Richard Rathge, professor in the Departments of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, and Sociology and Anthropology, was appointed as a member of the Committee on National Statistics and selected to serve on its Steering Committee to explore the benefits and burdens of the American Community Survey, which is the U.S. Census Bureau’s new continuous census data collection effort. Rathge joins five other steering committee members who are tasked with identifying researchers, scholars and scientists from across the nation who will help document benefits of the survey to a broad array of non-federal users of American Community Survey data products. The research also will address the burden of the American public of responding to the survey questions.

Rathge’s appointment to the committee was based, in part, on his experience as North Dakota’s state demographer for more than 30 years, his leadership role in working with the U.S. Census Bureau for more than three decades as a member of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates, Federal-State Cooperative for Population Projections and State Data Center network, along with his demographic research associated with the Great Plains.

The study was requested by the U.S. Census Bureau as part of a larger review of its mission, vision, goals and objectives of the American Community Survey. Initial findings will be presented in Washington, D.C., in mid-June.

The Committee on National Statistics was established in 1972 at the National Academies to improve the statistical methods and information on which public policy decisions are based. The National Academies, which include the National Academies of Sciences, the National Academies of Engineering, the Institutes of Medicine and the National Research Council, was established by Congress more than a century ago to provide scientific and technological advice to the nation.

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