ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991                   TAG: 9102220108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CENSUS ADDED MILLIONS ON HEARSAY EVIDENCE

The Census Bureau relied on hearsay for 7.3 million, or nearly 3 percent, of its 1990 population count of 248.7 million, congressional investigators said Thursday.

"Such `last resort' data introduces a potential source of error into the census," L. Nye Stevens of the General Accounting Office told the House census and population subcommittee.

When census-takers had tried six times, unsuccessfully, to interview members of a household, they went to neighbors, building supervisors, letter carriers or others to get information.

- Associated Press 


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