Historically, the census has focused on counting people stateside, although various overseas population groups have been included in the census at different times. For example, as shown in table 1, over the last century, the Bureau has generally included federally affiliated individuals and their dependents, but except for the 1960 and 1970 Censuses, has excluded private citizens such as retirees, students, and business people. In addition, only the 1970, 1990, and 2000 Censuses used counts of federally affiliated personnel for purposes of apportioning Congress. As a result, although estimates exceed four million people, the precise number of Americans residing abroad is unknown. The Constitution and federal statutes give the Bureau discretion over whether to count Americans overseas. Thus, Congress would need to enact legislation if it wanted to require the Bureau to include overseas Americans in the 2010 Census. Nevertheless, in recent years, the Bureau’s policy of excluding private citizens from the census has been questioned. For example, advocates of an overseas census claim that better data on this population group would be useful for a variety of policy-making and other purposes. Moreover, the overseas population could, in some instances, affect congressional apportionment. More generally, the rights and obligations of overseas Americans under various federal programs vary from activity to activity. For example, U.S. citizens residing overseas are taxed on their worldwide income, can vote in federal elections, and can receive Social Security benefits, but they are generally not entitled to Medicare benefits, or, if they reside outside of the United States for more than 30 days, Supplemental Security Income. The initial results of the overseas census test suggest that counting Americans abroad on a global basis would require enormous resources and still not yield data that are comparable in quality to the stateside count. Indeed, participation in the test was low and relatively costly to obtain, and on-site supervision of field activities proved difficult. The test made clear that the current approach to counting Americans abroad—a voluntary survey that relies largely on marketing to get people to participate—by itself cannot secure a successful head count. To promote the overseas census test the Bureau relied on third parties— American organizations and businesses in the three countries—to communicate to their members and/or customers that an overseas enumeration of Americans was taking place and to make available to U.S. citizens either the paper questionnaire or Web site address where Americans could complete their forms via the Internet. Still, the response to the overseas census test was disappointing. The 5,390 responses the Bureau received from the three test countries was far below what the Bureau planned for when it printed the questionnaires. While the Bureau ordered 520,000 paper forms for the three test sites, only 1,783 census forms were completed and returned. Of these, 35 were Spanish language forms that were made available in Mexico. The remaining 3,607 responses were completed via the Internet. Table 2 shows the number of census questionnaires that the Bureau printed for each country and the number of responses it actually received in both the paper format and via the Internet. In May, to help boost the lagging participation, the Bureau initiated a paid advertising campaign that included print and Internet ads in France, and print and radio ads in Mexico. (See fig. 1 for examples of the ads used in the paid advertising campaign). According to a Bureau official, the ads had only a slight impact on response levels. Moreover, the Bureau’s experience during the 2000 Census suggests that securing a higher return rate on an overseas census would be an enormous challenge and may not be feasible. The Bureau spent $374 million on a comprehensive marketing, communications, and partnership effort for the 2000 Census. The campaign began in the fall of 1999 and continued past Census Day (April 1, 2000). Specific elements included television, radio, and other mass media advertising; promotions and special events; and a census-in-schools program. Thus, over a period of several months, the American public was on the receiving end of a steady drumbeat of advertising aimed at publicizing the census and motivating them to respond. This endeavor, in concert with an ambitious partnership effort with governmental, private, social service, and other organizations helped produce a return rate of 72 percent. Replicating this level of effort on a worldwide basis would be impractical, and still would not produce a complete count. Indeed, even after the Bureau’s aggressive marketing effort in 2000, it still had to follow-up with about 42 million households that did not return their census forms. Because the overseas test had such low participation levels, the unit cost of each response was high—roughly $1,450 for each returned questionnaire, based on the $7.8 million the Bureau spent preparing for, implementing, and evaluating the 2004 overseas test. Although the two surveys are not directly comparable because the 2000 Census costs covered operations not used in the overseas test, the unit cost of the 2000 Census—which was the most expensive in our nation’s history--was about $56 per household. Not surprisingly, as with any operation as complex as the overseas enumeration