93.0

Northeast 362,261 18.9 327,486 90.4

Midwest 524,496 27.3 494,941 94.4

South 648,389 33.8 604,802 93.3

West 382,653 20.0 356,476 93.2

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

All regions had a match ratio higher than 90.0 percent. The Midwest had the highest match ratio with 94.4 percent, 

the South had the next highest match ratio with 93.3 percent followed closely by the West (93.2 percent) and finally, 

the Northeast (90.4 percent). 

 

3.4. State by Federal and Commercial Administrative Records Data 

Table 3 shows the number of addresses in the 2010 ACS and the match numbers and ratios by state. It also 

highlights the contribution of commercial data to overall and state-level match ratios. Specifically, it presents statelevel match ratios for federal administrative records (fourth column) as well as for combined federal and commercial 

administrative records (fifth column). Finally, the last column shows the increase in the match ratios attributable to 

commercial data.

Overall, over 85 percent of addresses in the 2010 ACS matched to unique MAFIDs in federal administrative data 

(fourth column). Incorporating commercial data resulted in an increase in the overall address match ratio of 7.6 

percentage points. 

At the state level, federal data match ratios ranged from 52.3 percent in Alaska to 92.4 percent in Maryland. The 

inclusion of commercial administrative records resulted in increases in the match ratios for all states, though the 

level of the impact varied across them. States for which commercial data had the highest impact included 

Wyoming, Montana, Hawaii, Arkansas, and Delaware. For each of these states, the match ratios for addresses in the 

2010 ACS increased by more than ten percentage points when commercial data was used in addition to federal 

records. States for which commercial data had the least impact included Maryland, Ohio, California, Virginia, 

Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. For each of these states, the match ratios for addresses in the 2010 ACS increased 

by less than six percentage points when commercial data was used in addition to federal records. These states had 

relatively high match ratios when only federal data were used.22

The state-level match ratios using the combined federal and commercial administrative records ranged from 60.8 

percent for Alaska to 97.4 percent for Maryland. For most states, over 90 percent of the addresses in the ACS were 

 

22 For further information on the characteristics of commercial versus federal administrative records, see Tables 1 and 2 in 

Appendix I. These tables show the distribution of selected characteristics for addresses that matched to federal administrative 

records and for addresses that matched to commercial administrative records but did not match to federal administrative records. 

Addresses that matched to commercial data only had a higher percentage of rural addresses and lower proportions of singlefamily homes and householders responding via mail compared to addresses that matched to federal data. Additional research is 

planned to further evaluate differences in match ratios using federal and commercial data sets. 
11

found in administrative records. The four states with the highest match ratios were in the Midwest and South, 

including Maryland (97.4 percent), Ohio, the District of Columbia, and Iowa, each with a match ratio of 97.0 

percent. California, the state with the largest number of addresses, had the fifth highest address match ratio of 96.6 

percent. 

The five states with the lowest address match ratios were in the West and Northeast, contained many non city-style 

addresses, CAPI Direct (or unmailable/undeliverable) addresses, and generally had a relatively low number of total 

addresses in the unweighted data. Alaska had the lowest address match ratio at 60.8 percent followed, at some 

distance, by Maine (74.7 percent), West Virginia (75.5 percent), Montana (77.1 percent), and Vermont 

(77.6percent).

One factor that may be related to Alaska’s low match ratio is that data for over half of the addresses in this 

state were collected through computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), and in particular, almost 40 percent were 

under the CAPI Direct category. This is a much higher percent than any other state (see Appendix I, Table 

3). Additionally, nearly half of the addresses in Alaska in the 2010 ACS were in rural areas - a higher percent than 

most states. As shown in Appendix I, Table 4, 2010 ACS CAPI addresses in rural areas were generally associated 

with considerably lower match ratios. In particular, these addresses had a match ratio that was at least 26 percentage 

points lower than any other combination of mode-urban status. Another characteristic associated with low match 

ratios is occupancy status – vacant housing units have a lower match ratio relative to occupied housing units (see 

Appendix I, Table 5). Over 85 percent of vacant addresses were CAPI (142,511 of 166,940), indicating that an inperson visit may have been necessary to determine the occupancy status of the address. Maine and Alaska had the 

highest percentages of vacant housing units among states in the 2010 ACS – 24.3 and 20.4 percent respectively, and 

vacant housing units in these states had very low match ratios (see Appendix I, Tables 6 and 7). 
12

Table 3. 2010 ACS Address Count and Administrative Records Match Counts and Ratios by State 

Universe: Housing Units

ACS State

2010 ACS 

Address 

Count

2010 ACS 

Addresses 

that match to 

Federal 

Administrative 

Records

Match 

Ratio for 

Federal 

Records

2010 ACS Addresses 

that match to 

Federal or 

Commercial 

Administrative 

Records

Match Ratio 

for Federal 

and 

Commercial

Administrative

Records

Percentage Point 

Increase in Match 

Ratio Attributable 

to Commercial 

Data

Total 1,917,799 1,638,811 85.5 1,783,705 93.0 7.6

Alabama 31,552 26,500 84.0 29,240 92.7 8.7

Alaska 5,604 2,929 52.3 3,407 60.8 8.5

Arizona 33,254 27,462 82.6 29,825 89.7 7.1

Arkansas 19,178 15,162 79.1 17,352 90.5 11.4

California 176,551 160,621 91.0 170,598 96.6 5.7

Colorado 30,885 26,148 84.7 28,849 93.4 8.7

Connecticut 20,503 18,503 90.2 19,722 96.2 5.9

Delaware 6,339 5,194 81.9 5,909 93.2 11.3

District of Col. 3,819 3,422 89.6 3,705 97.0 7.4

Florida 100,820 88,842 88.1 97,308 96.5 8.4

Georgia 49,876 42,938 86.1 46,741 93.7 7.6

Hawaii 7,537 5,693 75.5 6,568 87.1 11.6

Idaho 10,126 7,952 78.5 9,053 89.4 10.9

Illinois 80,592 70,990 88.1 76,603 95.1 7.0

Indiana 42,080 38,042 90.4 40,616 96.5 6.1

Iowa 28,130 25,154 89.4 27,273 97.0 7.5

Kansas 22,065 19,090 86.5 20,963 95.0 8.5

Kentucky 28,208 24,130 85.5 26,053 92.4 6.8

Louisiana 27,108 22,801 84.1 25,428 93.8 9.7

Maine 15,212 9,779 64.3 11,363 74.7 10.4

Maryland 30,811 28,469 92.4 29,998 97.4 5.0

Massachusetts 37,494 33,080 88.2 35,708 95.2 7.0

Michigan 82,647 71,111 86.0 77,491 93.8 7.7

Minnesota 56,799 47,874 84.3 52,479 92.4 8.1

Mississippi 16,790 13,332 79.4 15,145 90.2 10.8

Missouri 43,440 36,954 85.1 40,044 92.2 7.1

Montana 9,256 5,881 63.5 7,133 77.1 13.5

Nebraska 16,768 13,953 83.2 15,572 92.9 9.7

Nevada 13,310 11,703 87.9 12,610 94.7 6.8

New 

Hampshire

10,013 7,873 78.6 8,677 86.7 8.0

New Jersey 48,420 42,665 88.1 46,080 95.2 7.1

New Mexico 12,779 8,632 67.5 9,975 78.1 10.5

New York 116,705 95,039 81.4 103,513 88.7 7.3

North Carolina 56,018 46,736 83.4 52,238 93.3 9.8

North Dakota 7,834 6,012 76.7 6,757 86.3 9.5

Ohio 76,268 69,808 91.5 73,947 97.0 5.4

Oklahoma 28,727 22,082 76.9 24,723 86.1 9.2

Oregon 23,620 20,516 86.9 22,530 95.4 8.5

Pennsylvania 100,139 84,849 84.7 90,756 90.6 5.9

Rhode Island 5,942 5,157 86.8 5,587 94.0 7.2

South Carolina 26,571 22,425 84.4 24,879 93.6 9.2

South Dakota 7,935 6,170 77.8 6,945 87.5 9.8

Tennessee 37,220 32,841 88.2 35,465 95.3 7.0

Texas 127,757 107,705 84.3 118,379 92.7 8.4

Utah 14,934 12,710 85.1 13,705 91.8 6.7

Vermont 7,833 5,249 67.0 6,080 77.6 10.6

Virginia 44,284 39,610 89.4 42,192 95.3 5.8

Washington 40,883 35,772 87.5 38,859 95.0 7.6

West Virginia 13,311 9,000 67.6 10,047 75.5 7.9

Wisconsin 59,938 51,528 86.0 56,251 93.8 7.9

Wyoming 3,914 2,723 69.6 3,364 85.9 16.4

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
13

3.5. Housing Unit Type 

Table 4 below shows 2010 ACS and administrative record address counts and match ratios by housing unit type. 

Buildings with twenty or more apartments had the highest match ratio at 95.4 percent, followed closely by buildings 

with ten to nineteen apartments (95.0 percent), buildings with five to nine apartments (94.2 percent) and singlefamily homes (94.1 percent) - which make up the largest portion of all housing units. Buildings with two to four 

apartments had a lower match ratio (87.4 percent) relative to other multi-unit buildings. This lower match rate may 

be in part due to smaller multi-unit structures having potentially more problematic addresses in some parts of the 

country. In some geographic areas, units are added to single units or small multi-units, and these added units may 

lack unit designations or have mail delivered to one box (Virgile 2012). Mobile homes and other housing unit types 

(such as boats, RVs, and vans) had the lowest match ratios with 82.9 and 73.1 respectively. 

Table 4. 2010 ACS Address Count and Administrative Records Match Counts and Ratio by Housing Unit 

Type 

Universe: Housing Units 

ACS Housing Unit Type 2010 ACS Address 

Count

Match 

of 2010 ACS and 

Administrative 

Records Addresses

Match Ratio

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Addresses

Total 1,917,799 1,783,705 93.0

Building with 2-4 apartments 128,800 112,549 87.4

Building with 5 to 9 apartments 69,606 65,590 94.2

Building with 10 to 19 apartments 61,870 58,802 95.0

Building with 20+ apartments 131,946 125,829 95.4

Other (Boat/RV/van etc.) 1,467 1,073 73.1

Single-family home 1,398,315 1,315,623 94.1

Mobile home 125,795 104,239 82.9

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

3.6. Race and Hispanic origin of Householder and Mode of Collection 

Thus far, the figures and tables have focused on the 1.9 million housing unit addresses in the 2010 ACS, regardless 

of whether they were occupied or vacant. However, the universe for this sub-section is occupied housing units since 

it examines match ratios by the demographic characteristics and response mode of the householder. 

Table 5 shows 2010 ACS match ratios by ACS Hispanic origin and race of the householder as well as by mode of 

data collection. The CAPI category is further divided into two separate subcategories in order to explore their match 

ratio differences: CAPI addresses with an unmailable or undeliverable address that were directly subsampled into 

CAPI (CAPI direct), and CAPI addresses that were mailed a questionnaire but have not responded (CAPI 

nonresponse).23 

Of these occupied housing units, administrative records matched to 1.7 million or 95.2 percent.24 Address match 

ratios for non-Hispanic and Hispanic householders were high and virtually identical (95.2 percent and 95.0 percent 

for non-Hispanics and Hispanics respectively). This evidence indicates that administrative records provide similar 

address coverage for both Hispanic and non-Hispanic headed households. 

 

23 See http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/survey_methodology/Chapter_4_RevisedDec2010.pdf. 

24 Administrative records have a higher match ratio for occupied housing units relative to vacant housing units due to the nature 

of federal and commercial data gathered for the project. For more information on differences in match ratios occupancy status, 

see Tables 3 and 5 in Appendix I. 
14

With the exception of the American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) group, match ratios for all race groups were 

above 90 percent. The highest match ratio (96.5 percent) was for housing units where the head of household was 

Asian alone. The match ratio was much lower for addresses where the head of household was AIAN alone at 77.9 

percent. 

The bottom rows of Table 5 show the match ratios by response mode. There was virtually no difference between the 

match ratios of households responding by mail (97.2 percent) and via computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 

(97.1 percent). By contrast, households responding via CAPI had a match ratio nearly 15 percentage points lower 

(at 85.4 percent) relative to those responding by mail. This lower match ratio for CAPI households can be explained 

in part by the fact that incomplete addresses or addresses that are physical descriptions of a location (i.e., unmailable 

or undeliverable), and addresses in Remote Alaska are sampled and sent directly to CAPI.25 When CAPI addresses 

are broken into unmailable/undeliverable and non-response addresses, the match ratio for the 

unmailable/undeliverable addresses is quite low (28.9 percent) as expected. The match ratio for the remainder of 

CAPI addresses, for which a questionnaire was initially mailed but no response was received by mail, is 91.7 

percent. This ratio is much higher and closer to the ratios found for mail and CATI households. For a break-down 

of address match ratios for demographic groups by mode categories and a discussion of results, see Appendix IV. 

