Bureau submits subjects for 2010 Census to Congress

The U.S. Census Bureau  on March 30 submitted to Congress subjects it plans to address in the 2010 Census, which include gender, age, race, ethnicity, relationship and home ownership or rental. Estimated to take less than 10 minutes to complete, the 2010 Census will be one of the shortest and easiest to complete since the nation’s first census in 1790, the Bureau said.

Under law, the decennial census subjects must be submitted to Congress three years before Census Day, April 1, 2010. The subjects strike a balance between the need for data and efforts to eliminate redundant questions and reduce the time it takes to complete the form.

The Bureau also submitted subjects planned for the American Community Survey, a new yearly survey that eliminates the need for a decennial long-form questionnaire, while providing key data every year rather than once a decade when, since 1940, nearly 20 percent of all households received the detailed long-form questionnaire. The annual ACS provides more timely and detailed data for government, community organizations and business decision making.

“Decision makers need ACS data to make choices that affect our daily lives, such as where to build a school, place a new road, improve public health care and provide services for the elderly,” Louis Kincannon, Bureau director, said. “Our goal is to provide a questionnaire that is quick and easy to complete to ensure that respondents fill it out and mail it back.”

Census data directly affect how more than $200 billion in federal and state funding is allocated to local, state and tribal governments annually. The data also are vital to other planning decisions, such as emergency preparedness and disaster.

The actual questions that will appear on the 2010 Census questionnaire must be submitted to Congress by March 31, 2008.