The U.S. Federal Statistical System (FSS) is searching for ways to ensure high quality data in surveys, given declines in response rates and the associated increase in operational costs. They are searching for ways to address problems with public trust in the government, if these issues could hinder their efforts. To address these concerns, the Census Bureau partnered with other federal statistical agencies to collect data to assess attitudes, beliefs, and concerns the public may have regarding federal statistics and the agencies that collect them. This public opinion data enables the FSS to better understand public perceptions, and provides guidance …

Response rates to household surveys have been declining in the past several decades and survey researchers and practitioners have been working on ways to change the survey-taking climate to combat the declining response rates. As part of the 2010 Decennial Census, the U.S. Census Bureau waged the 2010 Integrated Communications Campaign (2010 ICC), a multi-faceted effort to improve public awareness of, attitudes towards, and knowledge about the Census in order to increase Census participation. This type of communications program is a unique case of an attempt to alter the external survey-taking climate and thus potentially affect survey participation. This paper …

We argue for renewed efforts to improve the external survey environment for official statistics. We introduce the concept of social marketing as one novel way of achieving this. We also propose measuring the survey-taking climate and the related changes on the societal level using a ‘survey climate barometer’. Finally, by presenting current and potential initiatives planned by Statistics Canada, we illustrate activities that national statistical institutes could implement with the goal of positively influencing their external survey environment.