Table 5. 2010 ACS Address Count and Administrative Records Match Counts and Ratios by Race and 

Hispanic Origin of Householder and Mode

Universe: Occupied housing units

ACS Demographic Characteristics of Householder and Mode 2010 ACS 

Address Count

Match

of 2010 ACS and 

Administrative 

Records Addresses

Match Ratio

2010 ACS and 

Administrative 

Records 

Addresses

Total Housing Units 1,750,859 1,666,336 95.2

Hispanic or Latino Origin

Hispanic 153,640 145,992 95.0

Non Hispanic 1,597,219 1,520,344 95.2

Race

White Alone 1,438,326 1,370,302 95.3

Black Alone 165,126 157,878 95.6

American Indian or Alaska Native Alone 14,649 11,414 77.9

Asian Alone 62,106 59,954 96.5

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Alone 1,677 1,592 94.9

Some Other Race Alone 40,922 38,769 94.7

Two or More Races 28,053 26,427 94.2

Mode

Mail 1,251,082 1,215,906 97.2

CATI 201,262 195,413 97.1

CAPI 298,515 255,017 85.4

 CAPI Direct 29,615 8,570 28.9

 CAPI Nonresponse 268,900 246,447 91.7

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

 

25 See http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/survey_methodology/Chapter_4_RevisedDec2010.pdf. 
15

3.7. 2010 Census Match Study 

As discussed earlier in Section 2.9, although results from the 2010 ACS cannot be strictly compared to those from 

the 2010 CMS, a descriptive, non-statistical comparison is valuable to round off the overall assessment of 

administrative records coverage with respect to the ACS. It is with the strong caveats discussed in section 2.9 that 

this subsection discusses the previous address results in the context of the 2010 CMS. Recall that the 2010 ACS 

data are unweighted and results reflect the presence or absence of administrative records for the addresses in the 

survey response file. The 2010 ACS results are not intended to reflect all housing units or the entire U.S. address 

population. 

Contrasting region and state results between the two studies reveals no red flags. Instead, both sets of results show a 

similar pattern of match ratios by region and state.26 The five states with the highest address match ratios in the 

2010 ACS were also among the top ten states in terms of match ratios in the 2010 Census. Similarly, the five states 

with the lowest match ratios for the ACS were the same five states with the lowest match ratios for the 2010 Census. 

The classification of housing unit type used in this analysis differs from that used in the 2010 CMS. Therefore, the 

results are not comparable. In this analysis, housing unit type was based on responses to an ACS question on the 

description of the building.27 In the 2010 CMS, housing unit type was classified based on information from the 

Master Address File (see 2010 CMS, page 21). Nevertheless, the match ratios described here followed a similar 

pattern to match ratios for addresses in the 2010 Census. For both the 2010 Census and the 2010 ACS, 

administrative records had the lowest match ratio for addresses classified as “Other” (including boats, RVs, vans, 

etc.). Additionally, both analyses show that administrative records had a lower match ratio for buildings with two to 

four apartments or units relative to multi-unit buildings with a larger number of units and to single-family homes.28

The 2010 CMS found a similar pattern for address match ratios by Hispanic origin and race of the householder. 

Match ratios for the 2010 Census by Hispanic origin were close in magnitude but slightly lower than those found in 

the 2010 ACS. Regarding race groups, match ratios in both studies were above 90 percent - with the exception of 

the AIAN alone group. For most race groups, match ratios were higher for the 2010 ACS relative to match ratios for 

the 2010 Census. However, this was not the case for households where the household head was AIAN alone.29

Finally, the match ratios for mail addresses in the 2010 ACS were the same as those found for mail addresses in the 

2010 Census. 

4. Person Count and Match Results 

This section discusses administrative records coverage of persons in the 2010 ACS and presents coverage results by 

type of living quarter, demographic characteristics, response mode and geographic area. It also assesses the 

contribution of commercial administrative records data to the coverage of persons in the 2010 ACS, and discusses 

results in relation to those found in the 2010 CMS . Match results for demographic groups by mode subcategories 

are presented and discussed in Appendix V. 

 

26 The 2010 Census and unweighted 2010 ACS distribution of address are slightly different. The unweighted 2010 ACS data had 

a lower proportion of addresses in the South and West, and a higher proportion of addresses in the Midwest. However, the 

regional distribution of the weighted 2010 ACS looks very similar to the 2010 Census. 

27 The ACS question on housing unit type asks “Which best describes this building? Include all apartments, flats, etc., even if 

vacant.”

28 When using the same housing unit type classification as was used in the CMS, the match ratios were closer in magnitude –

within 4 percentage points for all housing unit types except those classified as “Other”. Once again, addresses classified as

“Other” in the 2010 ACS had a much higher match ratio compared to addresses with the same classification in the 2010 Census. 

29 For these households, the 2010 Census match ratio was over 4 percentage points higher than the match ratio in the 2010 ACS. 

In the 2010 Census, there were enumeration efforts made in the Type of Enumeration Areas (TEAs) associated with the AIAN 

population. More detail on the Update Enumerate, Remote Update Enumerate, and Remote Alaska TEAs can be found in Fallica 

et al. (2012). The delineation of TEAs in the 2010 Census is described in Johanson et al. (2011).
The match numbers and ratios in the tables that follow represent the match of the 2010 ACS to federal and 

commercial administrative records. However, in order to assess the contribution of commercial data to 

administrative records coverage, the state table presents state-level match ratios for federal and commercial data 

separately. 

It should also be noted that person match ratios should be interpreted slightly differently relative to those for 

addresses. All 2010 ACS addresses had MAFIDs, therefore the entire sample of ACS addresses had the potential to 

be matched to administrative records with MAFIDs. By contrast, not all persons in the 2010 ACS received a PIK, 

and therefore, these person records did not have the potential of being matched to administrative records.30

 For this 

reason, match ratios are expressed as a percentage of all persons in the 2010 ACS (regardless of whether or not they 

received a PIK) and also as a percentage of only persons with PIKs.31 

Analogously to the address section, this section first presents general results for all living quarters (housing units and 

group quarters) followed by more detailed results for just housing units. All numbers and percentages presented are 

unweighted. 

4.1. Overall 

Figure 2 shows the number of persons in the 2010 ACS and administrative records, the number of persons records in 

the 2010 ACS that matched and did not match to administrative records, and for those that did not match, the 

number that could not be processed through PVS because they lacked the necessary personal identifiable 

information. 

Figure 2. Count and Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Persons 

Universe: All Persons

Persons in the 

2010 ACS 

4,470,984 

2010 ACS persons 

with a PIK 

4,212,922

2010 ACS 

persons, no PIK

258,062 

2010 ACS 

persons, no PIK, 

not sent to 

search

2,939 

2010 ACS 

persons, no PIK, 

failed search 

255,123 

Administrative person 

records with a PIK 

 312.2 million

2010 ACS PIKs in 

administrative 

records 

 4,117,788

2010 ACS PIKs not in 

administrative 

records 

 95,134 

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 

 

30 Characteristics of person records with PIKs and without PIKs are contrasted later in the report. 

31 As also stated in the 2010 CMS, future research will explore other matching methods, such as direct person matching across 

files, that do not require prior validation against a reference file. 

16
17

There were 4.5 million persons in the 2010 ACS data and 4.2million (or 94.2 percent) of them obtained PIKs. 

Administrative records matched to 4.1 million persons in the 2010 ACS - this represented 97.7percent of ACS 

individuals with PIKs and 92.1 percent of all persons in the ACS (whether they were assigned a PIK or not). 

Of the 258,062 persons that did not received a PIK, 2,939 (or 1.1 percent) could not be sent through the PVS process 

as they lacked name and date of birth, and 255,123 went through the PVS process but failed the search modules. 

For more information on the PVS process, see Wagner and Layne (2012). 

4.2. Housing Units and Group Quarters 

Table 6 highlights differences in PIK assignment rates and match ratios between persons living in housing units and 

group quarters in the 2010 ACS. The second column shows the count of persons in the 2010 ACS, the next set of 

columns displays the count and percentage of persons with PIKs, and the last set of columns shows the number and 

percentage of 2010 ACS persons matched to administrative records. Persons in the 2010 ACS living in housing 

units had a higher match ratio (92.4 percent) than those living in group quarters (83.3 percent) – a 9.1 percentage 

point difference. This was partly due to the fact that persons living in housing units were PIKed at a higher rate 

(94.4 percent) than those living in group quarters (89.2 percent). When match ratios were expressed as a percentage 

of persons with PIKs in the 2010 ACS, the difference between those living in housing units and group quarters was 

reduced to 4.5 percentage points - 97.9 percent and 93.4 percent for those in housing units and group quarters 

respectively. 

Table 6. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person Match by Type of Living Quarter 

Universe: All persons in the 2010 ACS

ACS Type 

of Living 

Quarter

2010 ACS 

Persons 2010 ACS with PIKs Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records

Count Count Percent Count

Match Ratio

As a % of all persons 

in 2010 ACS

Match Ratio

As a % of persons with 

PIKs in 2010 ACS

Total 4,470,984 4,212,922 94.2 4,117,788 92.1 97.7

Housing 

Units 4,326,036 4,083,685 94.4 3,997,069 92.4 97.9

GQs 144,948 129,237 89.2 120,719 83.3 93.4

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

Analogously to the address section, the remainder of this section presents results only for persons living in housing 

units. 

4.3. Characteristics of Person Records with PIKs and without PIKs 

Table 7 contrasts the ACS demographic characteristics, region and response mode of persons with PIKs and those 

without PIKs living in housing units in the 2010 ACS. 

The most salient result in Table 7 is that nearly 80 percent of persons without PIKs in the 2010 ACS came from 

households that were interviewed either by CATI or CAPI – while CATI/CAPI households comprised only 31.3 

percent of the entire (unweighted) 2010 ACS response data sample.32 The low PIK assignment rate for CATI and 

suggests that, relative to mail respondents, name and date of birth data collected from CATI/CAPI householders 

may be less reliable or absent, thus affecting PIK assignment. In fact, this finding is consistent with how some 

CATI/CAPI interviews may be conducted. When the respondent raises privacy concerns about names or other 

personal identifiable information, and in order to obtain the interview, ACS interviewers are trained to allow 

answers such as initials, “lady of the household”, or “gentleman of the household”.

 

32 The share of person records without PIKs was over-represented in both CAPI subcategories. 
18

In addition, further examination showed that relative to the race, Hispanic origin and age distributions of mail 

respondents, the distributions of CATI and CAPI Nonresponse households were skewed towards the Hispanic and 

Black Alone groups (see Appendix II, Table 1). CAPI Nonresponse households also had higher proportions of 

younger people (18-44), movers and SOR alone compared to mail respondents. Meanwhile, relative to mail, the 

CAPI Direct category was skewed towards the AIAN alone and rural groups. These patterns are reflected in the age, 

race and Hispanic origin distributions of the general unPIKed relative to the PIKed group in Table 7 below – as most 

of the unPIKed group is composed of CATI/CAPI respondents.33,34

 

33 The same qualitative results were found by NORC (2011). However, their report did not examine PIK assignment patterns by 

response mode. Also see http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/library/2008/2008_Joshipura_01.pdf.

34 Future research will explore the relationship between demographic, socio-economic, mode, regional and local characteristics 

and the likelihood of receiving a PIK. 
19

Table 7. Distributions of Demographic Characteristics, Response Mode and Region of Persons with and 

without PIKs in the 2010 ACS 

Universe: 2010 ACS persons living in housing units 

ACS Demographic Characteristics, Response 

Mode, and Region

2010 ACS Persons 2010 ACS Persons with 

PIKs

2010 ACS Persons 

without PIKs

Count Percent Count Percent Count Percent 

Total 4,326,036 100.0 4,083,685 100.0 242,351 100.0

Hispanic or Latino Origin

 Hispanic 542,890 12.5 484,543 11.9 58,347 24.1

 Non Hispanic 3,783,146 87.5 3,599,142 88.1 184,004 75.9

Race

 White Alone 3,418,850 79.0 3,248,926 79.6 169,924 70.1

 Black Alone 412,411 9.5 383,547 9.4 28,864 11.9

 American Indian or Alaska Native Alone 41,886 1.0 37,907 0.9 3,979 1.6

 Asian Alone 189,241 4.4 175,805 4.3 13,436 5.5

 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

 Alone 5,919 0.1 5,317 0.1 602 0.2

 Some Other Race Alone 146,981 3.4 127,792 3.1 19,189 7.9

 Two or More Races 110,748 2.6 104,391 2.6 6,357 2.6

Age

 0-2 152,665 3.5 142,731 3.5 9,934 4.1

 3-17 848,408 19.6 795,590 19.5 52,818 21.8

 18-24 336,000 7.8 311,046 7.6 24,954 10.3

 25-44 1,045,017 24.2 980,657 24.0 64,360 26.6

 45-64 1,257,580 29.1 1,197,505 29.3 60,075 24.8

 65-74 376,531 8.7 359,589 8.8 16,942 7.0

 75+ 309,835 7.2 296,567 7.3 13,268 5.5

Sex

 Male 2,091,391 48.3 1,971,169 48.3 120,222 49.6

 Female 2,234,645 51.7 2,112,516 51.7 122,129 50.4

Mode

Mail 2,972,654 68.7 2,922,566 71.6 50,088 20.7

 CATI 545,695 12.6 455,290 11.1 90,405 37.3

 CAPI 807,687 18.7 705,829 17.3 101,858 42.0

 CAPI Direct 74,570 1.7 63,900 1.6 10,670 4.4

 CAPI Nonresponse 733,117 17.0 641,929 15.7 91,188 37.6

Region

 Northeast 808,598 18.7 763,215 18.7 45,383 18.7

 Midwest 1,162,122 26.9 1,114,060 27.3 48,062 19.8

 South 1,433,145 33.1 1,349,763 33.1 83,382 34.4

 West 922,171 21.3 856,647 21.0 65,524 27.1

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
20

4.4. Demographic Characteristics and Mode Match Results 

Table 8 shows the number and percentage of person records with PIKs and match ratios by demographic 

characteristics and response mode of persons in the 2010 ACS. 35 Note that the demographic characteristics and 

mode classification in this table are based on data from the 2010 ACS. Match results for demographic groups by 

mode subcategories are presented and discussed in Appendix V. 

