SAVVY CITIZEN 2010 CENSUS - GET READY TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED FORMS WILL GO OUT IN MARCH, AND A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN TO PERSUADE THE WARY HAS BEGUN.
Jim Morrill
January 11, 2010
If you haven't heard much about the 2010 U.S. Census yet, don't worry. You will.
The census kicked off last week with a $340 million promotional blitz. One way or another, the Census Bureau plans to reach every single person in the country by summer's end.
It all revolves around a simple, 10-question survey that goes out this spring.
"Those are probably the 10 most important questions (you're) going to answer in the next 10 years," says census spokesman Tony Jones.
Here's a quick primer.
Q. When will I get my form?
The post office will mail every household a questionnaire March 15-17. Census officials say it should take 10 minutes to fill out.
"What we want folks to do as soon as they get the form," says Jones, "is fill it out and put it back in the mail."
Q. What if I don't return it?
Follow-up postcards go out in April. Replacement questionnaires will be available if needed.
If census officials don't hear from you by early May, they'll come knocking. If they don't catch you the first time, they'll keep trying.
Q. Why can't I do it electronically?
In a time when Americans put their credit-card numbers and Facebook profiles on the Web, why can't they fill out a census survey online?
Jones says census officials tested an online version but abandoned it. Electronic surveys elicited no greater response than paper. Questionnaires will be scanned into computers and counted at processing centers in Arizona, Maryland and Indiana.
Q. What's different this time?
In 2000, one of every six households got a long survey that asked a lot of socioeconomic questions. Now all that is gathered by the bureau's American Community Survey, which goes to 250,000 homes across the country every month.
Q. Forms will be available in Spanish. Any other languages?
You can also get surveys in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. Assistance guides are available in 59 other languages from Albanian to Yiddish. Call centers will offer personal help in any of those languages.
Q. Why count people who are in the U.S. illegally?
Census officials say their job is to count people, not enforce immigration laws. Through a variety of efforts, they remind immigrants - legal or not - that by law, no information gathered by the census is shared with any other government agency. "They are here and they are utilizing services like anybody else so they have to be counted," Jones says.
Q. Will illegal immigrants cooperate?
Roberto Belem and other census workers hope so. His job is reaching out to Hispanics often wary of government. "I turn blue explaining that the Census Bureau information cannot be shared with any other agency," he says.
At least one New Jersey pastor is urging Hispanics to boycott the census until Congress passes immigration reform.
Q. What's in it for them, or anybody for that matter?
Political representation. Government dollars. Even decisions such as whether a new retail or grocery store comes to your neighborhood.
"All of them look at demographic data - they consume it," says Melanie Sizemore, co-chair of the county's Complete Count Committee and owner of a business that tracks commercial real estate.
Q. My son's off at college. Where is he counted?
At school. The rule, says Jones, is "where they lay their head most of the time."
Q. When do the census jobs start and how long do they last?
Census officials are hiring 24,000 people in North Carolina alone. Most jobs begin in April. Some will run through July.
Q. Didn't the bureau just release population figures last month?
That was the census bureau's annual estimate. Only two states, Texas and California, gained more people than the 134,000 North Carolina did between July 2008 and July 2009.
Q. Will North Carolina gain a 14th Congressional seat?
Not according to preliminary analyses. For example, Polidata, a Virginia-based political and demographics research firm, predicts South Carolina will gain a House seat but North Carolina will fall about 75,000 people short. (N.C. gained its 13th congressional seat after the 2000 census).
Of course, all that could change when the actual counts are announced in 2011.
Jim Morrill: 704-358-5059
Census jobs
The Census Bureau is hiring thousands of temporary workers in the Carolinas. It's looking for people who can work in their own communities.
Most jobs start in April and can run through mid-July. Hours are flexible.
About 2,100 people will be hired in Mecklenburg County. The Gastonia and Concord offices will hire 1,100 each. Salaries depend on location.
In Charlotte, workers will make $18.25 per hour. In Concord and Gastonia, the rate is $15.25 an hour. For more information, go to www.2010censusjobs.gov or call 866-861-2010.