I am a census guinea pig.
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  I am a census guinea pig.
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jimrtex
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« on: March 25, 2016, 07:25:41 PM »

A test area for the 2020 Census is in Harris County.

2016 Census Test to Start in Harris County, Texas

Today I got a 6x10 envelope from the Census Bureau.

Inside was a card that directed me to a Census Bureau website for completing the form, which included a code to be entered. There was a sheet describing the purpose in English and Spanish. There was another sheet providing phone numbers for phone assistance in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, and French.

The Chinese instructions includes two phone numbers 1-800-416-3262 and 1-800-593-5569 along with a few characters in parentheses (Mandarin and Cantonese?) Does anyone know Chinese well enough to figure out the difference?

After logging on to the website, I was asked to enter the ID code from the card. It then verified that I would be living at that address on Census Day (April 1, 2016). It requested contact information, including a phone number and email address.

They wanted to know if my abode was rented, mortgaged, owned clear, or squatting.

It then asked for my name, and there was an opportunity to ask for additional names.

You could then enter information for each individual. The only information collected for each individual was name, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and whether they would be resident on Census Day. Perhaps if I had entered additional persons, it would have asked for a relationship.

The sex question only had two radio buttons.

The age question used a birthdate, followed by a confirmation on age.

The race/ethnicity question did not make a distinction, but gave checkboxes for:

Hispanic
White
Black
Asian
Middle Eastern or North African
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Other

Of course I checked all eight options.

Under each were examples defining each.

As you advanced through the survey there were check boxes for perhaps 5 of the more typical responses, along with a write-in box with some additional examples.

So in a sense ancestry was included with ethnicity. I don't know if there was any sort of spell checking, but I was able to specify Alsatian.

For Black, check boxes included African American, Jamaican, and Nigerian (and a couple of others), examples for the write-in included Barbadian, Ghanaian, and South African. I suppose someone from the Dominican Republic, might be able to specify Dominican for both a Hispanic and Black category.

If you didn't enter any details, you were prompted, but you  could advance by clicking on a next.

At the end you were asked if you wanted to change any responses. I then had to backtrack through all the questions to get to the race/ethnicity check box.

When you get to the completion button, you are informed that you won't be able to make revisions.

When I attempt to login, I am informed that the form has already been completed.
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jimrtex
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« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2016, 11:55:36 PM »

A test area for the 2020 Census is in Harris County.

2016 Census Test to Start in Harris County, Texas

Today I got a 6x10 envelope from the Census Bureau.

Inside was a card that directed me to a Census Bureau website for completing the form, which included a code to be entered. There was a sheet describing the purpose in English and Spanish. There was another sheet providing phone numbers for phone assistance in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, and French.

After logging on to the website, I was asked to enter the ID code from the card. It then verified that I would be living at that address on Census Day (April 1, 2016). It requested contact information, including a phone number and email address.
I received a phone call from the Census Bureau. I figured that they must have had a question about one of my responses.

They then carefully questioned me about my name and address, to make sure I was the person who had responded for that household. They then said that they wanted to take a survey that would take about seven minutes, and that participation was mandatory.

I figured with that length of interview, they were going to do the entire form by phone interview. Since it was a census test, they might want to know whether internet self-response and phone interviews produced the same results.

But it appears what they were seeking was whether I understand the question about who should be counted.

Did you live there on April 1? Yes.
Did you live anywhere else during 2016? No.
Did anyone else live there on April 1? No.

So what would the other 6 minutes constitute of?

Did any newborns live there? No
Did any foster children? No
Did any of your own children? No
Did any children of other people? No
Any other relatives? No
Any other person? No
Any persons who had no other place to stay? No

They then listed the names of the persons (sic) who lived there and began to ask whether they had stayed somewhere else on April 1, or any other time in 2016:

Dormitory? No
Sorority or fraternity? No
Nursing home? No
Assisted living? No
Under a bridge? No
In a car? No
etc.

This is an area where Austria does better, by maintaining a registry of persons, rather than trying to maintain a registry of possible locations.
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Tender Branson
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« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2016, 01:55:20 AM »

Good.

Hopefully the Census Bureau is able to bring down the ridiculously high costs of the US Census with this testing.

As a comparison:

The cost of the US Census 2010: 13 billion $ (=42$ per capita)

The cost of Austria's register-based Census 2011: 10 million € (=1.2€ per capita)
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jimrtex
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« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2016, 07:49:30 PM »

Good.

Hopefully the Census Bureau is able to bring down the ridiculously high costs of the US Census with this testing.

As a comparison:

The cost of the US Census 2010: 13 billion $ (=42$ per capita)

The cost of Austria's register-based Census 2011: 10 million € (=1.2€ per capita)
Austria might not include the cost of maintaining the registers.

One of the major costs of the 2010 Census was trying to make sure they had a good match between address and location. This required house-to-house GPS locating, as well as getting the census maps to match. The US really doesn't have a mapping agency. The USGS is more concerned with the public lands, and geology rather than residential addresses.

They have run some tests for 2020, trying to figure out whether they could concentrate on certain areas where there has been development or redevelopment, but it doesn't appear that it has been real successful. I suspect that in Austria if someone attempts to change their address, and the new address is not recognized, they immediately try to figure it out.

An advantage of using internet responses is that they can immediately check responses, and also guide the respondent through the form. With a mail-in form, they have to scan it, and then figure out if there were items that were missed, etc. But a major expense will be the non-response, where they have to try and track down non-respondents. Conceivably, people will be more willing to respond by internet. I have to drive a couple of miles to mail anything.
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