The American Housing Survey (AHS), the nation’s largest housing survey, provides a periodic measure of the size and composition of the country’s housing inventory. The current sample of housing units was drawn in 1985, with additions and subtractions to account for new construction, demolitions, and conversions. The 2013 AHS will be the final survey administered to the current sample. HUD will draw a new sample for 2015, which will present an opportunity to redesign the survey to better meet current and future needs. Read more here.
Nominate a White House Champion of Change for Transformative Civic Engagement
We know that much of the best open government work happens in America’s towns and cities. Every day, local leaders across America’s communities are stepping up in big ways to advance open government goals from the ground up. This July, the White House will host a “Champions of Change” event to celebrate these local change-agents, whose exemplary leadership is helping to strengthen our democracy and increase participation in our government. The event will convene extraordinary individuals who are taking innovative approaches to engage citizens and communities in the practice of open government and civic participation. These leaders will be invited to the White House to celebrate their accomplishments and showcase the steps they have taken to foster a more open, transparent, and participatory government.
Help identify these standout local leaders by nominating a Champion of Change for Transformative Civic Engagement by noon on Friday, June 21st. Read more here.
ASA Supports Funding of BEA
The American Statistical Association (ASA) issued a letter in support of funding for the BEA. Read more here.
SBE Advisory Committee Meets; Youth Violence, Future of Surveys, and Science of Learning Discussed
The SBE Advisory Committee (AC) to the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorate met on May 20 and 21. Advisory Committee member Jon Krosnick of Stanford reported on two conferences that dealt with the future of survey research for NSF’s three major surveys: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the General Social Survey, and the American National Election Studies. The conferences, which took place on October 3-4, 2012 and November 8-9, 2012, reviewed all the issues confronting researchers, from declining response rates to increased costs to interviewer training to how to weight samples to the use of biomarkers to whether the Internet is the answer. Read more here.
How Can Developers Use American Community Survey Statistics to Answer Real-World Questions?
Last summer, the Census Bureau launched its first application programming interface (API), giving developers access to a variety of data sets, including the American Community Survey five-year estimates. These estimates provide statistics for every neighborhood in the nation, allowing developers to create new tools to help better understand their communities and solve real world issues. On June 1, the National Day of Civic Hacking provided an opportunity for us to build stronger ties with the developer community while reaching new audiences with our statistics. Civic hacking, a positive type of community building around data, allows programmers to harness the power of publicly available government statistics in order to create apps that benefit everyone. Read more here.
DBASSE Holds Hearing on Data Access
The National Research Council’s Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) held a two-day meeting in which groups and individuals presented testimony regarding open data. DBASSE’s Executive Director Robert Hauser, put back on his researcher and data collector hat as the long-time principal investigator of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to comment on the issue. He indicated that there is nothing new about public access to federally supported research data. There are dozens of social and biosocial surveys that have been created for public use and provide templates for sound data policy, including the Public Use Microdata Files from the Decennial Census. Read more here.
Germany Counts Heads and Finds 1.5 Million Fewer Residents Than It Expected
It’s as if Leipzig, Hanover and Dresden had disappeared in the blink of an eye, statistically speaking. Germany, which has been deeply concerned about its rapidly dwindling population, released the results of its first census in nearly a quarter of a century on Friday and found 1.5 million fewer inhabitants than previously assumed. Germany had not conducted a single census count since reunification, not even an effort to tally those in the former East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. The disappearance of 1.5 million people, equal to almost 1.9 percent of the population, only exacerbates the longer-term downward trend. Read more here.
Statistics Matter
To draw attention to the value statistics play in our lives and the importance of our profession, the statistical community has designated 2013 “The International Year of Statistics.” Statistics is the science of learning from data, and of measuring, controlling and communicating uncertainty. It provides the navigation essential for directing the course of scientific and societal advances. Statistics and statisticians will play increasingly important roles as complex “big data” inform and empower our future. Read more here.
NCHS Board of Scientific Counselors Meets
The National Center for Health Statistics’ (NCHS) Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) held its first meeting of 2013 on May 6 and 7. Nicholas Jones, Roberto Ramirez, and Joan Hill, U.S. Census Bureau, shared the results of the 2010 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Alternative Questionnaire Experiment (AQE). Lillian Ingster, NCHS, gave an update on improvements to the National Death Index (NDI) and its collaboration with the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA). Read more here.
Notable Data Publications
Each week, the APDU Data Update identifies recent statistical data releases of interest to APDU members.
Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we’ll include it here.
Calls for Comment
APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Survey of Community-Based Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living (August 3, 2013)
Food and Drug Administration
Availability of Masked and De-identified Non-Summary Safety and Efficacy Data (August 5, 2013)
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