Characteristics of the 2010 Census Nonresponse Followup Operation

The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 23 rd decennial census of the country‟s population in 2010. A large percentage of the country‟s housing units received a census questionnaire in the mail or from a census enumerator and roughly two-thirds of those households returned their questionnaires by mail. The remaining households that didn‟t respond by mail received a personal visit by a census enumerator in order to capture their census information. This happens during the Nonresponse Followup (NRFU) operation. This paper will discuss what happened in the 2010 NRFU operation, including characteristics of the enumerators‟ attempted contacts with each address, characteristics of the housing units that were visited, and challenges and successes from the operation.