The two more salient results in Table 8 involve the youngest age group, CATI/CAPI respondents and the SOR alone 

group. The youngest (0 to 2) group had a considerably lower match ratio than any other demographic group, even if 

only those with PIKs were taken into consideration. At the same time, the incidence of persons without PIKs was 

higher among CATI and CAPI respondents, and the SOR alone group relative to other groups. These findings, as 

well as others, are described in more detail below. 

While the percentage of persons with PIKs did not vary considerably across age groups, the match ratios ranged 

from 75.8 percent (ages 0 to 2) to 95.6 percent (ages 75 and above) – an almost 20 percentage point difference. In 

the 0 to 2 age group, 93.5 percent had a PIK, but a much lower percent (75.8) were in both the 2010 ACS and 

administrative records. That is, almost 19 percent of those with a PIK in this age group could not be found in 

administrative records (data not shown). 

Those aged 3 to 17 also had a lower match ratio compared to older age groups, but were a distant second relative to 

the 0 to 2 age group. Out of the 3 to 17 age group, 4.3 percent had a PIK but were not found in administrative 

records compared to 1.9 percent or less for those 18 and over (data not shown). 

There are several reasons why the younger age groups, and particularly children of ages 0 to 2, had lower coverage 

in administrative records. As described in the 2010 CMS, “tax data are one important source of information on 

children in administrative records, therefore, how and when taxes are filed in combination with particular aspects of 

the tax data that the Census Bureau received from the IRS impact the coverage of children in administrative records. 

Babies born on or after January 1, 2010 would not be claimed on 2009 taxes, therefore they may appear in the 2010 

ACS, but they would not be in the administrative records data used for this report. Additionally, tax forms such as 

1040EZ do not collect data on dependents, and the IRS 1040 data used in this study only had information on the first 

four dependents on a tax return, potentially limiting the number of children reported in larger households.”36

 Future 

research will assess other types of tax return data that include all dependents. 

Furthermore, non-tax administrative records containing information on children had reference dates as of April 1, 

2010 or prior. Therefore, 2010 ACS babies born in 2010 after Census Day effectively had zero probability of being 

found in administrative records.

 

35 Future research will employ regression methods to explore relationships between demographic, geographic and socioeconomic characteristics and the likelihood of being found in administrative records. 

36 See page 26 of 2010 CMS. 
21

Table 8. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person Count and Match by Demographic Characteristics 

and Mode 

Universe: 2010 ACS persons living in housing units

ACS Demographic 

Characteristics and 

Mode

Persons in 

the 2010 ACS 2010 ACS persons with PIKs Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records

Count Count Percent

Match Ratio

as a percentage 

of all ACS persons

Match Ratio

as a percentage of 

ACS persons with 

PIKs

Total 4,326,036 4,083,685 94.4 92.4 97.9

Hispanic or Latino 

Origin

 Hispanic 542,890 484,543 89.3 84.3 94.5

 Non Hispanic 3,783,146 3,599,142 95.1 93.6 98.3

Race

 White Alone 3,418,850 3,248,926 95.0 93.3 98.2

 Black Alone 412,411 383,547 93.0 91.0 97.9

 American Indian or

 Alaska Native Alone 41,886 37,907 90.5 88.8 98.1

 Asian Alone 189,241 175,805 92.9 89.7 96.5

 Native Hawaiian or 

 Other Pacific 

 Islander Alone 5,919 5,317 89.8 86.5 96.2

 Some Other Race 

 Alone 146,981 127,792 86.9 81.4 93.6

 Two or More Races 110,748 104,391 94.3 90.3 95.8

Age

 0-2 152,665 142,731 93.5 75.8 81.0

 3-17 848,408 795,590 93.8 89.5 95.5

 18-24 336,000 311,046 92.6 90.6 97.9

 25-44 1,045,017 980,657 93.8 92.7 98.8

 45-64 1,257,580 1,197,505 95.2 94.9 99.7

 65-74 376,531 359,589 95.5 95.3 99.8

 75+ 309,835 296,567 95.7 95.6 99.9

Sex

 Male 2,091,391 1,971,169 94.3 92.1 97.7

 Female 2,234,645 2,112,516 94.5 92.7 98.0

Mode

 Mail 2,972,654 2,922,566 98.3 96.7 98.4

 CATI 545,695 455,290 83.4 81.3 97.5

 CAPI 807,687 705,829 87.4 84.0 96.1

 CAPI Direct 74,570 63,900 85.7 83.7 97.7

 CAPI Nonresponse 733,117 641,929 87.6 84.0 95.9

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
22

Relative to younger age groups, older age groups (45 and over) had higher proportions of person records that were 

PIKed as well as higher match ratios. The difference was more sizable when it came to match ratios. Those 65 and 

above in the ACS were assigned PIKs at a rate of almost 96 percent and virtually all of those with PIKs (99.8 

percent) were found in administrative records.37 Administrative record coverage of the 45 to 64 age group with PIKs 

was also nearly exhaustive at 99.7 percent. 

The 18 to 24 age group in the ACS had the lowest PIK rate of all age groups at 92.6 percent and the third lowest 

percentage of person records in administrative records (90.6 percent). However, administrative record coverage of 

those aged 18 to 24 with a PIK was considerably higher at almost 98 percent. 

CATI and CAPI respondents in the 2010 ACS had lower PIK rates (83.4 and 87. 4 percent respectively) than mail 

respondents (98.3 percent), and the PIK rate among the two CAPI subcategories was very similar.38 Almost 17 

percent of CATI and 13 percent of CAPI respondents were not assigned a PIK. This result is consistent with those 

in the previous section, which suggested that relative to mail respondents, name and date of birth data collected 

from CATI/CAPI householders may be less reliable or absent, affecting PIK assignment. Not surprisingly, match 

ratios were lower for CATI/CAPI respondents than for mail respondents – 96.7 percent compared to 81.3 percent 

and 84.0 percent for CATI and CAPI respondents respectively. Again, the match rates of CAPI Direct and CAPI 

Nonresponse respondents were virtually the same. When only those with PIKs were taken into consideration, the 

match ratios across response modes (including CAPI subcategories) became close in magnitude. 

Administrative records covered a substantial proportion of the Hispanics surveyed in the 2010 ACS. Still, persons 

of Hispanic origin in the 2010 ACS obtained PIKs and were found in administrative records at lower rates relative to 

non-Hispanics. The PIK assignment rates for Hispanics and non-Hispanics were 89.3 percent and 95.1 percent 

respectively. Meanwhile, the match ratio was 84.3 percent for Hispanics and 93.6 percent for non-Hispanics. When 

only Hispanic persons with PIKs were taken into consideration, their match ratio increased by 10 percentage points 

and the difference in match ratios by Hispanic origin was reduced to 3.8 percentage points. 

Across race groups,39 the percentage of persons PIKed in the 2010 ACS ranged from 86.9 percent for the SOR alone 

group to 95.0 percent for the White alone group. The match ratio ranking was the same as the ranking of percentage 

with PIKs - although the levels were lower. The SOR alone group had the lowest percentage of records PIKed at 

86.9 percent and also had the lowest match ratio at 81.4 percent. This lower PIK assignment percentage for the SOR 

alone group was largely driven by the Hispanic group, as nearly 96 percent of those classified as SOR alone in the 

2010 ACS were of Hispanic origin.40

No differences were found by sex in the percentage of PIKed person records or in the percentage of those found in 

both the 2010 ACS and administrative records. 

4.5. Region 

Table 9 shows the percentage of 2010 ACS person records with PIKs, and the 2010 ACS and administrative records 

person match ratios by region. The match ratios are expressed both as a percentage of all persons in the 2010 ACS 

and as a percentage of only those with PIKs. Note that the source of the region variable in Table 9 is the 2010 ACS. 

 

37The extensive administrative records coverage of those aged 65 and above can be largely attributed to the inclusion of Medicare 

Part B in AR. 

38 Match results by mode subcategories across demographic characteristics are presented and discussed in Appendix V.

39 Race categories were created following the methodology employed in the 2010 CMS: “Individuals who responded to the question on race by indicating only one race are referred to as the race-alone population or the group that reported only one race 

category. Six categories make up this population: White alone, Black or African American alone, AIAN alone, Asian alone, 

NHPI alone, and SOR alone. Individuals who chose more than one of the six race categories are referred to as the Two or More 

Races population. All respondents who indicated more than one race can be collapsed into the Two or More Races category 

which, combined with the six race-alone categories, yields seven mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories. Thus, the six 

race-alone categories and the Two or More Races category sum to the total population.” See page 6 of the 2010 CMS.

40 This was also the case in the 2010 CMS. 
23

The percentages of 2010 ACS person records PIKed did not vary a lot by region. They ranged from 92.9 percent in 

the West to 95.9 percent in the Midwest (a 3 percentage point difference). The match ratios, expressed as a 

percentage of all 2010 ACS person records, followed the same pattern. They ranged from 90.3 percent in the West 

to 94.0 percent in the Midwest. The Northeast had the second highest match ratio with 92.7 percent followed by the 

South with 92.2 percent. 

This regional ranking of match ratios is different from the one observed in addresses with the exception of the 

Midwest – which was at the top for both addresses and persons. In contrast to the person results, the South and 

West held higher address match ratios than the Northeast. 

It is worth noting that when the match rate was expressed as a percentage of 2010 ACS person records with PIKs, 

the variation in match ratios by region was reduced to just 0.9 percentage points, and the levels became considerably 

higher (in the high 90s) for all regions. Furthermore, the match ratio of the Midwest was virtually undistinguishable 

from those of the Northeast and the South. This suggests that some of the regional differences observed in match 

ratios (when expressed as a percentage of all 2010 ACS person records) were due to differences in PIK assignment 

rates, and not necessarily to administrative records undercoverage per se. 

Table 9. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person Match by Region 

Universe: 2010 ACS persons living in housing units

ACS

Region

2010 ACS 

Persons

2010 ACS 

Persons with a PIK Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records

Count Count

As Percent 

of 2010 

ACS 

Persons

Count

Match Ratio 

as % of ACS 

Person Count

Match Ratio 

as % of ACS 

PIK Count

Total 4,326,036 4,083,685 94.4 3,997,069 92.4 97.9

Northeast 808,598 763,215 94.4 749,200 92.7 98.2

Midwest 1,162,122 1,114,060 95.9 1,092,811 94.0 98.1

South 1,433,145 1,349,763 94.2 1,321,925 92.2 97.9

West 922,171 856,647 92.9 833,133 90.3 97.3

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 

4.6. State by Federal and Commercial Administrative Records Data 

Table 10 shows the percentage of persons in the ACS with PIKs, and the 2010 ACS and administrative records 

person match ratios by state. It also highlights the contribution of commercial data to administrative records 

coverage. Specifically, it presents state-level match ratios for federal administrative records (fourth column) as well 

as for combined federal and commercial administrative records (fifth column). Finally, the last column shows the 

increase in match ratios attributable to commercial data. 

Match ratios (column 5) ranged from 87.3 percent in New Mexico to 95.4 percent in Iowa - an 8.0 percentage point 

difference. Consistent with the results by region, the five states with the highest match ratios were from the 

Midwest: Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.41

 Out of the five states with the lowest match 

ratios, four were Western states (New Mexico, Alaska, California and Hawaii) and the fifth one was the District of 

 

41 Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Kentucky had the same match ratio as Nebraska at 94.6 percent. 
24

Columbia.42 These five states had a higher percentage of CAPI Nonresponse and Hispanic respondents relative to 

the rest of the states.43 When taking into account only person records with PIKs, the match ratio levels increased to 

the high 90s for all states and the spread across them decreased to just 2.7 percentage points (data not shown). As 

mentioned in the previous section, this suggests that a considerable portion of the observed geographic variation can 

be attributed to differences in PIK assignment rates across geography. 

The incorporation of commercial administrative records increased the match ratios of all states, but rather modestly. 

On average, the increase was approximately 1 percentage point. Across states, increases ranged from a negligible 

0.1 percentage point in Alaska to 1.5 percentage points in Michigan. Out of the 19 states experiencing increases of 1 

percentage point or more, 15 of them were in the South and had match ratios in the bottom half of the distribution. 

Relative to 2010 ACS persons found in federal administrative records, those matching to only commercial data had 

higher percentages of CAPI respondents, persons with ages between 25 and 64, the Black alone group, and persons 

living in the South (see Appendix II, Table 2). 

The increases in the overall and state-level match ratios attributable to commercial administrative records were 

substantially higher for addresses than for persons. For addresses, they ranged from 5 percentage points in Maryland 

to 16.4 percentage points in Wyoming. This suggests that commercial administrative records data used in this study 

provides a sizable addition to address coverage of Federal sources, but that its marginal contribution to person 

coverage is not as relevant. 