test, various unforeseen problems arose. The difficulties included grappling with country-specific issues and overseeing the contractor responsible for raising public awareness of the census at the three test sites. While the Bureau was able to address them, it is doubtful that the Bureau would have the ability to do so in 2010 should there be a full overseas enumeration. The Bureau encountered a variety of implementation problems at each of the test sites. Although such difficulties are to be expected given the magnitude of the Bureau’s task, they underscore the fact that there would be no economy of scale in ramping up to a full enumeration of Americans abroad. In fact, just the opposite would be true. Because of the inevitability of country-specific problems, rather than conducting a single overseas count based on a standard set of rules and procedures (as is the case with the stateside census), the Bureau might end up administering what amounts to dozens of separate censuses—one for each of the countries it enumerates—each with its own set of procedures adapted to each country’s unique requirements. The time and resources required to do this would likely be overwhelming and detract from the Bureau’s stateside efforts. For example, addressing French privacy laws that restrict the collection of personal data such as race and ethnic information took a considerable amount of negotiation between the two countries, and was ultimately resolved after a formal agreement was developed. Likewise, in Kuwait, delivery of the census materials was delayed by several weeks because they were accidentally addressed to the wrong contractor. The Bureau hired a public relations firm to help market participation in the test. Its responsibilities included identifying private companies, religious institutions, service organizations, and other entities that have contact with Americans abroad and could thus help publicize the census test. Although the public relations firm appeared to go to great lengths to enlist the participation of these various entities—soliciting the support of hundreds of organizations in the three countries—the test revealed the difficulties of adequately overseeing a contractor operating in multiple sites overseas. For example, the public relations firm’s tracking system indicated that around 440 entities had agreed to perform one or more types of promotional activities. However, our on-site inspections of several of these organizations in Paris, France, and Guadalajara, Mexico, that had agreed to display the census materials and/or distribute the questionnaires, uncovered several glitches. Of the 36 organizations we visited that were supposed to be displaying promotional literature, we found the information was only available at 15. In those cases, as shown in Figure 2, the materials were generally displayed in prominent locations, typically on a table with posters on a nearby wall. However, at 21 sites we visited, we found various discrepancies between what the public relations firm indicated had occurred, and what actually took place. For example, while the firm’s tracking system indicated that questionnaires would be available at a restaurant and an English-language bookstore in Guadalajara, none were present. Likewise, in Paris, we went to several locations where the tracking system indicated that census information would be available. None was. In fact, at some of these sites, not only was there no information about the census, but there was no indication that the organization we were looking for resided at the address we had from the database. The Bureau’s longstanding experience in counting the nation’s stateside population has shown that specific operations and procedures together form the building blocks of a successful census. The design of the overseas test—a voluntary survey that relies heavily on marketing to secure a complete count—lacks these building blocks largely because they are impractical to perform in other countries. Thus, the disappointing test results are not surprising. What’s more, refining this basic design or adding more resources would probably not produce substantially better outcomes. The building blocks include the following: Mandatory participation: Under federal law, all persons residing in the United States regardless of citizenship status are required to respond to the stateside decennial census. By contrast, participation in the overseas test was optional. The Bureau has found that response rates to mandatory surveys are higher than the response rates to voluntary surveys. This in turn yields more complete data and helps hold down costs. Early agreement on design: Both Congress and the Bureau need to agree on the fundamental design of the overseas census to help ensure adequate planning, testing and funding levels. The design of the census is driven in large part by the purposes for which the data will be used. Currently, no decisions have been made on whether the overseas data will be used for purposes of congressional apportionment, redistricting, allocating federal funds, or other applications. Some applications, such as apportionment, would require precise population counts and a very rigorous design that parallels the stateside count. Other applications, however, could get by with less precision and thus, a less stringent approach. A complete and accurate address list: The cornerstone of a successful census is a quality address list.