Address Based Sample (ABS)

What is ABS?

Address-Based Sampling (ABS) utilizes the US Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence File (CDS) which MSG licenses. The CDS database contains over 135 million residential addresses and provides nearly 100% coverage of all households in the US. The CDS file contains a variety of address types, including city-style, rural routes, PO Boxes, seasonal, vacant, and drop points.

Sample frames can be defined by any level of geography (postal or census) from Census Block up to National. Additionally, any combination of address types can be targeted to best satisfy the requirements of the particular research project.

How do I get ABS?

ABS samples can be purchased in a variety of ways, including contacting one of our account representatives via e-mail or telephone or through our web-based real-time application Virtual GENESYS.

What do I get?

ABS samples include complete mailing address, both in fielded and standardized formats, as well as all of the postal-related variables including carrier route. Each address is geo-coded with Census Block and latitude/longitude.

What more can I do?

Additional household level characteristics can be appended to the selected ABS sample. This includes name, phone, and Age/Gender of HOH among others.