 

42 Arizona, also a Western state, virtually tied the District of Columbia with a match ratio of 90.3 percent. 

43 Specifically, in the 2010 ACS response data sample, these five states had 22.2 percentage points more Hispanics and 6.5 

percentage points more CAPI Nonresponse respondents than the rest of the states. Please remember these numbers are 

unweighted. 
25 

Table 10. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person Match by State 

Universe: 2010 ACS persons living in housing units

ACS State

2010 ACS 

Person 

Records

Percent of 2010 

ACS Person 

Records

with PIKs

Match Ratio of 

2010 ACS and 

Federal 

Administrative 

Records*

Match Ratio of 2010 

ACS and Federal/

Commercial 

Administrative 

Records*

Percentage Point 

Increase in Match 

Ratio attributable 

to Commercial 

Data

Total 4,326,036 94.4 91.5 92.4 0.9

Alabama 67,333 94.6 92.0 93.1 1.2

Alaska 12,085 89.9 88.8 89.0 0.1

Arizona 72,466 92.7 89.4 90.3 0.9

Arkansas 40,984 94.6 91.9 92.9 1.1

California 455,196 92.3 88.3 89.3 1.0

Colorado 67,983 94.0 91.1 91.9 0.8

Connecticut 47,684 94.3 92.0 92.6 0.7

Delaware 12,989 95.9 93.2 94.2 1.0

District of Columbia 6,970 92.5 89.2 90.2 1.1

Florida 206,307 93.6 90.5 91.7 1.3

Georgia 113,287 93.2 89.9 91.1 1.2

Hawaii 19,025 91.8 89.3 89.9 0.7

Idaho 23,564 93.5 90.5 91.2 0.8

Illinois 188,271 95.0 92.5 93.1 0.7

Indiana 95,882 95.8 93.5 94.2 0.6

Iowa 62,860 96.7 94.8 95.4 0.5

Kansas 49,010 95.8 93.5 94.0 0.5

Kentucky 61,880 96.1 93.5 94.6 1.1

Louisiana 59,907 93.6 90.8 92.0 1.2

Maine 26,520 95.2 92.9 93.8 0.9

Maryland 72,866 95.3 92.5 93.3 0.8

Massachusetts 85,032 95.2 92.8 93.5 0.6

Michigan 176,294 96.1 91.0 92.5 1.5

Minnesota 125,672 96.5 94.7 95.2 0.5

Mississippi 37,344 95.3 92.3 93.6 1.3

Missouri 94,291 95.4 93.0 93.9 0.9

Montana 18,119 92.8 90.7 91.3 0.6

Nebraska 36,858 96.0 94.2 94.6 0.4

Nevada 29,996 93.7 90.1 91.1 1.0

New Hampshire 20,946 95.1 93.0 93.6 0.6

New Jersey 116,763 93.9 91.5 92.0 0.6

New Mexico 26,731 89.2 86.5 87.3 0.8

New York 265,509 92.8 90.0 90.8 0.8

North Carolina 120,135 94.2 91.2 92.3 1.1

North Dakota 16,177 95.9 94.6 94.9 0.3

Ohio 170,181 96.2 93.8 94.7 0.9

Oklahoma 62,149 94.1 91.4 92.4 1.0

Oregon 52,908 95.0 92.0 93.1 1.1

Pennsylvania 218,339 96.0 93.9 94.6 0.7

Rhode Island 12,934 95.0 92.8 93.5 0.7

South Carolina 56,305 94.3 91.5 92.6 1.1

South Dakota 17,070 95.1 93.5 93.7 0.2

Tennessee 81,952 95.1 92.4 93.5 1.1

Texas 304,569 93.5 89.9 90.9 1.1

Utah 42,244 94.1 90.7 91.2 0.5

Vermont 14,871 95.2 93.5 94.1 0.6

Virginia 101,395 94.9 92.3 93.1 0.8

Washington 93,593 94.7 92.1 92.9 0.8

West Virginia 26,773 95.1 92.5 93.7 1.2

Wisconsin 129,556 95.9 94.1 94.6 0.5

Wyoming 8,261 93.1 90.8 91.5 0.6

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

* Match ratios are expressed as a percentage of all 2010 ACS person records. 
26

4.7. 2010 Census Match Study 

As discussed earlier in Section 2.9, although results from the 2010 ACS cannot be strictly compared to those from 

the 2010 CMS, a descriptive, non-statistical comparison is valuable to round off the overall assessment of 

administrative records coverage with respect to the ACS. With the strong caveats discussed in Section 2.9, this 

subsection discusses the person-level results in relation to those found in the 2010 CMS. Recall that the 2010 ACS 

data are unweighted and results reflect the presence or absence of administrative records for the persons in the 

survey response file. The 2010 ACS results are not intended to reflect the entire U.S. population. 

 

The percentage of 2010 ACS person records with PIKs as well as match ratios in the 2010 ACS and the 2010 

Census exhibited the same patterns across groups. The magnitudes were generally higher in the 2010 ACS with the 

exception of children 0 to 2 years old.44,45

 As already pointed out, this age group is a particularly hard to cover 

population with existing administrative records. This was also the case in the 2010 Census, but the problem was 

exacerbated by more pronounced time frame misalignments between the 2010 ACS sample and the administrative 

records at hand. The ACS is a rolling sample where households are interviewed throughout the year while 

administrative records used in this study (and the 2010 CMS) had reference dates of April 1, 2010 or prior. Thus, 

relative to the 2010 Census, the 2010 ACS had a higher proportion of children born in 2010, and in particular, after 

the Census reference date of April 1. 

Not surprisingly, the lower coverage for the 0 to 2 age group was primarily driven by babies born in 2010 (i.e., age 

0). Compared to children of ages 1 and 2 in the 2010 ACS, children that were born in 2010 had much lower match 

ratios – 49.9 percent versus 87.0 and 88.3 percent for children of ages 1 and 2 respectively (data not shown). 

Further examination also revealed that the proportion of ACS children born in 2010 who were also found in 

administrative records decreased as the month of interview was later in the year. 

The person match ratios across regions exhibited the same pattern in the 2010 ACS and the 2010 Census. Regarding 

states, there was general agreement between the 2010 ACS and Census on the states with the lowest and highest 

person match ratios. Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Vermont were among the states with the highest match 

ratios, and New Mexico, Arizona, California, the District of Columbia and Nevada were among the states with the 

lowest match ratios in both the 2010 ACS and Census. Match ratios across states were larger in the 2010 ACS than 

in the 2010 Census.46

 The spread in the state-level match ratios was very similar in the two studies.47

5. Person-Address Pairs Count and Match Results 

This section discusses administrative records coverage of persons at addresses in the 2010 ACS, and presents 

coverage results by type of living quarter, demographic characteristics, response mode and geographic area. It also 

assesses the contribution of commercial administrative records data to the coverage of person-address records in the 

2010 ACS, and discusses results in relation to those found in the 2010 CMS. Match results by mode subcategories 

across demographic characteristics are presented and discussed in Appendix VI. 

As in the address and person sections, the match numbers and ratios in the tables that follow represent the match of 

the 2010 ACS to both federal and commercial administrative records. However, in order to assess the contribution 

of commercial data to administrative records coverage, the state table presents state-level match ratios for federal 

and commercial data separately. 

 

44 Overall results held when both housing units and group quarters were included in the analysis. 

45 This age group had a match ratio 2.7 percentage points lower in the 2010 ACS. 

46 The only exception was Alaska, which had a slightly lower match ratio in the 2010 ACS (just 0.5 percentage points lower). 

This can be partly attributed to the higher proportion of CAPI respondents in that state relative to Census, and the associated 

lower PIK rate. The proportion of CAPI respondents in Alaska in the 2010 ACS was 51.3 percent – compared to 24.8 percent of 

NRFU in the 2010 Census. When only persons with PIKs were taken into account, Alaska’s match ratio increased to 98.9 

percent, becoming the second highest match ratio among states.

47 A 10.7 percentage point difference in the 2010 Census versus an 8.0 percentage point difference in the 2010 ACS. 
27

Also note that, as discussed in the Data and Methodology section, no best-address model was applied to 

administrative records data to try to identify the best address for a given person. Instead, all unique person-address 

pairs available in administrative records were used in the analysis. 

As in the address and person coverage analysis sections, this section first presents general results for all living 

quarters (housing units and group quarters) followed by more detailed results for just housing units. 

5.1. Overall 

Figure 3 below shows the number and match of 2010 ACS and administrative records person-address pairs.48 All 

persons in the 2010 ACS were associated with a MAFID, thus all 2010 ACS person and PIK counts discussed in the 

person section are the same as in Figure 2. For instance, there were 4.5 million people in the 2010 ACS and all of 

them had a MAFID associated with them. 

There were 632.3 unique PIK-MAFID pairs in administrative records. Of the 4.47 million persons in the 2010 ACS 

(all with MAFIDs), 3.32 million (or 74.3 percent) matched to PIK-MAFID pairs in administrative records. These 

3.32 million represented 78.8 percent of 2010 ACS persons with PIKs. 

 

48 As explained in the data section, the 2010 ACS included some duplicate person-address pairs whereas the administrative 

records contained unique person-address pairs. This resulted in instances where a single administrative record person-address 

pair matched to multiple ACS person-address pairs.
28

Figure 3. Count and Match of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person-Address Pairs

Universe: All person-address pairs

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 

5.2. Housing Units and Group Quarters 

Table 11 shows person-address record counts and match ratios for housing units and group quarters separately as 

well as overall. Compared to the overall address and person match ratios (92.7 and 92.1 percent respectively), the 

match ratio for person-address pairs was notably lower at 74.3 percent. Even when considering only 2010 ACS 

persons with PIKs, the match ratio remained relatively low at 78.8 percent. 

A closer look at the match ratios of housing units and group quarters independently revealed a stark difference 

between them. The person-address match ratio for persons in housing units was 76.5 percent while that for persons 

in group quarters was just 7.1 percent. Even when considering only persons with PIKs, the difference in the match 

ratio between housing units and group quarters did not decrease – and in fact, became larger. These results suggest 

that the administrative records used in this study did not provide good coverage of addresses for people living in 

group quarters. 

2010 ACS persons 

with no PIK

258,062

Administrative 

records unique 

person-address 

(PIK-MAFID) pairs 

632.3 million

Person-Address 

pairs in the 2010 

ACS

 4,470,984

2010 ACS PIK-MAFID 

pairs in 

administrative 

records

3,321,671

2010 ACS persons 

with a PIK and MAFID 

(PIK-MAFID pairs)

4,212,922

2010 ACS PIK-MAFID 

pairs not in 

administrative records

891,251
29

Table 11. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person-Address Count and Match by 

Type of Living Quarter 

Universe: 2010 ACS person-address pairs 

ACS Type of 

Living Quarter

2010 ACS personaddress pairs*

2010 ACS person-address pairs 

with PIKs

Match of person-address pairs 

in 2010 ACS and Administrative Records

Count Count

As a percent of 

person-address 

pairs

Count

Match Ratio

as a percent of 

all ACS personaddress pairs

Match Ratio 

as a percent of 

ACS personaddress pairs 

with PIKs

Total 4,470,984 4,212,922 94.2 3,321,671 74.3 78.8

Housing Units 4,326,036 4,083,685 94.4 3,311,397 76.5 81.1

Group Quarters 144,948 129,237 89.2 10,274 7.1 7.9

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 

* All persons in the 2010 ACS have MAFIDs. 

While administrative records contained the vast majority of housing unit addresses and persons living in housing 

units in the 2010 ACS, they did not do as well at placing persons at the correct address. In particular, there were 0.7 

million persons49 in the 2010 ACS that were also found in administrative records for whom administrative records 

did not provide an address or the correct address. This represents approximately 18 percent of the 4.0 million 

persons living in housing units in the 2010 ACS that were also in administrative records. 

Further examination revealed that persons in the 2010 ACS living in housing units for whom a person-address match 

was not found in administrative records tended to be CAPI respondents, more mobile,50 and be under 18 years of age 

relative to those with a person-address match in administrative records.51

There are additional factors that contributed to the relatively low person-address match ratio. One regards time 

frame misalignment issues where the day the ACS household is interviewed fell outside the time period covered by 

the administrative records used in this study. As already mentioned, the administrative records used in this study 

have reference dates as of April 1, 2010 or prior while 2010 ACS data are collected throughout the 2010 calendar 

year. An additional contributing factor is ACS’ residency rules. According to the ACS, anyone who is currently 

living or staying at the sample address for more than two months is considered a resident of that address. Therefore, 

the ACS may place persons at addresses that are not their usual residence (as long as they stay there for more than 

two months). By contrast, administrative records generally include a person’s usual place of residence.

As in the address and person sections, the remainder of this section presents results only for housing units. 

 

49 The 0.7 million is derived from the 4.0 million persons in housing units that were in both the 2010 ACS and administrative 

records minus the 3.3 million persons in the 2010 ACS (living in housing units) that were found with the same address in 

administrative records.

50 Mobility is measured by the percentage of persons over 1 year of age that did not live in the same house or apartment a year 

prior to answering the survey.

51 Of those 2010 ACS persons living in housing units without a person-address match in administrative records, 31.1 percent of 

them had moved in the last year, 38.3 percent came from CAPI respondent housing units and 48.9 percent were under 18 years 

old. By contrast, only 7 percent of those with a person-address match had moved the prior year, 12.4 percent came from CAPI 

respondent housing units and 26.3 percent were under 18.
30

5.3. Demographic Characteristics and ACS Mode 

Table 12 shows 2010 ACS and administrative records person-address match ratios by ACS race, Hispanic origin, 

age, sex and mode subcategories. As mentioned earlier, all persons in the 2010 ACS are associated with an address 

(i.e., MAFID), thus the count and percentages of 2010 ACS persons with PIKs and MAFIDs are the same as in the 

person analysis, and therefore, are not reproduced in this table. 

