Unpublished Number

The unpublished number disposition is used both in random-digit dialing (RDD) surveys of the general public and in telephone surveys of named people that use a list-based sample. Unpublished telephone numbers are numbers that are not listed in the local [Page 933]telephone directory, and the vast majority of these numbers also are unlisted and thus not available from directory assistance.

The unpublished number disposition is fairly rare in RDD surveys and is used only when an interviewer dials the telephone number of a case in the sampling pool and receives a recorded message from the local telephone company indicating that the telephone number dialed by the interviewer has been changed to an unpublished number—meaning that the original telephone number in the sampling pool is no longer ...