A test area for the 2020 Census is in Harris County.
2016 Census Test to Start in Harris County, TexasToday I got a 6x10 envelope from the Census Bureau.
Inside was a card that directed me to a Census Bureau website for completing the form, which included a code to be entered. There was a sheet describing the purpose in English and Spanish. There was another sheet providing phone numbers for phone assistance in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, and French.
The Chinese instructions includes two phone numbers 1-800-416-3262 and 1-800-593-5569 along with a few characters in parentheses (Mandarin and Cantonese?) Does anyone know Chinese well enough to figure out the difference?
After logging on to the website, I was asked to enter the ID code from the card. It then verified that I would be living at that address on Census Day (April 1, 2016). It requested contact information, including a phone number and email address.
They wanted to know if my abode was rented, mortgaged, owned clear, or squatting.
It then asked for my name, and there was an opportunity to ask for additional names.
You could then enter information for each individual. The only information collected for each individual was name, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and whether they would be resident on Census Day. Perhaps if I had entered additional persons, it would have asked for a relationship.
The sex question only had two radio buttons.
The age question used a birthdate, followed by a confirmation on age.
The race/ethnicity question did not make a distinction, but gave checkboxes for:
Hispanic
White
Black
Asian
Middle Eastern or North African
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Other
Of course I checked all eight options.
Under each were examples defining each.
As you advanced through the survey there were check boxes for perhaps 5 of the more typical responses, along with a write-in box with some additional examples.
So in a sense ancestry was included with ethnicity. I don't know if there was any sort of spell checking, but I was able to specify Alsatian.
For Black, check boxes included African American, Jamaican, and Nigerian (and a couple of others), examples for the write-in included Barbadian, Ghanaian, and South African. I suppose someone from the Dominican Republic, might be able to specify Dominican for both a Hispanic and Black category.
If you didn't enter any details, you were prompted, but you could advance by clicking on a next.
At the end you were asked if you wanted to change any responses. I then had to backtrack through all the questions to get to the race/ethnicity check box.
When you get to the completion button, you are informed that you won't be able to make revisions.
When I attempt to login, I am informed that the form has already been completed.