Compared to the person results, the match ratios for person-address records were considerably lower across all 

demographic and mode groups. In addition, the spread of the person-address match ratios was larger than in the 

person results – more substantially for the race, age and mode groups than for the Hispanic origin and sex 

categories. 

The groups with the lowest person-address match ratios were CAPI respondents, children ages 0 to 2 and the AIAN 

group. This was partly due to these three groups having the lowest (or among the lowest) address and/or person 

match ratios. 

As in the address and person results, a higher percentage of 2010 ACS person-address pairs in mail matched to 

administrative records (84.8 percent) compared to CATI (69.9 percent) and CAPI (50.8 percent). A closer look at 

the CAPI subcategories reveals that the CAPI Direct group has a much lower match rate than the CAPI Nonresponse 

(although this latter subcategory still has a match ratio that is substantially lower than CATI and mail). The 

difference in match ratios between mail and CATI/CAPI was considerably higher for person-address pairs than for 

address and person records. 

The difference in the match ratio between mail and CATI was largely due to the lower PIK assignment rate of CATI 

respondents. When the match ratio was calculated as a percentage of those person-address pairs with PIKs, the 

match ratio for CATI respondents increased to 83.8 percent, which was just 2.4 percentage points lower than the 

match ratio of mail respondents. However, this was not the case for CAPI respondents overall and CAPI 

subcategories. Their match ratios, expressed as a percentage of those person-address records with PIKs, remained 

among the lowest of any group in Table 12. In particular, the match ratio for the CAPI Direct category was the 

lowest of any group by far. This pattern was also observed in, and also partly driven by, address match ratios. The 

match ratio for CAPI Direct addresses was approximately 68 percentage points lower than the one for mail and 

CATI housing units. 

Further examination revealed that relative to mail respondents, CAPI Nonresponse respondents tended to have a 

higher share of Hispanics, Black alone, SOR alone (most of whom are of Hispanic origin), younger persons and 

movers. Relative to the mail category, the CAPI Direct group had a higher share of AIAN. This is to be expected 

since the CAPI Direct group contains all households in Remote Alaska in the 2010 ACS response sample (see 

Appendix II, Table 1). 
31

Table 12. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person-Address Match by Demographic Characteristics 

and Mode 

Universe: 2010 ACS person-address pairs (only housing units) 

ACS Demographic Characteristics and Mode

2010 ACS 

PersonAddress 

Records

Match Count and Ratios 

of 2010 ACS and Administrative Records PersonAddress Records

Count Count

As Percent of all 

ACS personaddress pairs

As Percent of 

ACS personaddress pairs 

with PIKs

Total 4,326,036 3,311,397 76.5 81.1

Hispanic or Latino Origin

 Hispanic 542,890 350,415 64.5 72.3

 Non Hispanic 3,783,146 2,960,982 78.3 82.3

Race

 White Alone 3,418,850 2,688,923 78.6 82.8

 Black Alone 412,411 287,389 69.7 74.9

 American Indian or Alaska Native Alone 41,886 21,520 51.4 56.8

 Asian Alone 189,241 144,000 76.1 81.9

 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander Alone 5,919 3,789 64.0 71.3

 Some Other Race Alone 146,981 89,314 60.8 69.9

 Two or More Races 110,748 76,462 69.0 73.2

Age

 0-2 152,665 81,992 53.7 57.4

 3-17 848,408 571,587 67.4 71.8

 18-24 336,000 218,141 64.9 70.1

 25-44 1,045,017 798,466 76.4 81.4

 45-64 1,257,580 1,054,608 83.9 88.1

 65-74 376,531 321,854 85.5 89.5

 75+ 309,835 264,749 85.4 89.3

Sex

 Male 2,091,391 1,588,184 75.9 80.6

 Female 2,234,645 1,723,213 77.1 81.6

Mode

 Mail 2,972,654 2,519,469 84.8 86.2

 CATI 545,695 381,473 69.9 83.8

 CAPI 807,687 410,455 50.8 58.2

 CAPI Direct 74,570 7,317 9.8 11.5

 CAPI Nonresponse 733,117 403,138 55.0 62.8

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 
32

Across age groups, person-address match ratios ranged from 53.7 percent to 85.5 percent. These results followed the 

same general pattern as the person results for age, where match ratios were higher for the older age groups and lower 

for younger ones. The age groups 65 to 74, and 75 and over had the highest, and almost identical match ratios (85.5 

and 85.4 percent respectively), followed by those aged 45 to 64 (83.9percent). The age group 0 to 2 had the lowest 

match ratio at 53.7percent followed at a distance by the 18 to 24 age group at 64.9 percent. Just as in the person 

analysis, the low person-address match ratio for the 0 to 2 age group was, to a great extent, driven by administrative 

records under-coverage of the youngest group and time frame misalignments that primarily affected those born in 

2010 (i.e., age 0). Specifically, the person-address match ratio for babies born in 2010 was just 35.7 percent 

compared to 61.0 percent for those of age 1 and 63.0 percent for those age 2 (data not shown). 

A higher percentage of non-Hispanic person-address records in the 2010 ACS (78.3 percent) matched to 

administrative records relative to Hispanics (64.5 percent). Likewise, the White alone group also had the highest 

person-address match ratio with 78.6 percent. The ranking of match ratios by race group changed relative to the 

person results though. The Asian alone, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander alone (NHPI) and SOR alone 

groups had higher rankings relative to the person results. In contrast, the Black alone, Two or more races, and 

particularly, the AIAN alone groups had lower rankings when compared to their person results. 

5.4. Region 

Table 13 presents the 2010 ACS and administrative records person-address match by region. The second column displays the 

2010 ACS person-address count, the third column shows the number of matched 2010 ACS and administrative records personaddress pairs, and the last two columns display the two versions of match ratios. As stated earlier, because all person records in 

the 2010 ACS have a MAFID, the number and percentage of person-address records with PIKs by region are the same as in the 

person analysis section, and therefore, are not reproduced in this table. 

Table 13. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person-Address Match by Region 

Universe: 2010 ACS person-address pairs (only housing units) 

ACS Region

2010 ACS PersonAddress Records

Match of 2010 ACS 

and Administrative 

Person-Address 

Records

Match Ratio

of 2010 ACS and 

Administrative PersonAddress Records

Match Ratio

of 2010 ACS and 

Administrative PersonAddress Records with PIKs

Count Count As percent of all ACS 

person-address records

As percent of ACS personaddress records with PIKs

Total 4,326,036 3,311,397 76.5 81.1

Northeast 808,598 620,838 76.8 81.3

Midwest 1,162,122 933,783 80.4 83.8

South 1,433,145 1,077,892 75.2 79.9

West 922,171 678,884 73.6 79.2

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 Administrative Records Data. 

The ranking of the match ratio by region follows that of the person analysis. The Midwest had the highest match 

ratio (80.4 percent) followed by the Northeast (76.8 percent), the South (75.2 percent) and finally the West (73.6 

percent). The spread by region (6.8 percentage points) was higher than the one found for persons (3.0 percentage 

points) and for addresses (4.0 percentage points). This was largely due to the Midwest having a person-address 

match ratio almost 4 percentage points above the second highest. 

When considering the match ratio as a percentage of 2010 ACS person-address records with PIKs, the spread by 

region was reduced by 2 percentage points with the levels for the South, West and Northeast becoming closer in 

magnitude. Just as with the person results, this seems to indicate that some of the differences observed across 

regions in person-address matches are due to differences in PIK assignment rates. 
33

5.5. State by Federal and Commercial Data 

Table 14 shows the 2010 ACS and administrative records person-address match by state, and also highlights the 

contribution of commercial data to state-level match ratios. The second column displays the 2010 ACS personaddress count, the third column shows the person-address match ratio of 2010 ACS and Federal administrative 

records, the fourth displays the person-address match ratio of 2010 ACS and combined federal and commercial 

administrative records, and the last column presents the percentage point increase in the person-address match ratios 

that can be attributed to commercial administrative records. 

The match ratios of combined federal and commercial administrative records and the 2010 ACS (column 3) ranged 

from 45.6 percent in Alaska to 83.2 percent in Ohio - a 37.6 percentage point difference. Four of the five states with 

the lowest match ratios were in the West and one was in the South: Alaska (45.6 percent), New Mexico (58.9 

percent), West Virginia (61.4 percent), Montana (61.4 percent) and Wyoming (61.9 percent). These five states were 

among the ten states with the lowest address match ratios, and two of them (Alaska and New Mexico) had the lowest 

person match ratios as well. In particular, in the 2010 ACS response data sample, these five states had a higher 

percentage of CAPI Direct and AIAN person-address pairs than the rest of the states.52

Alaska’s match ratio was substantially lower than the next state, New Mexico, which had a match ratio 13.3 

percentage points higher. Compared to the other four states in this group, Alaska had a considerably higher 

percentage of CAPI Direct respondents,53 and along Wyoming, was among the top five states with the highest rates 

of mobility in the U.S.54 (data not shown). 

 

52 Specifically, in the 2010 ACS response data sample, these five states had 12.7 percentage points more CAPI Direct and 7.3 

percentage points more AIAN respondents than the rest of the states. Please remember these numbers are unweighted. 

53 As mentioned earlier, this is expected since all Remote Alaska addresses in the 2010 ACS are subsampled directly into CAPI, 

and in addition, Alaska has a high percentage of unmailable/undeliverable addresses. 

54 Caution should be exercised if extrapolating 2010 mobility patterns into the future. In 2010, within and across state mobility 

flows were still influenced by the Great Recession. In turn, these mobility patterns are likely to have affected state-level personaddress match ratios. Future research using data from non-recessionary time periods may reveal different mobility and personplace match ratio patterns. 
34

Table 14. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Person-Address Match by State 

Universe: 2010 ACS person-address pairs (only housing units) 

ACS State 2010 ACS PersonAddress Records

Match Ratio of 

2010 ACS and 

Federal 

Administrative 

Person-Address 

Records

Match Ratio of 

2010 ACS and 

Combined Federal 

and Commercial 

Administrative 

Person-Address 

Records

Percentage Point 

Increase in Match 

Ratio attributable 

to Commercial 

Data

Total 4,326,036 76.1 76.5 0.5

Alabama 67,333 74.9 75.4 0.6

Alaska 12,085 45.6 45.6 0.0

Arizona 72,466 69.1 69.5 0.4

Arkansas 40,984 70.5 71.0 0.5

California 455,196 74.9 75.5 0.5

Colorado 67,983 75.7 76.1 0.4

Connecticut 47,684 80.7 81.1 0.4

Delaware 12,989 80.4 81.0 0.6

District of Columbia 6,970 73.3 73.9 0.6

Florida 206,307 77.4 78.2 0.8

Georgia 113,287 73.1 73.7 0.5

Hawaii 19,025 65.2 65.4 0.2

Idaho 23,564 69.6 69.9 0.3

Illinois 188,271 77.4 77.7 0.3

Indiana 95,882 79.8 80.2 0.3

Iowa 62,860 81.7 82.0 0.3

Kansas 49,010 77.9 78.2 0.3

Kentucky 61,880 76.7 77.2 0.6

Louisiana 59,907 73.1 73.7 0.6

Maine 26,520 71.5 71.9 0.4

Maryland 72,866 82.4 82.9 0.5

Massachusetts 85,032 80.1 80.5 0.4

Michigan 176,294 80.1 81.0 1.0

Minnesota 125,672 81.9 82.2 0.3

Mississippi 37,344 68.7 69.3 0.6

Missouri 94,291 77.3 77.7 0.4

Montana 18,119 61.2 61.4 0.2

Nebraska 36,858 76.4 76.6 0.2

Nevada 29,996 73.0 73.5 0.4

New Hampshire 20,946 77.4 77.7 0.3

New Jersey 116,763 78.5 78.8 0.3

New Mexico 26,731 58.6 58.9 0.3

New York 265,509 71.1 71.5 0.4

North Carolina 120,135 75.7 76.2 0.5

North Dakota 16,177 72.9 73.0 0.1

Ohio 170,181 82.7 83.2 0.5

Oklahoma 62,149 66.6 67.0 0.4

Oregon 52,908 77.3 77.8 0.6

Pennsylvania 218,339 80.3 80.7 0.4

Rhode Island 12,934 78.2 78.5 0.3

South Carolina 56,305 76.5 77.1 0.5

South Dakota 17,070 72.1 72.1 0.1

Tennessee 81,952 78.0 78.6 0.6

Texas 304,569 71.9 72.5 0.5

Utah 42,244 74.1 74.4 0.3

Vermont 14,871 68.8 69.0 0.2

Virginia 101,395 79.7 80.1 0.4

Washington 93,593 76.8 77.2 0.4

West Virginia 26,773 61.0 61.4 0.4

Wisconsin 129,556 82.6 82.9 0.3

Wyoming 8,261 61.7 61.9 0.2

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data. 
35

Four out of the five states with the highest person-address match ratios were in the Midwest and one was in the 

South: Ohio (83.2 percent), Wisconsin (82.9 percent), Maryland (82.9 percent), Minnesota (82.2 percent) and Iowa 

(82.0 percent). Taken as a group, these states tended to have a lower percentage of CAPI respondents, and AIAN 

and Hispanic groups compared to the five states with the lowest match ratios.55 No notable differences in mobility 

rates were found across the top five and bottom five states (see Appendix III, Table 1). These five states were 

among the five states with either the highest person and/or highest address match ratios.56

The contribution of commercial administrative records data to person-address records coverage was negligible, 

ranging from 0.02 percentage points in Alaska to 1.0 percentage points in Michigan. Taken together with the 

commercial evaluation results in the address and person sections, this evidence suggests that commercial 

administrative records data used in this study provided considerable coverage for addresses that would not have 

been covered otherwise by Federal sources. However, commercial data did not seem to extend coverage for 2010 

ACS persons or persons at addresses beyond what the Federal sources already provided.57

5.6. 2010 Census Match Study 

With the strong caveats discussed in Section 2.9, this subsection discusses the person-address results in relation to 

those found in the 2010 CMS. Recall that the 2010 ACS data are unweighted and results reflect the presence or 

absence of administrative records for the persons at addresses in the survey response file. The 2010 ACS results are 

not intended to reflect all housing units or the entire U.S. address or person populations. 

