Demographic Analysis

Using estimates of characteristics of the population in policy-making.

Policy is informed by reliable data about people. Dr. Nesse has been focused on understanding how policy-makers use demographic data and developing methods for estimating characteristics of small area populations.

Use of Demographic Data. Dr. Nesse has been active in the ACS Data User Group. She has been on the advisory committee since 2016. On the advisory committee she acts as a liaison between data users in the planning community and the Census Bureau regarding the use of ACS data and the communication of the data by the Census Bureau. She also participates in and helps plan the biennial ACS Data Users conference. She has also researched the use of the data by federal agencies. After the first 10 years of data she (with Mallory Rahe) researched how the survey was being used in policy-making at the federal level. One of the interesting conclusions from that research was that agencies were not using the margin of error as much as they should be. But it was not because they did not know why it is significant. It was rather because the policy goals that the data fulfilled did not allow them to use a range or employ the margin of error in other ways.

K. Nesse & M.L. Rahe. 2015. Conflicts in the use of the ACS by federal agencies between statutory requirements and survey methodology. Population Research and Policy Review, 34(4): pp. 461-480. Read More →

Methods for Small Areas. Small area population estimation is important to both rural and urban areas. In rural areas even large geographic areas often have low populations. In urban areas neighborhoods and even smaller areas have important planning needs. Dr. Nesse has worked with the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM) since 2007. She began as a graduate assistant and developed a method based on the ACS to estimate policy-relevant characteristics of children that are not covered in the ACS with her advisor, Andrew Isserman, Since 2012, she is the demographic consultant for the project and is currently working with the staff to revise the methodology.

ACS Data Users Conference
Dr. Nesse presents to the ACS Data Users Conference in 2015 comparing the ACS with administrative data.