U.S. 2010 Census

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I can imagine any number of good reasons for them to ask about the mortgage.

And just for information's sake, they can find out that information if they really want it, without even prying. Why would you care whether they know you have a mortgage?

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And just what are any number of the good reasons why they would ask that question and why would they need to know. The census is only to find our the number of people who live in each community. Because that is the purpose of the census, I dont think it is any of their business who owns their home free and clear or who owns a mortgage. If I had one, I wouldn't tell them. You are only required by law to answer the number of people who live in the house. That is all.

I'm sure Mike has the reasons that I am unsure of about the mortgage question but I just don't understand the big deal about answering the question. It's not like they are asking how much your mortgage payment is...... And it's not like they can't find out if you own a house or how much you bought it for anyways.

I filled mine out in full in about 5 minutes and sent it back already.

I filled mine out last night. Took me about 3 minutes, since there are only 2 of us in the house. I didn't really see any questions someone wouldn't want to answer.

Originally Posted by blueyedgirl5946

And just what are any number of the good reasons why they would ask that question and why would they need to know. The census is only to find our the number of people who live in each community. Because that is the purpose of the census, I dont think it is any of their business who owns their home free and clear or who owns a mortgage. If I had one, I wouldn't tell them. You are only required by law to answer the number of people who live in the house. That is all.

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The census is used not only to count people, information found in censuses can be very useful to historians and sociologists when trying to see patterns, for example how is ethnicity related to other factors such as social status, and lots and lots of various questions that help us answer social phenomenon. I've had to use a census in a paper I had to write and the information from the census I used was blacks' occupations according to gender, immediately after the civil war..
So, I won't try to give a direct example of how useful it is to know whether people pay for their house up front or get a mortgage, but I am sure it is helpful to some economists or sociologists, and it might be useful in the future when people study our history.
Bottom line, it's used for statistics, not to invade anyone's privacy. I'm sure everyone knows that already but I don't see why people would decline to answer...

Originally Posted by ut0pia

I'm sure everyone knows that already but I don't see why people would decline to answer...

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Because when you open the envelope, a GPS/mind-altering microchip burrows into your skin and implants itself into your brain. Don't be so naive!

Originally Posted by Keycube

Because when you open the envelope, a GPS/mind-altering microchip burrows into your skin and implants itself into your brain. Don't be so naive!

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I better be careful then and keep that in mind!!

As one person mentioned, the home ownership question can be important in formulating laws and policies. What if you found that 95% of all Hispanics in the country were living in rental properties? And of the remaining 5%, only 20% had mortgages? What if you found that in given neighborhood (mine, for example, that is about 50% African-American), 90% of the whites owned the house but only 50% had a mortgage, but only 40% of the African-Americans owned their homes and 100% of them had a mortgage? For a demographer, this is important information.

And, as I said earlier, anyone who REALLY wanted to know about someone who didn't want to tell them can find out with a search in the county records, or even with a realtor's database. Or, they can ask the county property tax office, who can tell them who pays the taxes.

I don't find anything on the form particularly intrusive. A credit bureau, if queried, could probably give the census a whole lot more intrusive information, including where you work and what the balances are on your mortgage, car loans, etc.

http://icanhascheezburger.files.word...6897673365.jpg

Yeah, why no ?s on the kittehs...

Originally Posted by gemlady

http://icanhascheezburger.files.word...6897673365.jpg

Yeah, why no ?s on the kittehs...

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I was really tempted to add Chester to mine. He is an important member of my household.

There were spots for 12 other people. It seems like such a waste of paper for just one person.

DH filled ours out! I wasn't looking forward to it. I do enough paperwork. The financial questions are supposed to help determine a need for funding in an area? (I don't like them either, but I figure if "they" really want to know they could just check out my tax forms anyway.)

This may seem dumb, but I puzzle over what they do about homeless people? How is it possible to really establish an accurate people count?