The overall person-address match ratio in the 2010 ACS was higher than in the 2010 Census.58 This is partly 

attributable to the higher address-level and person-level match ratios in the 2010 ACS. In addition, this study makes 

use of all unique person-address pairs in administrative records while in the 2010 CMS, PIKs were assigned to 

addresses based on a best-address model.59

The 2010 CMS found similar match ratio patterns by demographic and mode groups. In general, match ratios across 

groups in the 2010 ACS were higher than in the 2010 Census with the exception of the 0 to 2 age category. For this 

group, the 2010 ACS match ratio was 2 percentage points lower than the one in the 2010 Census. This result was 

also observed in the person analysis, and was driven by the same time frame misalignment issues between the 2010 

ACS sample and the administrative records at hand.60

 

Regarding region and states, the pattern of person-address match ratios by region in the 2010 ACS was the same as 

in the 2010 Census. The states with the five highest and lowest person-address match ratios followed a regional 

pattern similar to the one found in the CMS, with Midwestern states dominating the top five and Western states 

comprising the majority of the lowest five. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio were part of the top five states in 

both the CMS as well as this study. Likewise, Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico and Wyoming were among the 

bottom five states in both studies. Again, state person-address match ratios were higher for the 2010 ACS with the 

exception of Alaska. The lower person-address match ratio for Alaska in the 2010 ACS can be largely explained by 

its lower address and person match ratios. 

 

55 The five states with the highest person-address match ratio had on average 0.5 percent of AIAN, 3.5 percent of Hispanics and 

12 percent of CAPI respondents in the 2010 ACS response data. By contrast, the five states with the lowest person-address 

match ratio had on average 8.2 percent of AIAN, 14.2 percent of Hispanics and 32.2 percent of CAPI respondents in the 2010 

ACS response data. 

56 In particular, Ohio and Iowa were among the states with the highest person and address match ratios, Maryland had the highest 

address match ratio and Minnesota had the second highest person match ratio. 

57

 Research will assess the coverage and quality of commercial data for demographics characteristics in the 2010 ACS. In 

addition, research currently underway is examining the contribution of commercial data overall and for specific groups. 

58

 Specifically, 74.3 percent versus 65.8 percent. 

59 Nevertheless, when the person-address match ratio was calculated using the best-address model employed in the 2010 CMS, 

the person-address ratio in the 2010 ACS remained relatively high at 68.0 percent. 

60 On the other hand, the match ratio of the 18 to 24 age group was considerably higher in the 2010 ACS. This could be related 

to the fact that this analysis did not include group quarters and did not attempt to select a best address for a given person. The 18 

to 24 age group includes populations, such as students, who are more likely to live in group quarters, and is also generally more 

mobile than other age groups. 
36

6. Conclusions 

Overall, administrative records provided substantial coverage for addresses and persons in the 2010 ACS (92.7 and 

92.1 percent respectively), and less extensive though substantial coverage for person-address pairs (74.3 percent). 

When only person records with PIKs were taken into consideration, the overall match ratio for persons increased to 

nearly 98 percent, and for person-address records to almost 79 percent. 

The 2010 CMS also found higher administrative records coverage for address and persons than for person-address 

pairs. Meanwhile, administrative records coverage of the ACS data was higher than in the 2010 Census overall and 

for most demographic, geographic and response mode groups.61

 

Administrative records also covered a significant proportion of the 2010 ACS CATI and CAPI addresses and 

respondents. Approximately 97 percent of CATI addresses and 85.4 percent of CAPI addresses in the 2010 ACS 

were found in administrative records. As expected, though, the address match ratio for CAPI Direct addresses was a 

lot lower since these are unmailable/undeliverable or Remote Alaska addresses and those are either hard to match to 

or not present in administrative records data. The person match ratio was 81.3 percent for persons living in CATI 

households and 84.0 percent for CAPI respondents. When only person with PIKs were considered, the person 

match ratios increased to 97.5 and 96.1 percent for CATI and CAPI respectively. When it came to person analysis, 

the two CAPI subcategories did not exhibit large differences. 

On the other hand, the address, person and/or person-address coverage of certain groups in the 2010 ACS response 

data was lower in administrative records; in particular, young children, AIAN, SOR, NHPI, Hispanics as well as 

group quarters. Extending administrative records address and/or person coverage for these groups in the ACS 

response data requires the acquisition of additional administrative records data sources with good coverage of these 

groups.62

 

On this front, commercial data appeared to make a contribution to overall address coverage, but their contribution to 

person and person-address coverage was negligible. Concurrent research on commercial data quality is underway.63

 

In addition, acquiring and making use of multiple years of administrative records data could help improve personaddress coverage since adding a longitudinal dimension to administrative records would improve coverage of people 

with higher mobility. In particular, a closer examination of the CAPI Nonresponse subcategory (who had the lowest 

person-address match ratio along with the CAPI Direct group) revealed that they had a higher proportion of movers 

compared to their mail or CATI counterparts. 

Results also showed a stark coverage disparity between housing units and group quarters for addresses, but 

particularly, for person-address records. Only 7.9 percent of person-address records for those living in group 

quarters were matched to administrative records, compared to 81.1 percent for those living in housing units. 

Administrative records coverage of housing unit addresses in the 2010 ACS was 93.3 percent relative to 54.4 

percent for group quarters. In order to improve administrative records address coverage of group quarters, other 

sources of administrative records data need to be acquired. 

The lower PIK assignment rates of certain groups64 played a considerable role in the lower person match ratios as 

well as in the observed differences across demographic groups, response modes, regions and states. Hence, 

understanding how to reduce differences in PIK assignment rates as well as exploring new record linkage 

methodologies not dependent on PIK assignment would translate into better administrative records coverage of 

 

61 This could be partly due to the fact that the share of non-mail records is higher in the 2010 Census than in the 2010 ACS, and 

that non-mail records are less likely to be present in administrative records data relative to mail. 

62 This recommendation was also stated in the 2010 CMS. Also, as stated earlier, changes to the ACS sample as the decade 

progresses will be taken into consideration when evaluating administrative records coverage of the ACS. 

63 The 2010 CMS found that commercial data quality on race and Hispanic origin was inferior to federal data. 

64 These included CATI and CAPI respondents, the SOR group, and to a lesser extent, the NHPI, AIAN and Hispanic groups. 
37

persons in the 2010 ACS.65 Exploiting the wealth of information provided by the ACS, further research on 

unvalidated person records aimed to improve PIK assignment rates is to be undertaken.66

Persons living in CATI and CAPI households had the lowest PIK assignment rates of any other demographic or 

mode group. This suggests that, relative to mail respondents, name and date of birth data collected from CATI/CAPI 

householders may be less reliable or absent, affecting PIK assignment. Efforts to collect better personal identifiable 

information from non-mail households in the short-term would likely improve PIK assignment rates and match 

ratios, which in turn, would facilitate the evaluation of administrative records coverage of CAPI/CATI households. 

Findings also indicated that low address match ratios were in part driven by vacant housing units, and that the 

overwhelming majority of vacant housing units (85 percent) were CAPI addresses. Research currently underway is 

assessing administrative records ability to identify vacant units as well as deletes. Using administrative records to 

resolve the vacant or delete status of a housing unit would improve the address frame of the ACS as well as realize 

considerable costs savings. 

Findings from this initial study indicated that administrative records provide substantial coverage of 2010 ACS 

addresses, persons and person-address pairs. Such administrative records coverage of the 2010 ACS is a first step in 

supporting the use of the ACS in future administrative records coverage research. Among other things, upcoming 

research will assess administrative records coverage of the underlying population(s) that the ACS is designed to 

represent and the characteristics associated with the likelihood of such coverage.67 Administrative records research 

will also include the evaluation of the quality and coverage of Hispanic origin, race, sex, and age data in 

administrative records relative to the 2010 ACS, and the assessment of administrative records ability to assist ACS 

address frame as well as ACS CATI and CAPI operations. 

 

65 These modes of action were also recommended in the 2010 CMS. 

66 To this end, further exploration of the CAPI and CATI groups is warranted as they comprised nearly 80 percent of person 

records without PIKs. 

67 This type of research will employ multivariate regression analysis and ACS weights. 
38

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40

APPENDIX I 

Appendix I, Table 1. 2010 ACS Address Match to Federal and Commercial Administrative Records by 

Urban/Rural Status and Housing Unit Type 

ACS Characteristics 2010 ACS 

Addresses

2010 ACS Address that 

match to FEDERAL 

Administrative Records

2010 ACS Addresses that match to 

COMMERCIAL Administrative 

Records but do not match to 

Federal Records

Count Percent Count Percent Count Percent

Total 1,917,799 100.0 1,638,811 100.0 144,894 100.0

Urban 1,273,065 66.4 1,157,252 70.6 72,845 50.3

Rural 644,734 33.6 481,559 29.4 72,049 49.7

Mobile home 125,795 6.6 89,900 5.5 14,339 9.9

Single family home 1,398,315 72.9 1,225,758 74.8 89,865 62.0

Building with 2-4 apartments 128,800 6.7 97,903 6.0 14,646 10.1

Building with 5 to 9 apartments 69,606 3.6 58,739 3.6 6,851 4.7

Building with 10 to 19 apartments 61,870 3.2 52,805 3.2 5,997 4.1

Building with 20+ apartments 131,946 6.9 112,883 6.9 12,946 8.9

Other (Boat/RV/van etc.) 1,467 0.1 823 0.1 250 0.2

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

Appendix I, Table 2. 2010 ACS Address Match to Federal and Commercial Administrative Records by 

Demographic Characteristics and Mode

ACS Characteristics 2010 ACS Addresses

2010 ACS Address that match 

to FEDERAL Administrative 

Records

2010 ACS Addresses that match to 

COMMERCIAL Administrative 

Records but do not match to 

Federal Records

Count Percent Count Percent Count Percent

Total 1,750,859 100.0 1,567,243 100.0 99,093 100.0

Non Hispanic 1,597,219 91.2 1,431,227 91.3 89,117 89.9

Hispanic 153,640 8.8 136,016 8.7 9,976 10.1

White Alone 1,438,326 82.1 1,288,723 82.2 81,579 82.3

Black Alone 165,126 9.4 148,746 9.5 9,132 9.2

AIAN Alone 14,649 0.8 10,355 0.7 1,059 1.1

Asian Alone 62,106 3.5 57,396 3.7 2,558 2.6

NHPI Alone 1,677 0.1 1,487 0.1 105 0.1

SOR Alone 40,922 2.3 35,833 2.3 2,936 3.0

Two or more races 28,053 1.6 24,703 1.6 1,724 1.7

Mail 1,251,082 71.5 1,162,269 74.2 53,637 54.1

CATI 201,262 11.5 177,159 11.3 18,254 18.4

CAPI 298,515 17.0 227,815 14.5 27,202 27.5

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
41

Appendix I, Table 3. Percent of Housing Units in 2010 ACS under each Mode Category by State 

