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Household Pulse Survey
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The purpose of conducting the Covid-19 Household Pulse Survey is to produce data on the social and economic impacts of Covid-19 on American households. The Census Bureau has developed the Covid-19 Household Pulse experimental survey in cooperation with five other federal agencies to improve the federal statistical systems ability to measure the impact of Covid-19. The ability to understand how individuals are experiencing this period is critical to governmental and non-governmental response in light of business curtailment and closures, stay-at-home orders, school closures, changes in the availability of consumer goods and consumer patterns, and other abrupt and significant changes to American life. The survey demonstrates the unique ability of the federal statistical system to rapidly respond and provide salient information based on a high quality sample frame, data integration, and cooperative expertise.
Question domains seek to measure impacts on employment status, consumer spending (including use of stimulus payments), food security, housing, education disruptions, and dimensions of physical and mental wellness.
Detailed Methodology
The HPS utilizes the Census Bureau’s Master Address File (MAF) as the source to select a very large sample, one sufficient in size to accommodate anticipated lower response rates and still produce estimates at the state level as well as for 15 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). The MAF is the gold standard frame for U.S. statistics and provides sampled respondents all of the strict confidentiality protections afforded them under Title 13 U.S.C. To enable the HPS’s use of a rapid deployment internet and telephone interview system, we add email and mobile telephone numbers from the Census Bureau Contact Frame to the MAF.
The Household Pulse Survey is designed to be a short-turnaround instrument that provides valuable data to aid in the pandemic recovery. The Census Bureau is fielding the Household Pulse Survey as a part of the agency’s Experimental Data Series; as such, data products may not meet some of the Census Bureau’s statistical quality standards. Data are subject to suppression based on overall response and disclosure avoidance thresholds.The Household Pulse Survey is a 20-minute online survey studying how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting households across the country from a social and economic perspective. The survey asks questions about how childcare, education, employment, energy use, food security, health, housing, household spending, Child Tax Credit payments, transportation, and intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccination have been affected by the ongoing crisis. The survey was collected in several phases. The Household Pulse Survey is a 20-minute online survey studying how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting households across the country from a social and economic perspective. The survey asks questions about how childcare, education, employment, energy use, food security, health, housing, household spending, Child Tax Credit payments, transportation, and intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccination have been affected by the ongoing crisis.
For detailed methodology see Fields JF, Hunter-Childs J, Tersine A, Sisson J, Parker E, Velkoff V, Logan C, and Shin H. Design and Operation of the 2020 Household Pulse Survey, 2020. U.S. Census Bureau.