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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Current Population Survey > Home

Redesign of the Sample for the Current Population Survey

In accordance with usual practice, the sample for the Current Population Survey (CPS) has been redesigned based on information from the 2020 Census. This update also incorporates information from additional data sources, which together with the 2020 Census, form the 2020 blended base. The sample redesign is expected to have a negligible effect on published estimates.

The CPS—also known as the household survey—is a monthly survey of households that provides information on the labor force status, demographics, and other characteristics of the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. Historically, the CPS sample has been redesigned after each decennial census. The last sample redesign occurred in 2014 and introduced a sample based on the 2010 Census.

The introduction of the new CPS sample began in April 2025 and will be completed in July 2026. Households in the new sample will be phased into the survey by using the normal “rotation” group pattern in the survey’s design, with one rotation group per month. Households interviewed in the survey are divided into eight approximately equal panels, called rotation groups. A rotation group is interviewed for 4 consecutive months, temporarily leaves the sample for 8 months, and then returns for 4 more consecutive months before retiring permanently from the CPS (after a total of eight interviews). Each month, one-eighth of the sample is interviewed for the first time, one-eighth for the second time, and so on. This rotation scheme has been in use since July 1953 and strengthens the reliability of estimates of month-to-month change as well as estimates of year-to-year change.

The CPS is conducted in approximately 60,000 eligible housing units throughout the United States. (“Eligible” refers to an occupied housing unit having at least one person in the civilian noninstitutional population.) This sample includes approximately 10,000 eligible housing units from the monthly supplementary sample to improve state-level estimates of health insurance coverage for children in low-income families, also known as the CHIP expansion. The supplementary sample has been part of the official CPS since July 2001. Thirty-two states plus the District of Columbia have this supplementary sample each month.

The CPS sample is a probability sample based on a stratified two-stage sampling scheme: selection of sample primary sampling units (PSUs) and selection of sample housing units within those PSUs. In general, the CPS sample is selected from lists of addresses obtained from the Master Address File (MAF) with updates from the United States Postal Service (USPS) twice a year. The MAF is the U.S. Census Bureau’s permanent list of addresses, including their geographic locations, for individual living quarters. It is continuously maintained through partnerships with the USPS; with Federal, State, regional, and local agencies; and with the private sector; and it is used as a sample frame by many Census Bureau demographic surveys. The CHIP sample selection methodology is similar to that used for the CPS.

State-based design

In the first stage of sampling, PSUs are selected. These PSUs consist of counties or groups of contiguous counties in the United States and are grouped into strata. The CPS employs a state-based design. Therefore, all PSUs and strata are defined within state boundaries and the sample is allocated among the states to produce state and national estimates with the required reliability, while keeping total sample size to a minimum. The specified coefficient of variation (CV) requirement for the monthly unemployment level for the nation, given a 6 percent unemployment rate, is 2.8 percent or less. (The CV of an estimate is its standard error divided by the estimate itself, usually expressed as a percent.) This CV is based on the requirement that a difference of 0.3 percentage point in the unemployment rate between 2 consecutive months be statistically significant at the 90 percent level of confidence. Additionally, the required CV on the annual average unemployment level for each state and the District of Columbia is 10 percent or less. For New York and California, the state reliability requirement applies to the following substate areas: New York City (five boroughs only), the balance of New York State, Los Angeles County, and the balance of California.

First stage of the sample design: PSU stratification and selection

The variables chosen for stratifying PSUs in each state reflect the primary interest of the CPS in maximizing the reliability of estimates of labor force characteristics. The 2020 Census and American Community Survey (ACS) variables for unemployment, labor force, childhood poverty and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) counts were used for the majority of states. The remainder used ACS variables for household characteristics such as female head of household and households with 3 or more persons. Employment totals by industry from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program were also used for a few states.

PSUs are classified as either self-representing (SR) or non-self-representing (NSR). SR PSUs generally include the most populous counties within each state, and are selected with certainty, while the NSR PSUs have a probability of selection less than one. The NSR PSUs are grouped into strata within state boundaries. Within each stratum, a single PSU is chosen for the sample, with probability proportional to its population as of the 2020 Census. In each of these strata, one PSU is selected to represent all of the PSUs in that stratum.

The PSUs, strata, and sample PSUs are the same for CPS and CHIP. This is the same as in the 2010 design. In total, 863 PSUs (1,402 counties) from a total of 1,983 PSUs (3,144 counties) in the United States are in sample for either just the basic CPS or for both the basic CPS and the CHIP expansion.

Second stage of the sample design: selection of housing units

The 2020 sample design employs two frames: unit and group quarters. The unit frame consists of housing units in blocks that contain a very high proportion of complete addresses. It covers most of the population and accounts for approximately 95 percent of the CPS sample. It is updated every 6 months with new growth records and will be sampled from annually. There is a single group quarters frame in the 2020 sample design and its sample is selected in a 3-year cycle.

Within these sampling frames, housing units are sorted based on characteristics from the American Community Survey and geography. Then, from each frame, a systematic sample of addresses within the sample PSUs is obtained. Most of the sample addresses are selected in a single stage of sampling within the selected PSUs; for a relatively small proportion, an additional stage of selection within the PSU is necessary.

Continuity with the 2010 CPS sample design

The 2020 sample design is similar to the 2010 sample design. The 2020 design retained the annual sampling built into the 2010 design and also sought to maximize sampled PSU overlap to minimize disruption in data collection.

Last Modified Date: May 9, 2025