All 

Modes MODE CAPI SUBCATEGORIES

ACS State Count % Mail % CATI % CAPI % CAPI 

Direct

% CAPI 

Nonresponse

Total 1,917,799 65.8 11.2 23.0 3.8 21.7

Alabama 31,552 61.8 12.7 25.5 38.4 19.4

Alaska 5,604 35.6 6.5 57.9 6.4 24.6

Arizona 33,254 59.5 9.5 31.0 5.7 21.9

Arkansas 19,178 60.3 12.1 27.6 0.8 23.4

California 176,551 65.2 10.7 24.1 1.9 20.2

Colorado 30,885 67.0 10.9 22.1 0.3 15.9

Connecticut 20,503 70.4 13.4 16.2 2.3 22.0

Delaware 6,339 62.6 13.2 24.3 0.0 25.3

District of Columbia 3,819 65.4 9.2 25.3 0.6 25.9

Florida 100,820 63.0 10.5 26.5 2.8 23.9

Georgia 49,876 61.5 11.9 26.6 6.4 23.4

Hawaii 7,537 62.2 7.9 29.9 5.0 18.3

Idaho 10,126 64.2 12.5 23.3 1.0 19.2

Illinois 80,592 70.4 9.4 20.2 1.0 16.6

Indiana 42,080 71.3 11.2 17.5 0.6 12.4

Iowa 28,130 75.7 11.2 13.0 2.4 15.9

Kansas 22,065 69.7 12.0 18.2 4.4 16.6

Kentucky 28,208 67.2 11.8 21.0 2.9 24.0

Louisiana 27,108 57.7 15.4 26.9 20.9 17.3

Maine 15,212 49.8 12.1 38.1 0.4 16.9

Maryland 30,811 70.4 12.3 17.3 0.7 16.9

Massachusetts 37,494 70.3 12.0 17.6 0.0 25.3

Michigan 82,647 69.4 10.2 20.4 2.7 17.7

Minnesota 56,799 73.2 10.5 16.3 3.8 12.5

Mississippi 16,790 56.6 12.8 30.6 5.2 25.4

Missouri 43,440 68.1 10.9 21.0 4.6 16.4

Montana 9,256 53.0 14.0 33.0 14.0 19.1

Nebraska 16,768 71.3 11.1 17.7 4.0 13.7

Nevada 13,310 61.5 8.1 30.4 1.6 28.8

New Hampshire 10,013 62.4 12.5 25.2 7.7 17.5

New Jersey 48,420 68.0 11.6 20.5 0.2 20.2

New Mexico 12,779 50.2 10.9 38.9 15.4 23.5

New York 116,705 62.5 11.0 26.4 2.6 23.8

North Carolina 56,018 63.0 13.3 23.8 2.7 21.1

North Dakota 7,834 60.7 17.1 22.2 7.4 14.8

Ohio 76,268 71.4 10.8 17.8 0.6 17.2

Oklahoma 28,727 55.9 12.3 31.7 10.9 20.9

Oregon 23,620 70.6 10.7 18.7 1.4 17.4

Pennsylvania 100,139 70.1 10.3 19.6 5.6 13.9

Rhode Island 5,942 67.6 11.1 21.3 0.9 20.4

South Carolina 26,571 61.7 12.8 25.4 2.7 22.7

South Dakota 7,935 61.8 15.3 22.8 7.3 15.6

Tennessee 37,220 66.8 12.0 21.2 2.1 19.2

Texas 127,757 59.5 11.8 28.7 4.0 24.7

Utah 14,934 67.0 11.9 21.1 4.1 17.0

Vermont 7,833 57.0 12.8 30.1 10.8 19.3

Virginia 44,284 69.1 11.7 19.2 2.4 16.8

Washington 40,883 70.6 11.0 18.4 1.7 16.7

West Virginia 13,311 51.7 10.8 37.5 21.5 16.0

Wisconsin 59,938 74.3 10.1 15.7 1.0 14.7

Wyoming 3,914 54.0 17.0 29.0 6.1 22.9

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
42

Appendix I, Table 4. ACS 2010 and Administrative Records Address Count, Match Numbers and Ratios by 

Mode & Urban Status

ACS Mode by 

Urban Status

2010 ACS Address

Count

2010 ACS and Administrative 

Records Address

Match

Count

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Address

Match Ratio

Total 1,917,799 1,783,705 93.0

Urban 1,273,065 1,230,097 96.6

Rural 644,734 553,608 85.9

Mail 1,261,247 1,224,855 97.1

Urban 869,505 849,878 97.7

Rural 391,742 374,977 95.7

CATI 215,526 208,263 96.6

Urban 132,237 129,973 98.3

Rural 83,289 78,290 94.0

CAPI 441,026 350,587 79.5

Urban 271,323 250,246 92.2

Rural 169,703 100,341 59.1

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

Appendix I, Table 5. 2010 ACS and Administrative Records Address Count, Match Numbers and Ratios by 

Mode & Occupancy Status

ACS Mode and 

Occupancy Status

2010 ACS Address 

Count

2010 ACS and 

Administrative Records 

Address Match

Count

2010 ACS and 

Administrative 

Records Address 

Match Ratio

Total 1,917,799 1,783,705 93.0

Occupied 1,750,859 1,666,336 95.2

Vacant 166,940 117,369 70.3

Mail 1,261,247 1,224,855 97.1

Occupied 1,251,082 1,215,906 97.2

Vacant 10,165 8,949 88.0

CATI 215,526 208,263 96.6

Occupied 201,262 195,413 97.1

Vacant 14,264 12,850 90.1

CAPI 441,026 350,587 79.5

Occupied 298,515 255,017 85.4

Vacant 142,511 95,570 67.1

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
43

Appendix I, Table 6. ACS 2010 Housing Units: Total, Occupied, Vacant, and Percent Vacant by State

ACS State

2010 ACS Address Count 

All Housing 

Units Occupied Vacant % Vacant

Total 1,917,799 1,750,859 166,940 8.7

Alabama 31,552 28,511 3,041 9.6

Alaska 5,604 4,462 1,142 20.4

Arizona 33,254 29,081 4,173 12.5

Arkansas 19,178 17,251 1,927 10.0

California 176,551 165,993 10,558 6.0

Colorado 30,885 28,444 2,441 7.9

Connecticut 20,503 19,419 1,084 5.3

Delaware 6,339 5,380 959 15.1

District of Columbia 3,819 3,471 348 9.1

Florida 100,820 88,041 12,779 12.7

Georgia 49,876 45,231 4,645 9.3

Hawaii 7,537 6,793 744 9.9

Idaho 10,126 9,157 969 9.6

Illinois 80,592 75,735 4,857 6.0

Indiana 42,080 39,373 2,707 6.4

Iowa 28,130 26,771 1,359 4.8

Kansas 22,065 20,562 1,503 6.8

Kentucky 28,208 26,116 2,092 7.4

Louisiana 27,108 24,598 2,510 9.3

Maine 15,212 11,523 3,689 24.3

Maryland 30,811 28,923 1,888 6.1

Massachusetts 37,494 35,047 2,447 6.5

Michigan 82,647 72,837 9,810 11.9

Minnesota 56,799 51,653 5,146 9.1

Mississippi 16,790 15,124 1,666 9.9

Missouri 43,440 39,750 3,690 8.5

Montana 9,256 7,864 1,392 15.0

Nebraska 16,768 15,600 1,168 7.0

Nevada 13,310 11,969 1,341 10.1

New Hampshire 10,013 8,665 1,348 13.5

New Jersey 48,420 45,099 3,321 6.9

New Mexico 12,779 10,969 1,810 14.2

New York 116,705 106,656 10,049 8.6

North Carolina 56,018 50,548 5,470 9.8

North Dakota 7,834 7,073 761 9.7

Ohio 76,268 71,282 4,986 6.5

Oklahoma 28,727 25,783 2,944 10.2

Oregon 23,620 22,131 1,489 6.3

Pennsylvania 100,139 91,434 8,705 8.7

Rhode Island 5,942 5,431 511 8.6

South Carolina 26,571 23,712 2,859 10.8

South Dakota 7,935 7,198 737 9.3

Tennessee 37,220 34,306 2,914 7.8

Texas 127,757 116,481 11,276 8.8

Utah 14,934 13,907 1,027 6.9

Vermont 7,833 6,425 1,408 18.0

Virginia 44,284 41,394 2,890 6.5

Washington 40,883 38,349 2,534 6.2

West Virginia 13,311 11,744 1,567 11.8

Wisconsin 59,938 54,108 5,830 9.7

Wyoming 3,914 3,485 429 11.0

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
44

Appendix I, Table 7. Match Ratios for All, Occupied, and Vacant Housing Units by State

ACS State

2010 ACS and Administrative Records Address Match Ratio

All Housing Units Occupied Vacant 

Total 93.0 95.2 70.3

Alabama 92.7 94.6 74.3

Alaska 60.8 70.9 21.4

Arizona 89.7 92.7 68.6

Arkansas 90.5 92.9 69.0

California 96.6 97.6 81.8

Colorado 93.4 95.8 65.6

Connecticut 96.2 96.8 85.1

Delaware 93.2 95.7 79.1

District of Columbia 97.0 97.4 92.8

Florida 96.5 97.4 90.6

Georgia 93.7 95.1 80.5

Hawaii 87.1 89.6 64.9

Idaho 89.4 93.1 54.8

Illinois 95.1 95.9 82.5

Indiana 96.5 97.2 87.2

Iowa 97.0 97.5 85.2

Kansas 95.0 96.3 76.8

Kentucky 92.4 94.2 69.5

Louisiana 93.8 95.7 75.3

Maine 74.7 88.6 31.3

Maryland 97.4 98.0 87.7

Massachusetts 95.2 96.3 80.3

Michigan 93.8 97.3 67.5

Minnesota 92.4 96.0 56.4

Mississippi 90.2 92.1 73.0

Missouri 92.2 94.6 66.7

Montana 77.1 84.3 36.3

Nebraska 92.9 95.1 63.7

Nevada 94.7 96.0 83.7

New Hampshire 86.7 93.4 43.2

New Jersey 95.2 95.9 84.7

New Mexico 78.1 84.5 38.9

New York 88.7 91.3 61.1

North Carolina 93.3 95.2 75.0

North Dakota 86.3 90.6 46.0

Ohio 97.0 97.6 87.4

Oklahoma 86.1 89.2 58.5

Oregon 95.4 96.7 76.2

Pennsylvania 90.6 94.4 50.7

Rhode Island 94.0 95.5 78.3

South Carolina 93.6 95.7 76.8

South Dakota 87.5 91.2 52.1

Tennessee 95.3 96.6 80.4

Texas 92.7 94.6 73.0

Utah 91.8 94.6 53.3

Vermont 77.6 86.6 36.4

Virginia 95.3 96.7 75.2

Washington 95.0 96.6 72.0

West Virginia 75.5 80.1 41.2

Wisconsin 93.8 96.7 67.5

Wyoming 85.9 90.3 50.3

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
45

APPENDIX II 

Appendix II, Table 1. Characteristics of Mail, CATI & CAPI Subcategory Respondents in the 2010 ACS 

MODE CAPI SUBCATEGORIES

ACS Characteristics

Mail CATI CAPI CAPI Direct CAPI 

Nonresponse

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Hispanic Origin

Hispanic 8.4 17.1 24.6 9.3 26.2

Non Hispanic 91.6 82.9 75.4 90.7 73.8

Race

White Alone 83.0 77.4 65.6 75.2 64.6

Black Alone 7.2 11.9 16.6 6.0 17.7

AIAN Alone 0.6 0.9 2.2 12.7 1.2

Asian Alone 4.7 3.4 3.8 0.8 4.1

NHPI Alone 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.3

SOR Alone 2.0 3.5 8.6 2.0 9.3

Two or more races 2.4 2.7 2.9 3.1 2.9

Age 

0-2 3.2 3.1 5.1 4.0 5.2

3-17 17.8 22. 24.5 21.7 24.8

18-24 7.0 6.8 11.2 7.9 11.5

25-44 23.1 21.0 30.3 23.6 31.0

45-64 30.9 30.0 21.7 29.0 20.9

65-74 9.9 8.9 4.3 8.3 3.9

75+ 8.2 7.9 2.9 5.5 2.6

Urban Status

Urban 68.0 64.1 68.0 11.5 73.7

Rural 32.0 35.9 32.0 88.5 26.3

Movers

Movers 10.8 6.2 19.2 10.6 20.0

Non-movers 89.2 93.8 80.8 89.4 80.0

Region

Northeast 18.9 18.5 17.9 15.5 18.1

Midwest 29.2 24.9 19.6 15.7 20.0

South 31.6 35.4 37.0 44.6 36.3

West 20.2 21.2 25.5 24.2 25.6

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
46

Appendix II, Table 2. 2010 ACS Person Match to Federal and Commercial Administrative Records by ACS 

Demographic Characteristics, Mode, and Region 

ACS Characteristics

2010 ACS Person 

Records

2010 ACS Person Records 

that match to FEDERAL 

Administrative Records

2010 ACS Persons Records that 

match to COMMERCIAL 

Administrative Records but 

do not match to Federal Records

Percent Percent Percent

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Hispanic Origin

Hispanic 12.5 11.4 14.3

Non Hispanic 87.5 88.6 85.7

Race

White Alone 79.0 79.9 72.9

Black Alone 9.5 9.3 16.2

AIAN Alone 1.0 0.9 0.7

Asian Alone 4.4 4.3 2.9

NHPI Alone 0.1 0.1 0.1

SOR Alone 3.4 3.0 4.3

Two or more races 2.6 2.5 2.8

Age 

 0-2 3.5 2.9 0.1

 3-17 19.6 19.2 2.8

 18-24 7.8 7.6 8.6

 25-44 24.2 24.1 41.5

 45-64 29.1 29.7 45.9

 65-74 8.7 9.1 0.8

75+ 7.2 7.5 0.3

Mode

Mail 68.7 72.0 60.7

CATI 12.6 11.1 12.1

CAPI 18.7 16.9 27.2

Region

Northeast 18.7 18.8 14.7

Midwest 26.9 27.4 23.3

South 33.1 33.0 40.6

West 21.3 20.8 21.3

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
47

APPENDIX III 

Appendix III, Table 1. Characteristics of Persons in the States with the Lowest & Highest Person-Address 

