A truck arrives for the launch of the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour on January 4, 2010 in New York's Times Square, part of the largest civic outreach and awareness campaign in U.S. history (AFP/Getty Images)
Check your mailbox, you may have already received a letter warning of the imminent arrival of your mandatory census questionnaire. But did you know that answering those questions is vitally important for the funding of local, regional and nationally funded programs? Or that the information you put in remains confidential for 70 years?
We discuss the history, purpose and power of the U.S. Census program with Irwine Clare from the Brooklyn Census Bureau and Sam Roberts, urban affairs correspondent for our partner The New York Times.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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Comments [2]
I always answer the race question. I check the "Other" box and write in "Human". Accurate, truthful, and legal.
Every census our family refuses to answer the race questions. (This year's questions 8 & 9). And every time, a census taker comes out to our home to get us to fill in this stupid question (I don't care if our founding fathers thought it was important). I argue and refuse again to identify myself this way and after about 10 or 15 minutes, the taker fills it in for me by just looking at me. The taker has never seen the rest of the household but I assume they fill in the same race they think I am.
I think income is a much more important question. After all, the smallest minority by income has the greatest amount of wealth. Is that why we don't tax them appropriately? - because they are a Minority?
Another important question that isn't asked is language. I think it's important to know how many people speak English, and what is (are) the language(s) they do speak?
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