[Dasa] Fwd: WSJ census article

[Judy K. Treas]

>X-From_: Linda.Gage at dof.ca.gov Wed Feb 28 10:18:57 2007
>Subject: WSJ census article
>Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:03:34 -0800
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>From: "Gage, Linda" <Linda.Gage at dof.ca.gov>
>To: <bill.frey at usa.net>, "Chris Bachrach" <cbachrach at nih.gov>,
>         "Howard Hogan" <Howard.R.Hogan at Census.gov>,
>         "Joe Salvo" <JSalvo at planning.nyc.gov>, <jpassel at pewhispanic.org>,
>         "Ken Hodges" <khodges at claritas.com>, <kland at soc.duke.edu>,
>         "Nancy Landale" <landale at pop.psu.edu>, "Paul Voss" 
> <voss at ssc.wisc.edu>,
>         <schmertmann at fsu.edu>, <yuxie at umich.edu>,
>         "David Swanson" <dswanson at olemiss.edu>, <dudleyposton at yahoo.com>,
>         <gstevens at uiuc.edu>, "Judith Treas" <jktreas at uci.edu>,
>         <judith.w.waldrop at Census.gov>, <r.alba at albany.edu>
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>----------
>From: MaryJo Hoeksema [mailto:paaapc at crosslink.net]
>Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 9:20 AM
>To: Randy Olson; Michael White; Matt Stagner; Mark Hayward; Linda 
>Jacobsen; Gage, Linda; Juliane at Yahoo; Bob Schoeni; Barbara 
>Mensch; Barbara Entwisle; Alberto Palloni; Greg Duncan
>Subject: FW: WSJ census article
>
>******************************
>
>New York, N.Y.
>
>Feb. 23, 2007
>
>
>
>Census 2010 Plays Six Not-So-Easy Questions
>
>
>
>June Kronholz
>
>
>
>Who knew that asking people their age, gender and how they're 
>related to the folks they live with could be so complicated?
>
>
>
>Three years before the next census -- just around the corner by the 
>deliberate pace of the U.S. Census Bureau -- the nation's 
>enumerators have come up with the six seemingly simple questions 
>they want to ask everyone in the country on April 1, 2010.
>
>
>
>Simple, it seems, is quite hard. The bureau has spent years 
>developing and field testing questions to make them so user-friendly 
>that everyone understands them -- and answers.
>
>
>
>"You only get one chance with the census," says Preston Waite, the 
>associate director of the decennial census. "If the wording isn't 
>right, it's 10 more years before you can ask that question again. 
>You only get one chance at bat."
>
>
>
>The old long-form census questionnaire, with its queries about house 
>size, commutes to work and other details about daily life is out -- 
>spun off in 2000 to the new American Community Survey, which 
>questions 3 million households a year. For the 2010 census, every 
>member of the country's 120 million households will get a one-page 
>form asking for information that Congress has said it wants to know. 
>(The final form of the questions is subject to congressional review.)
>
>
>
>Question No. 1 is simple enough: name, which the Census Bureau will 
>use if it needs to call for clarification about the other five 
>questions. Census workers will make an estimated 11.5 million 
>call-backs in 2010, the bureau estimates. But question No. 2 -- "How 
>is this person related" to the head of household -- gets quickly complicated.
>
>
>
>Respondents can choose among 14 possible answers, but to the dismay 
>of some child advocates, a 15th answer -- foster child -- has been 
>deleted since the 2000 census counted 335,000. William O'Hare of the 
>Annie E. Casey Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children, says 
>researchers were counting on the question to tell them more about 
>the size, composition and relative wealth of the families caring for 
>foster children, who frequently have been taken away from abusive 
>parents by the government.
>
>
>
>But that extra line made the question so long that it extended into 
>the page fold, and tripped up the optical scanners that read the 
>answers. "Real estate is always a big problem," Mr. Waite says.
>
>
>
>The remaining relationships include spouses, in-laws, housemates and 
>biological, adopted, step children and two choices for "other," 
>related and nonrelated. The 2000 census asked about "natural-born" 
>instead of biological children, but in a 2005 test that sent 
>alternative questions to 250,000 households, the Census Bureau 
>reported, some people took that to exclude children born by 
>Caesarean section, under anesthetic or out of wedlock.
>
>Question No. 3 asks gender, with the admonition to "Mark ONE box" -- 
>male or female. Whether the Census Bureau included that instruction 
>or left it out in the 2005 field test, the results were the same. 