Match Ratios 

Five States w/ 

Lowest Ratios

Five States w/ 

Highest Ratios

ACS Characteristics Percent Percent

Total 100.0 100.0

Hispanic Origin

Hispanic 14.2 3.5

Non-Hispanic 85.8 96.5

Race

White Alone 82.7 87.1

Black Alone 1.6 7.4

AIAN Alone 8.2 0.5

Asian Alone 1.3 2.2

NHPI Alone 0.1 0.02

SOR Alone 3.1 0.9

Two or more races 3.0 1.8

Age 

 0-2 3.7 3.4

 3-17 18.9 19.6

 18-24 7.6 7.1

 25-44 22.5 23.2

 45-64 30.8 30.5

 65-74 9.3 8.8

75+ 7.1 7.3

Mode

Mail 54.9 76.2

CATI 12.9 11.8

CAPI 32.2 12.0

Mobility Status

Movers 11.5 10.2

Non- Movers 88.5 89.8

Urban/Rural Status

Urban 51.0 55.0

Rural 49.0 45.0

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
48

APPENDIX IV 

Appendix IV, Table 1. Address Match Ratios for Demographic groups by Mode & CAPI Subcategory, and Differences in 

Match Ratios from Mail Category

MAIL CATI CAPI DIRECT CAPI 

NONRESPONSE

Percentage Point Difference

from Mail Match Ratio

ACS Demographic

Characteristics

Count Match 

Ratio Count Match Ratio Count Match Ratio Count Match Ratio CATI CAPI 

Direct

CAPI 

Nonresp

Total 1,251,082 97.2 201,262 97.1 29,615 28.9 268,900 91.7 -0.1 -68.3 -5.5

Hispanic or Latino 

Origin

Hispanic 76,007 97.1 22,977 97.6 1,992 25.9 52,664 93.5 0.5 -71.2 -3.6

Non Hispanic 1,175,075 97.2 178,285 97.0 27,623 29.2 216,236 91.2 -0.2 -68.0 -6.0

Race

 White Alone 1,072,144 97.2 160,932 96.9 23,471 29.5 181,779 90.9 -0.3 -67.7 -6.4

 Black Alone 88,789 97.2 24,671 98.2 1,830 30.6 49,836 94.0 1.0 -66.6 -3.2

 AIAN Alone 6,976 95.4 1,798 93.9 2,958 23.8 2,917 81.2 -1.5 -71.6 -14.2

 Asian Alone 46,303 97.3 5,329 97.8 202 24.8 10,272 93.9 0.5 -72.5 -3.4

 NHPI Alone 890 98.1 212 97.6 56 26.8 519 95.8 -0.4 -71.3 -2.3

 SOR Alone 17,123 96.9 4,958 97.4 404 23.5 18,437 93.6 0.5 -73.4 -3.3

 Two or more races 18,857 96.9 3,362 97.1 694 30.8 5,140 91.1 0.3 -66.0 -5.7

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 

As expected, addresses in the CAPI Direct group had the lowest match ratios overall and also across race groups and Hispanic origin. This is because the CAPI Direct submode is 

comprised of unmailable/undeliverable and Remote Alaska addresses. On the other hand, addresses in the CATI and CAPI Nonresponse categories had match ratios that were closer 

in magnitude to mail match ratios. This was the case overall and across Hispanic origin and race groups, except for the AIAN CAPI Nonresponse group. In fact, addresses 

corresponding to the AIAN group had the lowest match ratios across all mode categories and subcategories. 

Also note that address match ratios for Hispanics and non-Hispanics were close in magnitude across all modes.
49

APPENDIX V 

Appendix V, Table 1. Person Match Ratios for Demographic Groups by Mode & CAPI Subcategory, and Differences in Match Ratios from Mail Category

2010 ACS 

Demographic 

Characteristics

Mail

Match Ratios

CATI

Match Ratios

CAPI Direct

Match Ratios

CAPI nonresponse

Match Ratios

Percentage Point Difference 

from Mail Match Ratio 

(when match ratio expressed as a % 

of all 2010 ACS person records)

Percentage Point Difference 

from Mail Match Ratio 

(when match ratio expressed as a % 

of person records w/ PIKs)

As a % of 

all person 

in ACS

As a % of 

person 

records 

w/ PIKs

As a % of 

all 

persons

in ACS

As a % of 

person 

records 

w/ PIKs

As a % of 

all 

persons

in ACS

As a % of 

person 

records 

w/ PIKs

As a % of 

all 

persons

in ACS

As a % of 

person 

records 

w/ PIKs

CATI CAPI 

Direct

CAPI 

Nonresp CATI CAPI Direct

CAPI 

Nonresp

Total 96.7 98.4 81.3 97.5 83.7 97.7 84.0 95.9 -15.4 -13.0 -12.7 -0.9 -0.7 -2.5

Hispanic or 

Latino Origin

 Hispanic 93.1 96.3 76.8 93.9 73.4 93.4 76.9 92.0 -16.3 -19.7 -16.2 -2.4 -3.0 -4.3

 Non Hispanic 97.1 98.6 82.3 98.2 84.8 98.1 86.5 97.2 -14.8 -12.3 -10.6 -0.4 -0.5 -1.4

Race

 White Alone 97.2 98.6 81.3 97.6 84.9 97.7 84.9 96.3 -15.8 -12.2 -12.2 -1.0 -0.9 -2.3

 Black Alone 96.1 98.2 84.1 98.0 81.0 98.0 86.4 97.2 -12.0 -15.2 -9.8 -0.2 -0.2 -1.0

 AIAN Alone 95.9 98.2 80.8 97.4 80.3 98.9 87.3 97.6 -15.0 -15.6 -8.6 -0.8 0.7 -0.6

 Asian Alone 93.7 96.8 78.0 97.2 72.9 96.1 78.5 94.7 -15.7 -20.9 -15.2 0.3 -0.8 -2.1

 NHPI Alone 92.6 96.6 78.8 96.9 76.6 96.0 81.1 95.4 -13.8 -16.0 -11.6 0.3 -0.5 -1.1

 SOR Alone 91.5 95.8 77.0 94.9 68.8 91.6 74.3 91.1 -14.5 -22.7 -17.2 -0.9 -4.2 -4.7

 Two or more 

races

93.9 96.1 79.6 95.4 86.2 96.8 85.7 94.8 -14.4 -7.8 -8.2 -0.7 0.7 -1.2

Age

 0-2 79.8 82.0 67.5 79.8 68.3 80.0 70.0 79.1 -12.4 -11.6 -9.9 -2.1 -2.0 -2.8

 3-17 94.3 96.2 79.6 94.7 81.8 95.5 83.1 93.8 -14.6 -12.5 -11.2 -1.5 -0.7 -2.4

 18-24 96.0 98.5 81.0 97.3 82.5 97.9 82.2 96.5 -15.1 -13.6 -13.9 -1.2 -0.7 -2.0

 25-44 97.4 99.2 82.1 98.3 84.9 98.9 84.3 97.4 -15.4 -12.6 -13.2 -0.9 -0.3 -1.9

 45-64 98.4 99.8 83.1 99.6 85.4 99.7 88.0 99.1 -15.3 -13.0 -10.4 -0.2 -0.1 -0.6

 65-74 98.5 99.8 81.8 99.8 87.0 99.9 87.0 99.5 -16.8 -11.5 -11.5 -0.1 0.0 -0.3

 75+ 98.6 99.9 82.8 99.8 85.7 99.8 88.4 99.5 -15.8 -12.9 -10.2 -0.1 -0.1 -0.4

Sex

 Male 96.6 98.3 81.2 97.3 83.6 97.5 83.2 95.7 -15.3 -13.0 -13.3 -0.9 -0.7 -2.6

 Female 96.8 98.5 81.4 97.6 83.8 97.8 84.7 96.1 -15.4 -13.0 -12.1 -0.9 -0.6 -2.3

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
50

As seen in Appendix V, Table 1, person match ratios of CATI and two CAPI subcategories were close in magnitude and lower than the mail match ratio overall and across Hispanic 

origin and race. However, the observed differences in the match ratios across modes were mostly due to differences in PIK assignment rates between those responding by mail and 

those responding via CATI or CAPI. 

When only person records with PIKs are taken into account, the match ratios across all modes became quite high and a lot closer in magnitude. The CAPI Nonresponse mode 

exhibited the lowest match ratios but the differences were not large and seemed to have been primarily driven by the Hispanic group (remember that the SOR alone group is comprised 

mostly of Hispanics). In fact, the person match ratios for the SOR alone and Hispanic groups remained the lowest across all mode categories and subcategories. 

Finally, administrative records undercoverage of the youngest group (0-2) persisted across CAPI subcategories. 
51

APPENDIX VI 

Appendix VI, Table 1. Person-Address Match Ratios for Demographic Groups by Mode & CAPI Subcategory, and Differences from Mail Category

ACS 

Demographic 

Characteristics

Mail

Match Ratios

CATI

Match Ratios

CAPI Direct

Match Ratios

CAPI nonresponse

Match Ratios

Percentage Point Difference 

from Mail Match Ratio 

(when match ratio expressed 

as a % of all 2010 ACS personaddress pairs)

Percentage Point Difference 

from Mail Match Ratio 

(when match ratio expressed 

as a % of person-address 

pairs w/ PIKs)

As a % of 

all personaddress 

pairs

As a % of 

personaddress 

pairs w/ 

PIKs

As a % of 

all personaddress 

pairs

As a % of 

personaddress 

pairs w/ 

PIKs

As a % of 

all personaddress 

pairs

As a % of 

personaddress 

pairs w/ 

PIKs

As a % of 

all personaddress 

pairs

As a % of 

personaddress 

pairs w/ 

PIKs

CATI CAPI 

Direct

CAPI 

Nonresp CATI CAPI Direct

CAPI 

Nonresp

Total 84.8 86.2 69.9 83.8 9.8 11.5 55.0 62.8 -14.8 -74.9 -29.8 -2.4 -74.8 -23.4

Hispanic or 

Latino Origin

 Hispanic 77.3 80.0 64.0 78.3 5.5 7.0 50.2 60.0 -13.3 -71.8 -27.1 -1.7 -73.0 -20.0

 Non Hispanic 85.4 86.8 71.1 84.9 10.3 11.9 56.7 63.7 -14.3 -75.2 -28.8 -1.9 -74.9 -23.0

Race

 White Alone 86.0 87.3 70.2 84.3 11.0 12.6 55.9 63.4 -15.8 -75.0 -30.1 -3.0 -74.7 -23.9

 Black Alone 78.8 80.5 71.5 83.4 8.1 9.9 55.9 62.9 -7.3 -70.7 -23.0 2.9 -70.6 -17.6

 AIAN Alone 76.4 78.3 59.9 72.1 5.1 6.2 42.3 47.3 -16.5 -71.3 -34.1 -6.2 -72.0 -31.0

 Asian Alone 81.5 84.2 70.1 87.3 5.3 7.0 56.1 67.7 -11.4 -76.2 -25.4 3.1 -77.2 -16.5

 NHPI Alone 73.5 76.7 64.5 79.3 6.3 7.9 53.6 63.1 -9.1 -67.2 -20.0 2.6 -68.7 -13.6

 SOR Alone 74.8 78.3 64.3 79.3 4.5 6.0 48.9 60.0 -10.5 -70.3 -25.9 1.0 -72.3 -18.3

 Two or more 

races 76.7 78.5 64.6 77.5 9.6 10.8 52.1 57.7 -12.1 -67.1 -24.6 -1.0 -67.7 -20.8

Age

 0-2 62.2 63.9 50.3 59.5 3.7 4.4 38.2 43.1 -11.9 -58.5 -24.1 -4.4 -59.5 -20.7

 3-17 76.5 78.0 62.4 74.2 4.9 5.7 49.7 56.1 -14.1 -71.6 -26.8 -3.9 -72.3 -21.9

 18-24 73.8 75.7 67.8 81.4 7.0% 8.3 45.9 54.0 -6.0 -66.8 -27.8 5.8 -67.4 -21.7

 25-44 84.9% 86.4 72.5 86.8 9.6% 11.2 58.0 67.0 -12.4 -75.3 -26.9 0.4 -75.2 -19.4

 45-64 90.4% 91.7 74.9 89.8 12.7% 14.8 64.2 72.4 -15.5 -77.7 -26.2 -1.9 -76.8 -19.3

 65-74 91.5% 92.7 72.2 88.1 15.2% 17.4 61.1 69.8 -19.3 -76.3 -30.5 -4.6 -75.3 -22.9

 75+ 91.0% 92.2 72.3 87.2 15.3% 17.8 59.7 67.2 -18.6 -75.7 -31.3 -5.0 -74.3 -25.0

Sex

 Male 84.4% 85.9 69.6 83.4 9.8% 11.4 54.0 62.1 -14.8 -74.6 -30.4 -2.5 -74.4 -23.8

 Female 85.1% 86.5 70.2 84.2 9.8% 11.5 55.9 63.5 -14.9 -75.3 -29.2 -2.4 -75.1 -23.1

Sources: Unweighted 2010 ACS and 2010 ACS Match Study Administrative Records Data 
52

As seen in Appendix VI, Table 1, person-address match ratios for the CATI, CAPI Direct and CAPI Nonresponse categories were a lot lower than the match ratios of those responding 

by mail. The differences were higher for both CAPI subcategories, but especially for CAPI Direct. These differences from mail match ratios practically disappear for CATI, but were 

maintained for the CAPI subcategories when only those with PIKs were taken into account. 

The much lower person-address match ratio for the CAPI direct category was mostly driven by the very low address match ratio of this mode subcategory. Remember CAPI Direct 

addresses are unmailable/undeliverable or in Remote Alaska. These type of addresses are very hard to link to or find in administrative records. 

The differences in person-address match ratios for all modes across Hispanic origin were small. The AIAN group had a particularly low CAPI Nonresponse match ratio even when 

only those with PIKs were taken into account. As before, this could also be attributed to the very low address match ratio of this group.