Several important changes are in the works for Census 2000. The most controversial change, which is the introduction of statistical sampling designed to reduce the undercount, is being argued before the Supreme Court and may never be implemented. In the meantime, there are other important changes that that should be noted. The most obvious change is that the number of questions on the Census 2000 short forms will be trimmed. Similarly, there will be a new approach to building the vital master address file that is linked to the TIGER geographic database. Put these changes all together and the expectation is that users, including those seeking geographic material will have better, cleaner data.

Census Forms
About 83 percent of housing units in the country will receive the short-form questionnaire. The Census 2000 short form will be the shortest form in 180 years. The new short form will include six population questions and one housing question:

Five subjects that were on the 1990 Census short form were moved to the Census 2000 long form. Those subjects include marital status, units in structure, number of rooms, value of home, and monthly rent. Five other subjects that appeared on the 1990 long form were dropped: children ever born, year last worked, source of water, sewage disposal, and condominium status. Apparently, the missing long form subjects were deleted because they were not explicitly mandated or required by Federal law. Only one new subject was added to the Census 2000 long form: grandparents as caregivers. This additional information is needed for the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which is commonly referred to as “welfare reform.”

The long form provides socio-economic detail that is needed for a wide range of government programs. Long-form data is also vital to private-sector planning and development on all levels of geography. Nationwide, the long form will be distributed to one in six housing units. But to assure the same degree of accuracy everywhere, a larger share of housing units in small towns and rural counties will receive this form. The Census 2000 long form contains a total of 34 subjects that are listed below:

Linking to Geography
Each living quarter identified in Census 2000 will be geocoded through the TIGER database to a spatial location. Census attribute data can then be accessed for specific geographic areas. Like Census 2000, which has been in the works for most of the decade, the geographic database for TIGER has been an ongoing project.

In order to build the master address file, the Census Bureau is using a combination of sources and methods to ensure the most complete nationwide address list possible. For areas with mail delivery mostly to city-style addresses (i.e.. 101 Main Street), the master address file includes addresses from the 1990 Census address list that is updated over time using increasingly more current versions of the US Postal Service's list of mail delivery point addresses. The master address file for those areas will also be reviewed and corrected by participating tribal and local governments, checked for completeness and accuracy in a field block canvasses in 1999, as well as checked by postal carriers in early 2000.

Census field workers will create the master address file for the portion of the country with mail delivery to mostly non-city-style addresses (post office box, rural route/box, and general delivery) through a field canvass in which they will record addresses and information about the locations. The master address file for those areas will also be reviewed by tribal and local governments for completeness as well as updated in 2000 at the time of questionnaire delivery by census enumerators. For a very small number of housing units in the most difficult-to-access areas, enumerators will create the master address file and conduct interviews with respondents at the time of census enumeration.

In order to tabulate the census, every housing unit in the master address file must be linked to TIGER, the Census Bureau's geospatial database. The TIGER database is a seamless digital map of the US. It contains all street features, street names, address ranges, ZIP Codes, hydrography, and many other physical features. The TIGER database must be current with the master address file in order to link the individual addresses in the master address file to their corresponding spatial location for correct tabulation and allocation of census counts.

During the 1990s the update of the TIGER database was driven mainly by the ability to geocode addresses from the master address file to TIGER. If addresses did not geocode to the TIGER database it was usually due to missing streets, missing or incorrect street names, address ranges, or changed ZIP Codes. The TIGER database has been updated through various programs and operations with other Federal agencies and with state, local, tribal, and regional governments, and with the private sector. Those partners continue to provide updates on paper maps and suitable digital files.

There are new streets being built every day and the more up-to-date the TIGER database is at census time, the fewer manual updates will have to be added by enumerators. The long and short of it is that everyone who uses Census 2000, whether they are researching new products, creating emergency service maps, or plotting rural development will benefit from a decade of work that has gone into planning Census 2000 and TIGER.