It’s time to again be counted in census

Workers are preparing to begin taking the 2010 census and residents should prepare to be available to be counted.

What is a census? It’s a count of everyone living in the United States and we do it every 10 years. The U.S. Constitution mandates the count and the law requires citizens’ participation in the census.
It is supposed to take fewer than 10 minutes to complete and the federal law protects the personal information shared during the census. The data is used to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about which communities get what services and is used to distribute $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.
So being counted is important. Be ready. Don’t let the census worker knocking on the door catch you by surprise, annoy you or distress you. Participate.

This past week, census workers began fanning out across the state, in preparation for the national census. More than 2,000 census workers are in the state to complete the list of addresses where 2010 census questionnaires will be sent.

Workers are also, according to an Associated Press story, capturing GPS information as they knock on doors to verify addresses. All Census workers wear a red, white and blue badge with their name and the official Census seal, so be aware of scams and counterfeits who may try to take advantage of folks during the census season.
To learn more about the census and how its data is used, visit http://www.census.gov. For instance, in the Web sites “Facts for Features” section, you can learn how the statistics gathered benefit us all in the information industry.

We can know the answers to such questions as how many mothers there are in the nation. The answer is 82.8 million in the United States in 2004. (Source: Survey of Income and Program Participation unpublished tabulations.)

We know that the total fertility rate or number of births per woman in the U.S. in 2006 (based on current birth rates by age) was 2.1. And by the way, we also know this is the first time since 1971 that the nation’s total fertility rate was above replacement, which is the birth rate required for a given generation to replace itself. (Source: National Center for Health Statistics