Transition Team MeetingDecember 10, 2014

What is the role of the MN State Demographic Center? Serve as a liaison to the Census Bureau and assist with the decennial

census counts; create MN population estimates for intercensal years

Create projections and issue reports about their implications for the state

Analyze, interpret, and distribute data from the U.S. Census Bureau, state departments, and other sources

Offer data and technical assistance to policymakers, all levels of government, media, organizations, and citizens across the state

Monitor trends and help MN to make data-informed decisions

mn.gov/demographyTwitter: @MN_StateData

About me Research Analyst with the State Demographic

Center

Work with survey data every day

Trained in evaluation, survey design, and analysis

General data geek

Very excited to be working on this survey and to have you all as a resource

Acknowledged Communities Survey Seeking input from White Earth citizens on

how to create acknowledged communities, responsibilities of citizenship, and priorities moving forward

Surveying everyone would be costly, so we are asking a random sample of White Earth citizens to respond

Will inform 2015 referendum in which citizens will vote on acknowledged communities

Our survey process Mixed-methodology

Mailed paper copies and online form

Incentives People are busy and receive lots of surveys. $10

incentives help increase response rates

Pre-testing Refine survey layout, questions, language before

collecting data from respondents

Targeted follow-up with non-respondents Reminder letters for non-respondents

Timeline Implementation (January – March, 2015)

Notification postcard. Initial wave of surveys mailed, followed by non-

response follow-up mailings

Analysis (March – April, 2015) I take the data, “scrub it” of information that could

identify respondents, and group responses in ways that are meaningful and informative.

Final Report (April 2015) Report containing tabulated data and analysis

“Sampling” is like scooping soup

The sample is the bowl; the pot is the whole population.All tribal members are the pot, our sample of tribal members is the bowl

“Sampling” is like scooping soup

Chicken Soup Water Chicken Celery Carrots Onion Garlic Salt Pepper Noodles

Population White Black/African

American Hispanic Asian Renter Owner Rural Urban

Why do we need a random sample?

When we want to generalize responses from the sample to the total population, asking ANYONE to fill out the survey might:

Over represent loudest, most extreme voices who are more likely to take a survey which might overstate the impact of an issue on the general public Gauging public support for a tax to a specific kind of business

might only attract sellers and buyers of that product or service

Accidentally oversample a group that skews results A survey trying the figure out how many Minnesotans use

Twitter might get a low estimate by getting too many 80 year olds and a high estimate with too many 25 year olds, with age being correlated with Twitter use.

Questions?