2020 Census

[ForestWalker]

Received in the mail our 2020 census yesterday. Sat down at the computer with a large cup of coffee expecting to wade my way through it and it took less than 6 minutes to complete. Shortest census questionnaire I've ever seen.

my2020census.gov

For those who travel full time where would you show as a home address for the census?

[BehindBars]

Yes, the census questionnaire was quite brief. There are questions about who lives in the house. I get that. What I totally don’t understand is the question about ownership of the dwelling. Two of the choices are something like, Own the home but have a mortgage, or Own the home free and clear.

Now, the really big question is, why does it even matter?

If a person lived in a home and had a $500,000 mortgage balance they would answer that they “own” the home and had a mortgage. If another person had a home equity line of credit with a $500 balance, but had no other mortgage, they would also need to answer that they own the home with a mortgage. There is a big difference in those two scenarios.

Now if you have a home equity line of credit with no balance, and no other mortgage, how would you answer? You technically have an open loan secured by the property, it just doesn’t presently have a balance. But it could tomorrow.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by ForestWalker

Received in the mail our 2020 census yesterday. Sat down at the computer with a large cup of coffee expecting to wade my way through it and it took less than 6 minutes to complete. Shortest census questionnaire I've ever seen.

my2020census.gov

For those who travel full time where would you show as a home address for the census?

If I recall correctly the questionnaire had a code on it that relates to what they consider your official address. Probably the one you received your mail at.

Only way this really matters is if you use a mail forwarding service and full time, the location of the Mail Forwarder will have a larger population than where you currently are setup.

Again calling on my memory, I believe in past Census questionnaires you entered the address where you were on a given date if you were moving around.

The Census is no longer just a count of people to reapportion representation, but also data gathering in order to measure various demographics.

For some reason it's still important to keep track of race rather than just counting PEOPLE.

[BandJCarm]

I have not received it. I have no problem with the Census requirements as written in the Constitution.


I do have a problem with one of the questions. On the question of Race, I chose "Other" and put in the description "I do not have any empirical knowledge of my race, have never done a DNA test to find out, and I am incensed that the US Government needs to know this information. I can only conclude that you are asking for some Identity Political reason, which I vehemently oppose. If you would stop counting us by Race, and stop reporting how many of each Race there are, we might stop worrying about which one we 'belong' to".

I never got in any trouble for that. And I will put that again. It infuriates me that they ask this question.

[JayArras]

Originally Posted by BandJCarm

I do have a problem with one of the questions. On the question of Race, I chose "Other" and put in the description "I do not have any empirical knowledge of my race, have never done a DNA test to find out, and I am incensed that the US Government needs to know this information. I can only conclude that you are asking for some Identity Political reason, which I vehemently oppose. If you would stop counting us by Race, and stop reporting how many of each Race there are, we might stop worrying about which one we 'belong' to".

What you say makes a lot of sense. I happen to think the other day that all of these groups that promote the pride of their race or ethnicity are actually distinguishing themselves as being different. I think we're at the point where all countries have enough mixtures of peoples that just identifying ourselves as citizens of that country should be enough.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by JayArras

What you say makes a lot of sense. I happen to think the other day that all of these groups that promote the pride of their race or ethnicity are actually distinguishing themselves as being different. I think we're at the point where all countries have enough mixtures of peoples that just identifying ourselves as citizens of that country should be enough.

When adding the question "Citizen or Not" to the form was suggested a hug uproar occurred. Something like "how dare you ask that question, especially whether or not people were here legally or not".

To me the form should be about the size of a postcard. One question, "how many people were at this residence at 12 Midnight on a given date.

That would satisfy the requirement to count the population every 10 years.

[Desertsquid]

I read and re-read the question concerning race. All the options...none fit. I just wrote in American lol.

[itat]

Wow this thread must be on the radar of the moderators because it has a huge chance of going political in a hurry.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by itat

Wow this thread must be on the radar of the moderators because it has a huge chance of going political in a hurry.

Not unless someone wants to see the thread closed and essentially poisons the conversation.

[Coolharts]

I answered how many in the house, the names of the residents and own or rent questions. From there on I did not answer other questions.

[lmiken]

I just filed in the names of the people in the house and left the reset blank. Since these days a person can identify how ever they want, the questions are no longer valid. As far as I am concerned, the only thing the matter is how many and how many are citizens for representative purposes. All the rest just give the government an excuse to waste more money.

[ForestWalker]

Having an ancestry.com account I have access to the old censuses. Here are some samples of the questions asked along with the usual address, name, age, marital status, nationality and such...

1880- Color, place of birth, cannot read, cannot write, blind, deaf and dumb, insane, and maimed, crippled or otherwise disabled.

1910- Color or race, whether survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy.

1920- Color or race, own home or rent, if owned free or mortgage, year of immigration to US, read, write, able to speak English.

1930- Color or race, value of home if owned or monthly rent, live on farm, radio, read, write, occupation, veteran.

1940- Color or race, highest grade completed, place of birth, occupation, # of hours worked week on March 24-30, 1939, # of weeks worked in 1939. amount of salary received.

The US census is released to the public after 72 years so in 2022 the 1950 census will be made public.

There are many who take it lightly but for those of us who are into genealogy take this look into our families past on a more serious note.

[walaby]

I answered them all.. didn't really have a problem with any of the questions.


I personally wish the citizenship question was there. To me, it matters... alot actually.


Mike

[D W]

Originally Posted by Desertsquid

I read and re-read the question concerning race. All the options...none fit. I just wrote in American lol.

Same here!

[Bob_Loblaw]

Originally Posted by D W

Same here!

Ditto

[frank4711]

Originally Posted by Desertsquid

I read and re-read the question concerning race. All the options...none fit. I just wrote in American lol.

Yes .... exactly what I did

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by Desertsquid

I read and re-read the question concerning race. All the options...none fit. I just wrote in American lol.

“American” is not a race, though.

Bruce

[Coolharts]

Why do we have to classify people by race? We are all human.

[pgandw]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

For some reason it's still important to keep track of race rather than just counting PEOPLE.

I just leave the race blank, or if unable to do so, I check "other" and write in "Human Race".

Fred W

[frank4711]

Race .... I have added it t my whatever no worries attitude ... it sucks the life out of many ... hard to watch