Bad Telephone numbers for phone canvassers

I recently heard a comment from Roberto in New Mexico about the low quality of the telephone numbers in a voter file from a nationally known data provder.  One of the causes may be the demise of land line phones.

The Center for Disease Control  published a report on the issue this month. It turns out that (in their words) "In the last 6 months of 2007, nearly one out of every six households (15.8%) did not have a landline telephone, but did have at least one wireless telephone".  This was around 5% in the first half of 2004. People without landlines tend to be poorer, younger and renting. The future?  More cell phones and less reliable lists from data providers.

 Read the whole thing at

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200805.pdf

Source: Blumberg SJ, Luke JV. Wireless substitution: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2007. National Center for Health Statistics. Available from:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm. May 13, 2008.