Have you received your 2020 Census notice yet? Got mine a couple days ago and completed it online. Only took about 5 minutes. About 10 very simple questions. I believe they sample a certain percentage of the population and those receive a long form with more detailed questions. I got the long form once, I think in 2000. Anyone get a long form?
We, Canada have the Census forms as well, not sure why, when on the farm, we were so lucky to get the long forms . Don't ever remember getting a short one then, but have since i moved to town.
Maybe I'm thinking of the American Community Services Survey. The description in the link is confusing. It says the ACS comes at the same times as the Census, but then says data is collected every year. "By April 1, 2020, every home will receive an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census. Some households will also receive the American Community Survey (ACS), in addition to the 2020 Census this year."
I filled mine out online. Pretty much told them that three Caucasians reside in this house. They asked each listed person the same information again. I don't know what they gathered from what they asked. I did battle with them over the unconstitutional ACS a couple of years ago. They harassed me,came to the door several times,threatened me with fines and imprisonment,then eventually just went away.
I was reading on the history of the Census and one question asked was Why do they (Census people) continue to come back? Apparently, they did not return the Census form. The response to that was they will continue to come back until they get the Census form. There was no mention of fines or imprisonment though. I know that this isn't regarding the ACS but sounds like there is some commonality in retrieving the data.
The census was originally just to count warm bodies. They seem to base it on residences. I wondered how they count homeless people, and found this: How We Count People Experiencing Homelessness In 2020, the Census Bureau will devote three days to counting people who are experiencing homelessness across the country, with checks in place to ensure that people aren’t counted more than once. These days follow months of outreach and coordination with local census offices, partners, shelter directors, service providers, and others: March 30, 2020: Counting people who are in shelters. March 31, 2020: Counting people at soup kitchens and mobile food vans. April 1, 2020: Counting people in non-sheltered, outdoor locations, such as tent encampments and on the streets.
In 1990, when I worked for a city, I was appointed as the city's liaison for the census. My job was to interact with the official census takers in order to push the numbers up as high as I could get away with. In other words, where they didn't get a response from a household, either because they refused to answer or because they were away at the time, my job was to try to make sure that they were counted, not to lie about the number of people who were there but to try to get them counted even though they weren't cooperating or available for the census people. Sometimes, I could get the census people to accept information from a neighbor as to how many people were in the family or because it was a fairly small city, I would sometimes know who lived there. At first, they would insist that they had to get the information from the people themselves but as the time to do so was running out, they would often accept alternative sources of information.
The census notice I got in the mail gave me the option of filling out a paper form which was enclosed and mailing it back, or doing it online. My brother who is 10 years younger than me was only given the option to do his online and was not mailed the paper form. I'm 77 so I wonder if they are taking pity on us poor tech challenged seniors?
What I got in the mail was a one page "invitation" to respond online. It said they'd send a paper questionnaire in a few weeks if you didn't respond online.
When I was living in Idaho, I worked for the 1990 census, and it was an interesting experience, and actually one that I enjoyed for the most part. We started with training early in the year, and then developed teams for each area. I was a team leader, so everyone on my team reported to me each day, and turned in their completed census forms. In spring in Idaho, some of the roads are virtually impassable due to mud, and some of the census takers could not drive through the rural areas, and it was my job to try and get through those areas because I had an old 4x4 IH Scout that would go almost anywhere in 4-wheel low. They gave us really old maps to use to find the hidden roads, but some of what showed as a road was only a lane through a cow pasture, and some roads were not on the map at all. We had to draw in the new roads, and label the ones that were not actual roads, and then we marked where houses were located. We have a lot of off-grid people living in north Idaho, and most of those were not cooperative with the census people, so we had to go back several times, and also ask neighbors for basic information about the non-responsive houses. Sometimes, we didn’t send the census takers out alone, they had to work in pairs, and only the men were allowed to go, and they were told to leave if threatened. They did come back with stories about being met by someone with a loaded shotgun and being told to get out and not return. I saw some beautiful country, made some new friends from my team, and met some interesting people while being a census taker. It was a worthwhile experience for me.
If you don't do either, they'll send someone to your house. If you refuse to cooperate, they'll threaten you. If you still refuse, they'll probably ask your neighbors about you.