This is a very interesting post. I've learned a lot about the history of the census. Thank you to the OP and the folks who have provided insightful information.

Originally Posted by nurseangel

This may seem dumb, but I puzzle over what they do about homeless people? How is it possible to really establish an accurate people count?

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They try, through homeless shelters and soup kitchens and such. That's always going to be an underrepresented population, though.

Originally Posted by ebrillblaiddes

They try, through homeless shelters and soup kitchens and such. That's always going to be an underrepresented population, though.

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Also, in NYC, they have an annual "count", where groups of volunteers go out and talk to and count the people who are living on the street.

Ahh! I left our census on Jon's desk and Cammy shredded it! Anyone know how I get another? lol. She thinks it's her duty to shred things for us.

Originally Posted by nurseangel

DH filled ours out!

I wasn't looking forward to it. I do enough paperwork. The financial questions are supposed to help determine a need for funding in an area?

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What financial questions? There weren't any on mine?

Originally Posted by Carolina"

What financial questions? There weren't any on mine?

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Previous Census forms included a long form that had all sorts of questions on ranging from name, age, and sex, to employment, schooling, medical conditions, vehicles, etc. I thought that was done away with for the 2010 Census.

Originally Posted by kscatlady

Ahh! I left our census on Jon's desk and Cammy shredded it! Anyone know how I get another? lol. She thinks it's her duty to shred things for us.

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http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/questions.php

Scroll down to "What if I lose the form?". There's a number you can call if you lost the form.

What I noticed and annoyed me (just received census paper in the mail) was 1. that they used the word "negro" when asking for race and 2. they somehow mixed up the word race and ethnicity, on the question about race, it had black, white, japanese, vietnamese, chinese, filipino, as options..
To me the word race is white, black, yellow, brown, or caucusoid, mongoloid, negroid- whatever; you get what I mean- your physical characteristics determine your race NOT your nationality..To me a Vietnamese and a Chinese are of the same race? Just like an Italian and a Greek person are both white, if they are of that descent.

Originally Posted by Essayons89

Previous Census forms included a long form that had all sorts of questions on ranging from name, age, and sex, to employment, schooling, medical conditions, vehicles, etc. I thought that was done away with for the 2010 Census.

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No...this one is only 10 questions and doesn't ask financial questions at all; the only one is if you own or rent, or pay nothing for the house where you live.

Originally Posted by Carolina

No...this one is only 10 questions and doesn't ask financial questions at all; the only one is if you own or rent, or pay nothing for the house where you live.

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Right. The 2010 Census form is slightly different than what was used for the 2000 Census. The major difference between the current census and the 2000 Census is that the long form version from 2000 has been done away with. It looked like this:http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d-61b.pdf. Only a small subset of the population (1/6) received this long form. The 2010 Census is the first since 1940 that doesn't have a long form. Like you mentioned above, there is only the 10 question short form for 2010, and there aren't any financial questions on it. I'm just trying to clear up what I posted earlier, if it helps.

Originally Posted by Essayons89

Right. The 2010 Census form is slightly different than what was used for the 2000 Census. The major difference between the current census and the 2000 Census is that the long form version from 2000 has been done away with. It looked like this:http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d-61b.pdf. Only a small subset of the population (1/6) received this long form. The 2010 Census is the first since 1940 that doesn't have a long form. Like you mentioned above, there is only the 10 question short form for 2010, and there aren't any financial questions on it. I'm just trying to clear up what I posted earlier, if it helps.

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We got the long form in 2000. For a very long time, I thought everyone got that form. I have no problem answering the questions, as a family historian, the more information on the census forms the better. I'm not naive enough anyway to think that if I don't fill out a census form, nobody will have any information on me.

Originally Posted by ut0pia

To me the word race is white, black, yellow, brown, or caucusoid, mongoloid, negroid- whatever; you get what I mean- your physical characteristics determine your race NOT your nationality..

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IMO, the government should just make it super easy and say "phenotype" but then most people will go "Whuh???"