How does the Census Process actually work? Every 10 years in early March, 98 million census forms -- both long and short forms -- went out in the mail to about 83 percent of the nation's residences. In addition, census enumerators personally delivered about 22 million additional forms to homes that lack street-name and house-number addresses, mostly in rural and remote areas. These represent about 17 percent of the nation's housing units. Hundreds of thousands of census takers and support personnel have been hired to account for the anticipated 118 million housing units and 275 million people across the United States. The questionnaires were preceded by an advance letter sent a week or so earlier. This letter gave residents the option of asking for questionnaires in five languages besides English: Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese. Later this month (March), the Census Bureau then sent a reminder card asking residents to mail back the form as soon as possible. During March of a census year, the Census Bureau conducts special operations to count people with no fixed address or who live in dormitories, nursing homes, prisons, shelters, trailer parks, transient housing and other groups or non-standard housing. After April 1, census workers spend a couple of months trying to locate and get information from households or families that failed to respond by mail. If your questionnaire is incomplete, a census employee must contact you to obtain the missing information. Then these answers are combined with those on your questionnaire. It is these combined numbers --not your individual answers -- that are published. As census methodology has become more sophisticated, researchers have begun to learn more about who responds and who doesn't. For example, the overall non-response rate in 1990 was 25.3 percent. Researchers say response -- or lack of response -- to the mailed 1990 Census questionnaires was highly correlated with race and length of time at a residence. Researchers also said that mail response to the 1990 Census was strongly related to family composition (the number of parents in the home, the age of the single parent, etc.). How Can Homeless and Transient People Be Counted? According to the Census Bureau, it enlists the help of local experts in finding places where people without housing receive services, such as emergency and transitional shelters, soup kitchens, regularly-scheduled mobile food vans and targeted outdoor locations. Census workers go to these locations to conduct the census. Partnerships with community-based organizations are essential to including migrant and seasonal farm workers in the census. The Census Bureau seeks the advice of local experts to find areas where migrant and seasonal workers live and work, including unregistered labor camps, vehicles parked near work sites and living areas along unnamed roads. Census takers interview people staying at campgrounds, fairs and carnivals and marinas. Every person interviewed has the opportunity to report his or her permanent address. Other Special Groups There are a number of other special groups that require special planning. There are special procedures for ensuring that census information for people living in remote areas is accurate. For example, in remote Alaska, the census must be completed before the spring thaw. After the thaw, many residents are away from their homes hunting or conducting other spring activities. By then it is too late for counters to contact them. And the Census Bureau works with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard to identify living quarters on military installations and ships. All ocean-going, coastal and Great Lake ships take part in what is known as the Census Maritime Enumeration. In addition, the Census Bureau's plan accounts for military personnel and federal civilian government employees, as well as their dependents, who are stationed overseas. When necessary, census takers assist residents who need help in completing the forms. In some facilities, such as jails, the staff distributes census questionnaires. These staff workers, like all census workers, are sworn to protect the confidentiality of the individual. A complete set of residence rules telling where students, nursing home residents, military personnel and others are counted can be found on the Census Bureau's Web site. What About Children? Are They Counted? While considerable attention has been devoted to the undercount for the U.S. population overall and to specific sub-groups such as young black men in inner cities, less attention has been given to the undercount of children. In an attempt to help remedy that problem, the Census Bureau has provided more than 300,000 Census in Schools kits throughout the country. The purpose of the kits is to increase participation in the census among children and parents. "In 1990, many parents did not record children on their census questionnaire," Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said. "This program is one way we hope to ensure that every child is counted. We hope parents will urge their schools and that teachers will urge their principals to take part in the Census in Schools program." The program provides students with a take-home letter explaining to parents the importance of an accurate census. The letter is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Korean. Additional take-home materials provide recreational census activities for students to complete with their parents. Sent to the schools in February, each program teaching guide contains lesson plans that address map literacy, community involvement and information management. Kits are available for grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12. Custom designed teaching kits were sent to schools in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. (Scholastic Inc. helped to develop the program's teaching materials, most of which can be downloaded from the bureau's Web site.) When you think about it, participating in Census 2000 is being a part of history in the making. As the Census 2000 slogan goes: "It's your future -- don't leave it blank." In addition to the Census Bureau's very comprehensive Web site, there are also questionnaire assistance centers in your community, and a toll-free telephone number to call for assistance is written on the form you received in the mail. If you've lost your form or didn't receive one, you can call your local or regional center to find out where to get one.

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