Retention & Reasons for Non-Interview | National Longitudinal Surveys

This section provides information on Retention Rates in the NLSY97 and Reasons for Non-Interview.

Retention rates in the NLSY97

The overall retention rate for round 20 is 74.7 percent. Table 1 shows the retention rates by sample type for rounds 2-20 of the NLSY97.

Table 1. Retention rates by Sample Type and Gender
		Cross-sectional		Supplemental		Sample Total
Round/Gender		Interviewed	Retention Rate	Interviewed	Retention Rate	Interviewed	Retention Rate
R2	Male	3213	92.9%	1070	93.9%	4283	93.1%
	Female	3066	93.2%	1037	94.6%	4103	93.6%
	Total	6279	93.0%	2107	94.2%	8386	93.3%
R3	Male	3144	90.9%	1026	90.0%	4170	90.7%
	Female	3029	92.1%	1010	92.2%	4039	92.1%
	Total	6173	91.5%	2036	91.1%	8209	91.4%
R4	Male	3097	89.6%	1019	89.4%	4116	89.5%
	Female	2957	89.9%	1007	91.9%	3964	90.4%
	Total	6054	89.7%	2026	90.6%	8080	89.9%
R5	Male	3011	87.1%	977	85.7%	3988	86.7%
	Female	2907	88.4%	987	90.1%	3894	88.8%
	Total	5918	87.7%	1964	87.8%	7882	87.7%
R6	Male	2995	86.6%	1002	87.9%	3997	86.9%
	Female	2903	88.3%	996	91.0%	3899	88.9%
	Total	5898	87.4%	1998	89.4%	7896	87.9%
R7	Male	2951	85.3%	977	85.7%	3928	85.4%
	Female	2831	86.1%	996	90.1%	3826	87.3%
	Total	5782	85.7%	1972	88.2%	7754	86.3%
R8	Male	2816	81.4%	916	80.4%	3732	81.2%
	Female	2784	84.7%	986	90.1%	3771	86.0%
	Total	5600	83.0%	1902	85.1%	7502	83.5%
R9	Male	2734	79.0%	932	81.7%	3666	79.6%
	Female	2703	82.2%	969	88.4%	3672	83.8%
	Total	5437	80.1%	1901	85.0%	7338	81.7%
R10	Male	2850	82.4%	953	83.4%	3803	82.7%
	Female	2774	84.3%	982	89.6%	3756	85.7%
	Total	5624	83.3%	1935	86.5%	7559	84.1%
R11	Male	2803	81.0%	932	81.7%	3735	81.2%
	Female	2718	82.6%	965	88.0%	3683	84.0%
	Total	5521	81.8%	1897	84.8%	7418	82.6%
R12	Male	2819	81.4%	948	83.1%	3767	81.9%
	Female	2741	83.3%	982	89.5%	3723	84.9%
	Total	5560	82.3%	1930	86.3%	7490	83.3%
R13	Male	2835	81.9%	950	83.3%	3785	82.3%
	Female	2781	84.5%	995	90.8%	3776	86.1%
	Total	5616	83.2%	1943	86.9%	7559	84.1%
R14	Male	2816	81.4%	949	83.2%	3765	81.8%
	Female	2728	82.9%	986	89.9%	3714	84.7%
	Total	5544	82.1%	1935	86.5%	7479	83.2%
R15	Male	2792	80.7%	951	83.4%	3743	81.4%
	Female	2709	82.4%	971	88.6%	3680	83.9%
	Total	5501	81.5%	1922	86.0%	7423	82.6%
R16	Male	2647	76.5%	898	78.8%	3545	77.1%
	Female	2638	80.2%	958	87.4%	3596	82.0%
	Total	5285	78.3%	1856	83.0%	7141	79.5%
R17	Male	2630	76.0%	894	78.4%	3524	76.6%
	Female	2641	80.3%	938	85.5%	3579	81.6%
	Total	5271	78.1%	1832	81.9%	7103	79.0%
R18	Male	2458	71.1%	809	71.0%	3267	71.0%
	Female	2560	77.8%	907	82.7%	3467	79.1%
	Total	5018	74.4%	1716	76.7%	6734	75.0%
R19	Male	2565	74.1%	851	74.6%	3416	74.3%
	Female	2603	79.1%	928	84.7%	3531	80.5%
	Total	5168	76.6%	1779	79.6%	6947	77.3%
R20	Male	2456	71.0%	832	72.0%	3288	71.5%
	Female	2511	76.3%	914	83.4%	3425	78.1%
	Total	4967	73.6%	1746	78.1%	6713	74.7%
Note: Table based on RNI (R25102., R38277., etc.), KEY!SEX (R05363.), and CV_SAMPLE_TYPE (R12358.). Retention rate is defined as the percentage of all base-year respondents participating in a given survey. Deceased respondents are included in the calculations.

