American Life
Alle zehn Jahre findet in den USA eine Volkszählung statt. Was es damit auf sich hat, erklärt unsere Kolumnistin.
Ginger Kuenzel about life in small-town America
This year, April 1 is more than just April Fools’ Day. It’s also Census Day in the U.S. Every household should have received a census questionnaire by that date. And everyone is obligated by law to answer the questions, either by mail, on the phone, or — in 2020 for the first time ever — online.
Our Constitution mandates that we have a census every 10 years. The first one, held in 1790, counted heads to decide how many congressional representatives each state was entitled to. Over the years, the nature of the questions has changed, so while it might have been important in 1940 to know how many households had a radio, that’s no longer relevant. Today, the government is more interested in our commuting habits or whether we work from home.
The population count is still important to establish the number of congressional seats for each state. But it’s also used to find out how and where to spend billions of federal dollars — such as for social programs, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure. State and local governments use the data to plan where to build new schools or hospitals, for example, and businesses rely on it when making decisions about where to build factories or locate stores.
Conducting a census isn’t easy. Some people don’t want to be counted. Illegal immigrants, for instance, may fear being deported if they respond. Others simply don’t want to give the government any information about themselves. Yet, it’s important to count all these individuals. After all, they still use the hospitals, roads, schools, and social services.
Some people are hard to reach. Since the Census Bureau doesn’t mail questionnaires to post office boxes, census takers visit these dwellings and record their physical location. They also go to the homes of people who don’t respond to the mailing. This often takes a lot of effort, including flying or boating to remote areas or traveling long distances on dirt roads to find these people. Sometimes, the census takers have to make multiple follow-up visits before finding anyone at home.
The cost of conducting the census has exploded over time. While the 1790 census cost just over one cent per person, by 2000, the cost was nearly $16 per person. And just 10 years later, the cost had risen to more than $42 per person.
The Census Bureau hopes to keep the costs under control in 2020 by using online resources. But this opens up the potential for hacking. And if the data is manipulated in favor of one political party or the other, this could influence the balance of power in the House of Representatives.
We are often reminded that elections have consequences. But we should remember that faulty data — because it’s been hacked or because people weren’t counted — can also have very dire consequences.