PUBLIC-ATTITUDES TOWARD DATA SHARING BY FEDERAL-AGENCIES

Because of the high cost of the 1990 census and the continued undercov erage of some population subgroups, it has been suggested that adminis trative records be used to supplement or replace conventional census-t aking activities. Very little information exists concerning public kno wledge and attitudes on this topic. The most extensive information to date comes from questions asked on several IRS surveys of taxpayers. I n late 1993 an opportunity presented itself to add a small number of q uestions about data sharing to national telephone surveys conducted by the Wisconsin Letters and Sciences Survey Center. Here we report on a n analysis of these data.