Factors used to help bolster NLSY97 retention rates

Locating efforts: Because transiency is a common characteristic of the age cohort interviewed in the NLSY97, locating the respondent is a major component of the fielding process each time. At the end of each interview, respondents are asked to provide names and phone numbers of close contacts that might know of their whereabouts if they were to move before the next survey round. Advance letters are mailed to the last known address of a respondent with a request to the post office for forwarding information if the respondent is no longer at that address. Other standard locating services are employed for respondents who cannot be found through contacts or the post office.
Regular respondent mailings: Respondents receive an advance letter mailed before each fielding effort. The letter reiterates the importance of their participation in the NLSY97 and includes a survey fact sheet. Additional marketing materials are available throughout the field period so that interviewers will have information to share with respondents about the importance of the study.
Multiple contact attempts: Interviewers try multiple times to contact a respondent, varying the time or date of contact to maximize success.
Additional incentives offered: In some rounds, a sub-sample of respondents were offered different levels of incentives to see if higher incentives affected survey participation. The most successful incentive approaches are then implemented survey-wide.
Interviewer consistency: Where possible, an interviewer who completed a successful interview with a respondent in a previous round is assigned that respondent in the next round.

Reasons for noninterview in the NLSY97

Each NLSY97 respondent who is not interviewed in a given round has been assigned a "reason for noninterview" code, which can be found in the "RNI" variable. Table 2 summarize the reasons for noninterview by sample type during rounds 2-20.

Table 2. Reason for Noninterview by Sample Type
Round/Sample Type	Deceased	Not Locatable	Technical Problem	R Too Ill	R Unavailable	Refused Interview	Other	Total
R2 Total	7	104	6	6	42	428	5	598
R2 Cross-sectional	6	63	3	6	37	350	4	469
R2 Supplemental	1	41	3	--	5	78	1	129
R3 Total	16	193	2	1	51	510	3	776
R3 Cross-sectional	13	122	2	1	35	400	3	576
R3 Supplemental	3	71	--	--	16	110	--	200
R4 Total	15	173	6	6	80	612	12	904
R4 Cross-sectional	12	107	5	5	61	496	8	694
R4 Supplemental	3	66	1	1	19	116	4	210
R5 Total	25	279	--	1	77	718	2	1102
R5 Cross-sectional	19	172	--	1	53	583	2	830
R5 Supplemental	6	107	--	--	24	135	--	272
R6 Total	30	253	--	4	4	765	32	1088
R6 Cross-sectional	23	162	--	4	1	637	23	850
R6 Supplemental	7	91	--	--	3	128	9	238
R7 Total	37	256	--	2	26	858	51	1230
R7 Cross-sectional	27	162	--	2	23	715	37	966
R7 Supplemental	10	94	--	--	3	143	14	264
R8 Total	45	277	--	6	208	898	48	1482
R8 Cross-sectional	35	192	--	6	124	746	45	1148
R8 Supplemental	10	85	--	--	152	152	3	334
R9 Total	59	418	--	5	92	999	73	1646
R9 Cross-sectional	45	307	--	3	59	827	70	1311
R9 Supplemental	14	111	--	2	33	172	3	335
R10 Total	77	191	--	7	86	1038	26	1425
R10 Cross-sectional	59	139	--	6	52	849	19	1124
R10 Supplemental	18	52	--	1	34	189	7	301
R11 Total	90	320	--	6	77	1037	36	1566
R11 Cross-sectional	68	232	--	5	47	846	29	1227
R11 Supplemental	22	88	--	1	30	191	7	339
R12 Total	103	274	--	--	96	997	24	1494
R12 Cross-sectional	78	194	--	--	56	838	22	1188
R12 Supplemental	25	80	--	--	40	159	2	306
R13 Total	111	265	--	4	120	893	32	1425
R13 Cross-sectional	81	197	--	4	69	758	23	1132
R13 Supplemental	30	68	--	--	51	135	9	293
R14 Total	118	271	--	5	62	1013	36	1505
R14 Cross-sectional	87	199	--	5	31	858	24	1204
R14 Supplemental	31	72	--	--	31	155	12	301
R15 Total	133	237	--	5	59	1101	26	1561
R15 Cross-sectional	96	171	--	5	35	924	16	1247
R15 Supplemental	37	66	--	--	24	177	10	314
R16 Total	151	466	--	5	75	1006	140	1843
R16 Cross-sectional	107	355	--	4	43	837	117	1463
R16 Supplemental	44	111	--	1	32	169	23	380
R17 Total	173	344	--	7	29	1258	70	1881
R17 Cross-sectional	123	242	--	5	13	1040	54	1477
R17 Supplemental	50	102	--	2	16	218	16	404
R18 Total	207	603	--	2	49	1287	102	2250
R18 Cross-sectional	148	427	--	2	27	1054	72	1730
R18 Supplemental	59	176	--	--	22	233	30	520
R19 Total	231	236	--	6	86	1458	20	2037
R19 Cross-sectional	169	161	--	5	49	1180	16	1580
R19 Supplemental	62	75	--	1	37	278	4	457
R20 total	267	190	--	8	58	1741	7	2271
R20 Cross-sectional	192	142	--	8	39	1398	2	1781
R20 Supplemental	75	48	--	--	19	343	5	490
Note: Table based on RNI (R25102., R38277., etc.) and CV_SAMPLE_TYPE (R12358.).