Only 10 questions ... by Barbora Misakova

The census and the information it brings are too important to be ignored or done badly. US census 2010 will have a brand new shape. The 10-question form is one of the shortest in the history of the census and what is more, the form will be sent by e-mail. More than 120 million U.S. forms begin arriving in mailboxes around the USA. US citizens will have to fill in just basic information about themselves and the other persons living with them and send it back. Information such as person’s name, address, phone number, age, race and ethnicity, gender, living arrangements and home ownership will be strictly confidential and the filling the form will take less than 10 minut! es. The Census Bureau is for the first time mailing out also bilingual census forms which are available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. There are also assistance guides available in 59 languages. The reason why the US census will be done in this way lies in financial sphere again: the Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in paying temporary employees who didn’t do the work or overbilled for travel. This time only those houses with no filled forms will be visited. In 2000 census 72 percent of U. S. households returned their forms. If everyone who receives a census form mails it back, the government would save an estimated $1.5 billion in follow-up visits. Even though there will be none strange man asking you personal questions, there still exists apathy toward surveys, residents displaced by a high number of foreclosures and immigrants who are distrustful of government and its workers.

related story (sgx16757): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_go_ot/us_census_le...

by Barbora Misakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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