Has anyone else received a request to complete an updated census? Its usually done every 10 years so this seems like an off cycle, the request we got was sent to “resident” (not our personal names) and its asking for a boatload of information including personal financial info, etc. We first received form with an online link and now got a big packet in the mail. For a variety of reasons (probably better suited for the political forum) we are reticent to complete this survey. Anyone else get one??
ETA: there is some info online about a “census test” being sent to some rural areas but this is a full census survey and we are not in a rural area.
There are questions about finances that I do not wish to share. Wonder if we can leave it blank? Haven’t yet looked closer. In the middle of getting DHs surgery scheduled, ready for a housguest and a repair guy and changing travel info!
FWIW, my H never answers income/finance questions on any form (including the census). The worst that will happen is you may get a f/u from the census bureau asking for the info but I doubt it if the rest of the form is complete.
Good luck to your H with his surgery and all you have going on. I personally wouldn’t be prioritizing this survey right now. You have plenty of time to do it later. Try not to stress about this one more thing!
I moved in January and got this about Jan 15. Lucky me.
It is several pages but I got to skip a lot as I’m only one person living here (I think there is enough room to list 8 people living in the household, so I skipped about 5 pages there). And there are a lot of other things like “If you answered yes to #23a, go to question 25” things.
You are required by law to answer all question. The financial questions are grouped, like ‘Annual income, $0-25k, $25k-100k,…’ You sign at the end that you’ve answered correctly. Up to you if you want to sign a federal document with incomplete or incorrect information.
Will they follow up? Yes. I was a little slow in responding and got a few postcards reminding me to answer. Will an FBI agent show up at your house? Unlikely.
There were a few things I guessed at (like how many apts are in my building,when it was built). I didn’t know and didn’t care to look it up.
If I try to do the online version it may not let me skip the financial stuff. We are retired so income is mostly unearned. I will look at it now since we are waiting for DH’s army buddy to arrive (not the best day for a high maintenance houseguest with DH’s surgery tomorrow). I’ll put the landline phone # on the form. We never answer that
My elderly parents got one and I helped them fill it out since they couldn’t navigate it. The intrusive financial questions were concerning and we had to guess anyway since we couldn’t find a tax return. Then there were strange questions asking about where your ancestors immigrated from. It gives you the option to pick like two countries. Well, first of all what is the purpose of this data collection? Secondly, the ancestors immigrated from about eight different countries so . . . .
I’ve avoided this census thing successfully for a while now, and have managed to change/reschedule our flights, airport driver, hotel, car rental… and now I am off to play bridge!! I’ve filled out a third of it but it really is extremely detailed and personal. Dislike.
yeah, the ACS is long and intrusive. I complete the hardcopy ACS in the same way I complete the census, headcount & ages only. If they want family income or number of toilets, they can get a warrant.
(yeah, I get why demographers and academic sociology researchers want the info, but until they offer to pay me for my time…)
btw: folks skip questions all the time, and the statisticians have a model based on your zip code/census track to fill in the blanks.
I have given general cost of our utility bills but am going to skip a lot. Only finance input on was what I got from Soc Sec because they can probably get that easily anyway. But that’s about all I want to share.
