U.S. residents are being encouraged to fill out those census forms when we get them – and not wait until someone shows up at the door, because we didn’t get around to answering those 10 questions. Following is an excerpt from an article about the topic.
Ten years ago, said Gentry, who is the LCO manager for the 2010 U.S. Census in western Nebraska, the state
recorded a 75 percent response rate to 2000 Census, a number that was first in its 10-state region and second only to Iowa (76%) among all 50 states.
In 2010, he wants Nebraska to have the highest number of residences that don’t require a follow up call from a census enumerator, and for a very practical reason-it saves taxpayer money.
Because the Constitution requires a complete count of every resident every 10 years, any household that doesn’t fill out the census form the first time will be recontacted, Gentry said. But the cost of those second visits add up. Nationwide “we are paying out $90 million for every one percent of ‘non-respondents,” he said. “Save the money by filling it out the first time. (You) will be recontacted.”
…
While some people are wary of revealing any information to the Census Bureau for fear that it will be misused by other government agencies or somehow made public, Gentry said the responses are strictly confidential. “By law, the Census Bureau cannot share an individual’s responses with anyone, including other federal agencies and law enforcement agencies,” the fact sheet says. .
Census information, which has been collected every ten years since 1790, is valuable for scholarly research and for families tracing their genealogy and is released to the public 72 years after it is collected, Gentry noted.
Read the full article by George Ledbetter in the October 29, 2009 edition of The Chaldron News.