>Either way, 0.05% of those asked -- that would mean 150,000 in a 
>population of 300 million -- still checked both. But the instruction 
>made the question longer and more visible, and fewer people skipped it.
>
>
>
>Question No. 4 asks age -- and for a computer double-check, date of 
>birth -- because so many people seem to get it wrong. Adding 
>instructions to "report babies as age 0" when they're less than a 
>year old, offends some people, census research suggests. But in the 
>2005 trial it improved the response rate among people who otherwise 
>couldn't decide how to answer for a six-month old.
>
>
>
>The national headcount -- required by the Constitution once a decade 
>to apportion congressional seats and redraw congressional districts 
>-- has become hugely important to government agencies that 
>distribute taxpayer funds, businesses trying to identify markets and 
>policy planners with an eye on the future.
>
>
>
>For example, the government uses age data to determine how many 
>eligible voters are in each precinct. But policy makers use it too, 
>and if respondents round up to take account of an upcoming birthday 
>they could throw off school-construction planning, actuarial tables, 
>Social Security and health-care projections and more, says Terri 
>Anne Lowenthal, who publishes a census newsletter. Rounding throws 
>things off "not a few months, but a full year," she says.
>
>
>
>Questions No. 5 and No. 6 are about Hispanic origin and race, and 
>are typically politically touchy. Congress requires both, in large 
>part to assure that congressional districts aren't gerrymandered to 
>prevent blacks and Hispanics from winning public office. But 
>businesses and social-service providers also want a detailed picture 
>of the country's ethnic makeup.
>
>
>
>So Question No. 5 asks if the respondent is Hispanic and, if so, to 
>check off Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuban, or to fill in a line for 
>any other Latino ethnicity -- "Salvadoran, Spaniard and so on," the 
>instructions read.
>
>
>
>Question No. 6 asks respondents to check off one or more races: 
>white, black, American Indian -- plus any of six Asian and three 
>Pacific Islander ethnicities, and a fill-in line for any other Asian 
>nationality. Hmongs, Pakistanis and Tongans are among the others 
>suggested for the fill-in line.
>
>
>
>Arturo Vargas, a Los Angeles activist who sat on an advisory 
>committee that reviewed the census questions, says it's important to 
>know where immigrants are from because their experiences differ. 
>Mexicans tend to come from rural areas and may need intense 
>schooling; Central Americans may have fled civil wars and could need 
>counseling, he suggests.
>
>But in trial tests, the Census Bureau also found that Asian and 
>Hispanic immigrants could be baffled when asked to lump themselves 
>with other nationality groups. "The whole concept of being Latino is 
>a very American construct," says Mr. Vargas. "People might not know 
>what's being asked of them."
>
>
>
>Under a 2005 order from Congress, question No. 6 also allows people 
>to call themselves "some other race" and identify that race on a 
>fill-in line. In census tests, respondents declared themselves 
>Creole, Aryan, rainbow and cosmopolitan, among others.
>
>
>
>Other federal data users, like Social Security and the federal 
>Education Department, don't recognize those races, though. So in 
>data that the Census Bureau will send to those departments, the 
>bureau will impute a race. "Maybe I get it right and maybe I get it 
>wrong. It's not something I like to do," says Mr. Waite.
>
>
>
>Finally, there are three questions that will be asked of heads of 
>households. Only one is written so far: Do you own the home "free 
>and clear," hold a mortgage or home-equity loan, rent or live rent 
>free? That question gives data users some idea of a family's wealth 
>and is a broad survey of national housing patterns.
>
>
>
>But because renters -- and especially young, single male renters -- 
>are less likely to return the census than are homeowners, the 
>question also tells the bureau where to focus its follow-up 
>resources. About 40 million households won't answer the form on 
>Census Day; census workers will pay them a home visit to get the information.
>
>
>
>There's plenty the census isn't asking -- U.S. citizenship, for one 
>thing, because the Constitution requires a count of all "free 
>Persons," not citizens. Even so, bills floating around Congress 
>would require the census not to count illegal immigrants.
>
>
>
>The 2010 form also doesn't ask national origin of anyone except 
>Hispanics and Asians. In part, that's because of space, but field 
>trials also determined that in a polyglot society, many people 
>didn't fill in the blank when asked their heritage. "Either they 
>couldn't figure out what they were or it wasn't important to them" 
>says Mr. Waite. "Their ancestry is United States."
>
>
>
>
>----------
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