Census Information Collection
Conducting a Census: Collecting the Information
Note: See Census Conducting.Until relatively recently, population censuses were taken exclusively through personal interviews. The government sent enumerators (interviewers) to each household in the country. The enumerators asked the head of the household questions about each member of the household and entered the person’s responses on the census questionnaire. The enumerator then returned the responses to the government. Today, many censuses are conducted primarily through self-enumeration, which means that people complete their own census questionnaire. Self-enumeration reduces the cost of a census to the government because fewer enumerators are needed to conduct interviews. In addition, the procedure provides greater privacy to the public and generally improves the accuracy of responses, because household members can take more time to think over the questions and consult their personal records.
A country conducting a census chooses a collection technique based on its social and political traditions and technological capacities. The United States census is highly automated and has been conducted primarily by mail since 1970. For the 2000 U.S. census, the Census Bureau offered many people the option of answering their questionnaires through the bureau’s Web site. Canada began to use self-enumeration in 1971. Today the Canadian government sends enumerators to deliver the census form to each household; the household head fills it out and sends it back to the government. In both the United States and Canada, enumerators are sent to follow up on households that do not mail back the census questionnaire. Other nations continue to conduct censuses only through direct enumeration. Some, such as Turkey, require people to stay home on Census Day to await the census taker.
Census agencies make a special effort to count people who may not receive a questionnaire by mail or who have no permanent address. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau sends census takers to interview people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, mobile food vans, campgrounds, fairs, and carnivals. It consults with experts to find migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The bureau works with the Department of Defense and U.S. Coast Guard to identify people living on military installations or ships. The Census Bureau also counts military personnel and federal civilian government employees and their families who are living overseas. Finally, the agency distributes census questionnaires to people living in group quarters, such as college dormitories, nursing homes, hospitals, prisons and jails, halfway houses, youth hostels, convents and monasteries, and women’s shelters.
In the United States, Canada, and other countries, households receive either a short or long census questionnaire. Most households receive the “short form,” a brief set of questions on basic characteristics such as name, age, sex, racial or ethnic background, marital status, and relationship to the household head. But a small sample of households receives the “long form,” which asks many other detailed questions. These may include questions about the individual’s educational background, income, occupation, language knowledge, veteran status, and disability status as well as housing-related questions about the value of the individual’s home, the number of rooms and bedrooms in it, and the year the structure was built. The statistical technique of sampling-asking questions of only a representative sample of the population-allows census agencies to collect this detailed information without placing an undue burden on the population or creating an excessive cost to the government. About one in six households in the United States and one in five households in Canada receives the long form. These sample sizes are large enough to produce reliable information about the population characteristics of neighborhoods, regions, states or provinces, and the country as a whole. (1)
Census
- Census
- Census Information
- Census Conducting
- Census Planning
- Census Information Collection
- Census Processing and Analysis of Data
- Census Publication of Results
- Census in the U.S.
- U.S. Censuses Origins
- U.S. Early Censuses
- United States: Censuses Breakthroughs in Automation
- Modern Censuses in the United States
- Census in Canada
- Early Censuses in Canada
- Modern Censuses in Canada
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