Everyone Counts, PSA on the 2020 US Census

[Archives1]

PSA here on the US Census for US Citizens.

Have you filled out your census yet? If yes, awesome!! If no, why not???

Each person counted means money for your local community. This means more money for schools, social services, health care, infrastructure, disaster response and other federal pass through dollars for local governments. The census count sets theses allocation amounts for the next 10 years. This means that an under count of your community means receiving less federal pass through funds for the next 10 years.

Another very important use of the census count is reapportion of the House of Representative. Some states stand to loose seats in the US House while others may gain based on population counts. It is also used to redraw congressional boundaries and often state legislative districts to account for population shifts, growth and declines.

Information gathered by the census is kept confidential. They will never ask for your social security number, financial account numbers or what political party if any you identify with.

As a person who uses census data for demographic analysis I can attest to the fact that I cannot drill down the data far enough to identify individual people. Some data sets only go down to the block group level because going to the block level could potentially identify individual people.

Do something for yourself and your community by filling out your 2020 US Census.

JT

Link to fill out your census online: https://my2020census.gov

 

[Archives1]

@Jaytee Hey thanks! I've always wondered: what is the legit site for the census? My family and I were filing out ours but we received two different websites from different letters regarding the census.

 

[Archives1]

Hi J.T., That was a good PSA you gave us on the Census. I have filled mine out weeks ago and always glad to help the community. Of course you probably figured that out about me already! What you didn't know until right now is that I worked the 2010 Census. The biggest part of the job was going from door to door confirming the street addresses. That means making sure there's actually a dwelling at that very address! :O Sometimes there isn't and other times there is some sort of a building but it's completely uninhabitable. Other times there's a building but it's not a residence. And other Census blocks I was assigned to didn't have a building of any type - just a vacant lot!
The term "single family dwelling" of course was used by us Census folks a lot and we ask people who come to the door if this is a single family dwelling. I was working a not-so-affluent neighborhood in Eustis when an elderly man came to the door. We chatted a couple of minutes after I told him what I was doing.
"Is this a single family house?" I asked.
The man broke into a wide grin and said, "Oh no, I've been married 50 wonderful years!" I smiled back and said, "That's really great! You're very lucky!"
And yes, I marked down it was a single family house, but definitely not a single man!

 

[Archives1]

One year, the Census counted 3 empty homes in my then home-town. We had a negative vacancy rate. So the City and Borough mayors got in a car to drive every street. Hey! 11,000 on the road system, which went 16 miles north and 18 miles west, on an island. They did find one empty house - burnt. Had been for several years. Another had collapsed from rot, no maintenance, & old age. But some people hide when the Census comes around - and from the tax assessor, too. Tut tut.

 

[Archives1]

Sounds like those houses are definitely uninhabitable for sure! We won't count them! I know some people hid when the census comes around, mostly because they may be aliens and are asfraid we're going to report then. We were told by our supervisors at the time that we do not make such reports to anyone. We are only there to confirm the addresses and to make sure there are people living there. We have no jurisdiction outside of that. We can't even report suspected child abuse.
Case in point: I was doing a census block just down the street from me. There was a fairly large two-story house in a somewhat new neighborhood. After ringing the doorbell, a girl maybe eight years old, answered. I introduced myself and said "is you mom at home?"
"No. She went to the store."
"Your dad here?"
"No."
"Grandparents?"
"No."
"Aunts, uncles?"
"No."
"Older brother, sister?"
"No."
"Anyone?"
Turned out she just had a younger brother and sister with her. I thanked the girl and left. Later I told my supervisor and she said we aren't even allowed to report children being left at home alone with no adults. That was an eye-opener!:O

 

[Archives1]

You are right @billliveshere . The census staff are very strict in what they can and cannot report on. They try to protect the integrity of the foot staff so that people know that they really are just confirming that a structure is or is not on the parcel and if there is one is it occupied.

Kinda of a tough situation if you see something related to health and safety. On the girl, who knows if it was appropriate or not for her to be home alone and looking after younger kids. At the very least I'd say she needed a little lesson on not opening the door. I was left along when I was young but my parents only did so after a point and time where they trust me and I had shown that I could be trusted to be home alone.

@AlasSouth , I wonder where that final empty home was at. We have had a few here where the house looks vacant but it is not. Maybe a similar case your your community's situation.

@23andpee There are a few official weblink that will get you to the actual census so if you had others that might have still be legit. The one I provided was the direct one to the form.

