IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 A.M. EST, MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1998 Census 2000 Publicity Office CB98-CN.03 301-457-2000/301-457-2992 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) Census 2000 Questions Fewest in 180 Years; 10 Minutes to Fill Out Short Form, Census Bureau Says The Commerce Department's Census Bureau today submitted to Congress the proposed questions for Census 2000--seven on the short form and 52 on the long form. The short form has the fewest questions since 1820 when U.S. marshals took the census on horseback. "The proposed short form will take an average of 10 minutes to complete and is a key element in the Census Bureau's plan to conduct the most efficient, cost-effective census in the nation's history," said James Holmes, acting director of the Census Bureau. The 1990 census short form had 13 questions and took 14 minutes to fill out. The Census 2000 long form, which goes to roughly one-sixth of the nation's population, contains 52 questions, five fewer than 1990. Filling it out takes an average of 38 minutes, Holmes said. In 1990, the 57-question long form took an average of 43 minutes to fill out. Noting that under the Constitution, the census of population determines the number of representatives from each state in the U.S. House of Representatives, Holmes said, "Why, then, does the Census Bureau ask some people questions about their homes, jobs, schooling and even how they get to work? "The short answer," he said, "is that the principle of accuracy, the basis for establishing the census in 1790, still holds true today. "Just as the 'founding fathers' sought an accurate way of distributing the House seats, so, too, have modern legislators turned to the decennial census as the primary basis for an accurate distribution of fiscal resources under a wide range of federal, state, local and tribal programs." The subjects for the census, announced one year ago, cover everything from age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household relationship and whether the person owns or rents (short-form subjects) to citizenship, ancestry, language spoken at home, plumbing and kitchen facilities, house heating fuel and vehicles available (long-form subjects). The Census 2000 questionnaire includes only one new subject (covered in question 19 on the long form), referring to grandparents as care-givers. This three-part question, mandated by a 1996 law, is designed to distinguish between households in which a grandparent temporarily provides a home for a grandchild for a few weeks or months and households in which the grandparent provides a home for a grandchild on a more permanent basis. One question changed since 1990 is the one on race. The Census Bureau's question (No. 6), which should be answered for the whole population, conforms to the revised standards for racial classifications announced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last October. The response options to the race question are as follows: - White; - Black, African American or Negro; - American Indian or Alaska Native (includes space to write in tribe) - Asian Indian - Native Hawaiian; - Chinese - Guamanian or Chamorro; - Filipino - Samoan; - Japanese - Other Pacific Islander (includes space for - Korean write-ins) - Vietnamese - Other Asian (includes space for write-ins) - Some Other Race (includes space for write-ins). The OMB standards permit respondents to report more than one race, so the instructions on the questionnaire say, "Mark one or more ...." OMB is expected to announce later this year how multiple responses to the race question should be tabulated. All of the questions on the 2000 questionnaire were either mandated (i.e., federal law explicitly called for decennial census data) or required (i.e., federal law explicitly called for data and the decennial census was the only or historical source or there are case law requirements imposed by the U.S. federal court system). This means, then, that the Census Bureau has not recommended questions on children ever born, source of water, sewage disposal and condominium status, and has changed "year last worked" from a detailed question to an abbreviated "screener" question used to reduce respondent burden and define the experienced civilian labor force. The questionnaires, featuring larger type, pictorial representations illustrating the benefits of the census for individuals and their communities, and instructions on the questionnaire rather than in a separate guide as in 1990, are easier to read and understand. Respondents are asked to list the names of all the persons living in each household on Census Day, April 1, 2000. The forms have room to report the full set of demographic, socioeconomic and housing characteristics for five persons. However, there also is space to report the names of up to seven additional household members, a total of 12 people. The Census Bureau will mail additional questionnaires to those households that indicate they have more than five household members. A contract to print the questionnaires is scheduled to be awarded in November of this year. A decision about what other languages besides English the forms should be translated into will be made in June.-X-Editor's note: For a faxed informational copy of the questionnaires (12 pages) that will be used in next month's Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal (which has the questions that were submitted to Congress today), please contact our Fax-on-Demand service on 1-888-206-6463 and request Document No. 1281. The Census Bureau pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In more than 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries and institutions.
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