Challenges in the conduct of censuses and surveys in the Virgin Islands of the United States

A federal Census of Population and Housing in the US Virgin Islands has been financed by the United States Bureau of the Census since 1930 and managed under the auspices of the local government.  The obligation of the US government to conduct a decennial census in the Virgin Islands suggests that census metadata and all other statistical data would be readily forthcoming, but despite the length of time that the Census Bureau has been involved in this exercise, there are formidable issues that derive from the current arrangements.

US censuses are conducted under US Code Title XIII which places severe conditions on confidentiality and restrictions in the collection, processing and dissemination of census data.  Because the decennial census in the VI is conducted simultaneously with that in the continental states, the VI must wait an inordinately long time, after states’ data are released, before its census data are published.  The preparation of field manuals receives no input from the VI, and anomalous situations impact adversely on data collection processes.  The seventy-one item census questionnaire is burdensome, and the total absence of obligatory federal surveys in the VI during intercensal years is egregious.

Despite the challenges attendant on the preparation of the federal census, the data collection and their timely processing, the VI has instituted a series of innovative steps, including the use of GIS and GPS technology, not only to collect demographic intercensal survey data for local government planning and programmatic reporting, but also to produce data that help to inform the preparation of the decennial census operations.