The overall goal of the 2010 Census Count Review Program was to enhance the accuracy of results from the census. The first event of the program was a review of the 2008 Census Dress Rehearsal counts. The 2008 review was based on the model used in the Census 2000 Full Count Review. This traditional model compared counts of population and housing units to counts from the last census and to recent estimates. The 2008 experience demonstrated the inability of the traditional approach to provide the geographic precision necessary to affect corrections to the counts.

A new GIS - based approach also was tried for 2008 and proved very effective in identifying exact addresses of missing living quarters. This new approach was adopted for the 2010 Census, with separate review events for housing unit addresses and for group quarters.

This assessment report asks and answers three overall questions:

1. Did the 2010 Census Count Review Program speak to the recommendations from the Government Accountability Office’s report on Census 2000 entitled “Refinements to Full Count Review Program Could Improve Future Data Quality?”
   
   The 2010 Count Review Program addressed all recommendations expressed in the Government Accountability Office’s report. The program started earlier than the Census 2000 Full Count Review, was integrated with other census operations, was fully tested, included stakeholders, involved the Regional Census Centers, and all finalized count issues were corrected.
2. Was the 2010 Census Count Review Program effective in improving the accuracy of the 2010 Census counts of population, housing units, and group quarters?
   
   The program did improve the accuracy of the census by identifying 7 3,716 missing housing units and having them counted in the census. It also identified 310 missing group quarters and had them counted in the census. Additionally, 173 group quarters misallocated to the wrong collection block were identified and updated.
3. What are recommendations for designing the 2020 Census Count Review Program?
   
   This report discusses seven recommendations, with the two most important being:
   • Begin planning the 2020 Census Count Review earlier in the census cycle in order to more seamlessly integrate the review operation with other decennial census operations.
   • Design the review operation around address - level precision, utilizing GPS coordinates, GIS information, maps, and satellite imagery.

The 2010 Census Count Review Program developed and deployed a new review approach. The program met its goals and was well received by major stakeholders, including the members of the Federal - State Cooperative Program for Population Estimates.