 

[Archives1]

Hi Jaytee, You are so spot on! That girl should have had a lesson in not opening the door to strangers. My sentiments exactly! I just kept thinking that day that it was a good thing it was me who she opened the door to and not someone who was intent on doing something evil. I shudder to think what could have happened! With so much of that going on these days, there's no such thing as being TOO safe! My parents followed a similar philosophy that yours did in that they left me alone only when they knew I could be trusted.

 

[Archives1]

I will not answer any question other than how many people live in my house. That is ALL the constitution authorizes. It's none of the government's business what our ages, race, sex etc is. It's none of the government's goddamn business if I own, rent, have a mortgage or paid off or what our phone numbers are.

I'm not sure if my wife did it online this year or not but when they came in 2010 after I threw the paper form away over and over again I just opened the door, said 3, and closed the door. They knocked again and I opened it said 3 people live here, get off my property, fill in whatever you want for the rest goodbye.

 

[Archives1]

Census came to the door, yesterday - to try to find out if the house across the street is inhabited full-year. (It's a "Sale Pending".) Many here are not. Snowbirds. Fishing shacks. Recreational. There's a house down a long driveway - over a mile to the end. It has a census bag and a "We Were Here" notice on the door. Power line disconnected and hanging on the meter. Tree growing up in front of the door. Worth a chuckle. The owner hasn't been in this state in easily 6-7 years.

 

[Archives1]

Jaytee,
Thank you, the census is important enough that the Founding Fathers incorporated it into the Constitution.
It is surprising that the census is still going on--I think that I did our household in February or March!
Everyone, Jaytee gives the right website, note the "---.gov"

 

[Archives1]

There is one fun Government website - and it's Census.gov. Do a search there for "Last Names". If it comes up, there will be male and female first names, too.
Every name from the last census is on the tables. They are listed in order of frequency, and where on the list they are. First names: about 1700 boys, about 3,500 for girls. (I guess parents are more creative naming girls than boys.) If there are fewer than 100 in the country, it won't show. There are a whole heck of a lot of last names.
I know someone whose names aren't on the list - too rare.
Fun. Most common 1st name for girls? Mary, 2 census back.
Remember, the names include everyone at the time of the census, from a baby to someone 110 years old. Mary isn't that common now, but it was decades ago, and they are still with us.
Yeah, there are boys named Sue! (And I bet they all hate Johnny Cash).

 

[Archives1]

Nice post, AlasSouth, I've always thought parents are more creative naming girls than boys! With all of the Johns, Bills, Marks, Joes, Andrews, etc., in the world the creative juices run dry. And now your post confirms that. Thank you! I'm not surprised Mary is the most common girls' name still. But most Marys are baby-boomers and older. And among elementary school populations you don't run into too many Marys now. At least I haven't.
And I'm glad you answered that other question I've always had in my mind: boys named Sue. They probably do hate Johnny Cash. But for boys named Sue, I think a great career for them would be lawyers. And they'd be laughing all the way to the bank!!!

 

[Archives1]

@MikeJames I respect your position. The number of people living in a household is the most critical in determining pass through funding to state governments and thus to local communities.

And for determining legitimate congressional boundaries. I say legitimate cause, have you looks at some of the very obvious gerrymandering of our congressional districts? I mean is it so obvious on some where Republicans were in charge and on others where Democrats were in charge of setting the boundaries.

As an independent (yes I do not trust either of the two national parties, both, to me, are full of lies and self promoting), but yes I really like some of the Republican ideas on fiscal spending and conservative spending as in don't spend what we don't need to and I love some of the Democrats social justice and giving a hand up not a hand out ideas) But anyway. I have studies geoinfo where political views of the population were taken into consideration in determing political boundaries to benefit those in charge.

I'd like to see where political boundaries were determined by census block groups or track at the most. Once an area has enough population to justify a political boundary it is set. Regardless of what the political view is of those within that boundary. Base it on population only, just like the census tracts, block group and blocks are.

As an independent, that sure would mix things up. But the establish political parties and supporter would call fowl and not fair. Mark my words. They only want political boundaries that support them and not the other side. A random based on population boundary they could not handle cause it might show the true American voice and not their manipulated voice. (yes both sides)

Okay, political rant over, back to the normal non political forum.

 

[Archives1]

If they really only cared about counting people they would ask how many people in the household and no other questions. Race doesn’t matter age doesn’t matter none of that matters and none of that they have a legal right to ask. If they want to ask all that I need to ask on there are you a US CITIZEN. Until then I will not answer it I’d rather pay the hundred dollar fine then give them more information