Got paper mail from the US Census Bureau.
It says to go to https://my2020census.gov/ . It also gives a 12-character Census ID.
After I go to the web site and start the process, it asks for the Census ID. If I put in the Census ID into the web site, it says that it is not valid (with either upper case letters as on the paper mail, or lower case letters).
Uh oh. That’s not good.
I just logged in with mine. No problem.
ETA: I completed it. It asked something that surprised me. It asks your race, of course, and for “White” – which both DH and I are – it also requires that you enter your “origin” – ie, Irish, English, German, etc. I don’t remember this from past censuses (censi??) and I don’t know why this is necessary. Any ideas??
Just did my census, and last week completed the mandatory “extra” community census. For origins, I wrote “it’s complicated.”
@VeryHappy - agree that the “origin” question seemed new, but not sure if it is. I found the concept of “origin” uncomfortable. What is the context? Where I was born? (No option for US as far as I recall.) Where the most recent non-US born member of my family was born? What nationality my last name may embody?
And why? I am not up to speed on this.
I did it online today. No problem. I was also surprised about having to go beyond “white” for an answer but I couldn’t continue without putting in something in addition to that for H and I. I just picked an origin but could have just as easily picked a different one as we both have ancestors from a few northern European countries. So, not sure how it really is helpful but I just picked something so I could complete the process.
Can you put in more than one origin? I have at least 4 and they’re all important to me.
I completed online today. No problems when I used all caps + numeric like the code from mail. Since our kids are currently visiting and likely to still be with us 4/1, I added them as household members and filled out reasons they live elsewhere (jobs and for D also specialty healthcare providers).
I just did it and it’s not case-sensitive - I entered with lower-case letters without a problem.
As to the “origin” question – ten years ago I was in my son’s apartment, with his then-wife and my newborn grandson, when a census taker came by. DIL got into something of a debate with the census taker over the lack of an option to indicate a Jewish ethnicity – I don’t think anyone cared about the adults in the room, but we wanted to include every glorious detail about grandson’s heritage, as it was his first time ever to be counted.
So it was nice this time around to have a blank space with the option to enter whatever I wanted. (Though no grandson in the picture this time – I’m in my own home all by myself this time around). I just went along with my 23andme report.
I don’t think it is mandatory to enter anything in the box – nor do I think that there is any particular format you have to follow. So you would be able to enter combined ancestry / heritage / ethnicity – though I assume that the field has a maximum character limit.
I’d add, however, that I was disappointed that in 2020 the census offered only two options for gender. No option for the non-binary among us.
Funny, when I used some upper and other lower case letters, got an error message. After I switched to all upper case, it was fine.
“Can you put in more than one origin? I have at least 4”
For many of us they would need to allow a rather long list.
I filled it out online and I thought I’d run out of room for the boys, but it allowed me keep going. Super easy.
I didn’t receive anything about the census in the mail.
You probably will today.
The Census ID that did not work yesterday works today.
The letter that I got from the USPS was dated the same day I received it, so it is possible that the Census ID was enabled on the web site based on expected receipt of the letter after it was dated, but the USPS delivered it before the expected receipt of the letter.
Students who live in the college dorms that are being closed due to COVID-19 (and often their parents) need to account for where they will be living on April 1 when filling in US Census forms.
If you do not get one in the near future, there is a way on the web site to give your address and presumably complete the US Census on that basis:
https://my2020census.gov/app/intro/state
If you don’t fill out your census form I will followup with you sometime after May 1. That is when my training starts as a census enumerator. I did it 10 years ago also. Depending on the state of public health at that time I may decide to not do the job. We will see what happens.
I’m finding this thread very interesting since I worked on every census starting in 1970. I wasn’t’ involved in all of the testing and consultation done in developing the 2020 questionnaire, but know that developing each question was extremely intensive so as to obtain accurate data in a way that is understandable to people responding, and acceptable to diverse stakeholders. There are reasons for the way each question is asked and the categories of answers.
A couple of things relevant to this thread. The invitation letters starting being mailed yesterday and could arrive as late as the 20th of the month. I’ll be curious how complete the lists are for the new active adult community I moved to last summer. My building doesn’t appear at all, or not properly, in online mapping, but the community may be more accurately represented on the Census Bureau address files. There are over 100 people moving into very new construction this month.
The issue of where people should be counted is clear in concept but does make for some clunky instructions. College students who may have returned home while the school does distance learning, but mostly live in campus or off-campus housing, should be counted at the school. Assuring this will be a challenge to the Census Bureau, but it’s necessary to assure people are counted where they usually live (issues around this arise around redistricting efforts, and elections, raising other interesting issues.
Thanks to everyone who responds to the census, and especially people like @NJres who go out to collect info from those who don’t otherwise respond–you are real heroes!