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I voted yep, BUT I still haven't sent it and don't know where it is at the moment (although I think I could find it pretty quickly). I totally did it the second I checked the mail, but I don't know our roommate's birthdate, so I couldn't finish.
I'm impossible! But I will definitely send it in.
Did it! I secretly love forms, so was thrilled to do so :)
As for your question: I think I'd have your parents count you. I mean, you seem to consider it your permanent residence, and that's what they're after.
My husband and I filled out the census form and returned it like two or three days after we got it =)
But to answer your question about whether Americans living abroad are counted, I searched in the census website and found this PDF file:
http://2010.census.gov/partners/pdf/ConstituentFAQ.pdf
The relevant question is in page 5:
21. Do we count Americans living abroad?
Yes, in some cases. The 2010 Census counts will include federal employees (military and civilian) and their dependents living overseas with them that can be assigned to a home state.These data are provided to the Census Bureau by the employing federal departments and agencies through their administrative records. However, private U.S. citizens living abroad who are not affiliated with the federal government (either as employees or their dependents) will not be included in the overseas counts. These overseas counts are used solely for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Then there's another PDF file regarding students:
http://2010.census.gov/campus/pdf/FAQ_CensusOnCampus.pdf
This one includes the following info at the end of the second page:
Studying abroad for part of the year?
Census Day is April 1, 2010. Questionnaire responses should represent your household as it exists on this day. Thus, if you are living and studying abroad on April 1, 2010, you will not be counted in the census. Conversely, if you live and study abroad during part of the year but are living in the U.S. on April 1, 2010, you will be counted in the census.
That's pretty much all the info I could find about Americans living abroad.
I filled mine out right away! I don't want the census taker coming and knocking down my door.
I voted other b/c we moved into our new house right around the time they were mailed out and we never got a form! I was very excited to fill out a census about our house too!
I'm a form geek too. I filled it out right away and stuck it in the mail. My husband thought I was so weird.
i filled mine out right away, and then realized that for accuracy, neither my fi or i would actually be in our homes on april 1st! we will be in our car somewhere between texas and arizona! haha! since we live in different states, we both just put ourselves down on our forms, that way we are each only counted once!
according to azula's census finds, it kinda sounds like you won't get counted because you won't be IN the US on april 1. : /
im so excited to see what the number will be! i think in 2006 it was right around 330,000,000! (that what i remember, i might be wrong!)
also, @daydream i can't believe it costs that much to go after the people that don't do their forms! crazy!
I couldn't answer your question about if your parents should include you...not sure about that. Me and my fiance filled ours out right away!
We filled ours out.. It was kind of disappointing! I thought it was going to be 10 pages of detailed questions that I'd get to answer. Instead it took like 5 minutes.
i sent mine in after a few modifications to it - i was none to happy about question 9. those of yall who saw it know what i am talking about...
I filled mine out the day we received them and sent it back the day after. I definitely did not want anyone knocking on our door or giving us a call.
@spaganya I really don't understand the fuss about question 9.
They've been documenting race on the census since over 100 years ago. (see: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/1860_census_Street.gif) This data is invaluable for genealogists.
@daydreamwanderer - Your math is correct. My fiance worked on the ads for the Census campaign and for every 1% of the population that doesn't get turned in, it costs $100 million taxpayer dollars. So turn in those forms! (Although I'm pleased that most of the bees here already have :)
@daydream - do you live at home with your parents? If so, then yes they include you. If not, and you received your own form, then you fill your own out.
The important thing is to get an accurate count. You don't want to be counted twice!
@ejoyb - ive got no problem putting down my race, but they shouldnt use words that arent in use anymore and carry a stigma to them. i didnt see them putting derogatory words on anyone else's identifiers. it was unacceptable. and the fact that they said they did it because 10 years ago, there was 3.9% that wrote in that word, thats why they included it???? um well 1.9% used the word "colored" im surprised they didnt put that in. not to mention the 3.9% who identify with that word probably arent even alive to check the daggone box anyway.
i was LIVID when i opened the form, if it wasnt for the whole federal offense thing, i probably wouldnt have even returned it.
Oh the Negro thing?
Yeah thats a skosh on the "what were you thinking" side but its a holdover from older census standards.
@catholicbride - You might be able to pick up some forms somewhere; I saw a whole display of them in a coffeeshop last weekend. Also, we're date twins!
3.9% is a statistically significant number! Racial equality didn't even gain traction until the 1960s, so the chance that the same 3.9% who marked "Negro" in 2000 are going to still be alive and mark the same thing in 2010 is pretty high. They are removing confusion in order to be statistically correct. People who were alive when the word was commonly used as their racial identifyer aren't offended by it at all whereas the younger generations who have never seen it used in an official capacity are typically offended and incensed by its use. I estimate it will probably fall off the census in 2060 or so, or whenever the word becomes obsolete, whichever comes first. It's still commonly used in some areas though, so you can expect to see it probably on the 2020 census as well.
"Colored" was not included because it describes all races "not white" and therefore becomes statistically ambiguous.
I did ours right away, it was so fast and easy I figured there was no reason not to. :)
@GaBGal - that's the trouble - I do NOT live with my parents. I file my taxes to reflect that I live there, my driver's license has their address on it, and my bills and banking all go there, but I don't live there.
I live in China.
And I didn't receive a form. It looks like, from what Azula found, I'm not to be counted at all. I find that really interesting, that federal employees living abroad are counted, but the rest of us expats are ignored...
@DDW: I wonder if they think that you aren't going to come back?
@AsB - that would surprise me. Realistically, MOST expats only live abroad for a few years. Waaaaay more people immigrate to the US than emmigrate from it! I kind of feel like as long as I'm paying US taxes every year, I'm still enough of an American that I should be counted, haha. I assume it's because they don't know how to get forms to us/can't track us all down. It's easy to disappear when living abroad. But I manage to find my own tax forms every year, can't I be assumed to find my own census forms too?
Plus, not to count students who are spending one semester abroad? Really? They're obviously coming back...
@DDW: Hmm, yeah that's sort of strange that they don't have some way of counting you.
I want to know who voted that the government was trying to control them, lol. Was that person joking, or are they really concerned about that?
@sahsabahs- I know, I'm a historian, and my colleagues and I frequently use the census in our work. We joke that future historians are going to be disappointed because the modern census doesn't ask nearly as many questions as it used to. I've seen censuses that had peoples professions, total wealth (both personal belongings and property value) and even one local census that asked how many rooms the family dwelling had and how many people lived in each room. Crazy. Today you just get name, age, and race.
I think they made it shorter so that more people would respond since it costs so much money if people don't respond.
The reason they don't count ex-pats is because they are using the Census to gage public assistance and government services. You're living abroad, so you aren't using those services. For that purpose, no, you shouldn't be counted. (It helps a lot with estimates too, like if there's a major flood, they know roughly how many people need to be evacuated, etc.)
I really planned to send mine in early. But now I've lost the form.
I did ours right away...
quick and painless so I didn't see why not. Plus, I'm a weirdo and have to fill out bills/forms/checks right away and organize my mail so I don't leave messes. I am ANTI clutter
we did ours right away and i made sure that my dad filled his out too!
FI did ours right away, he was actually kind of excited about it. Normally I handle paperwork type stuff for us, but I think he saw this as a "man of the house" thing...LOL
I also generally do the paperwork so I sent ours right back, but then FI was grumpy that he hadn't gotten to do it or at least look at it....who knew! :) (He was less upset once he heard how few questions there were, though.)
I'm another who uses Census data for work regularly---and it's definitely the critical piece of info both for government funding and for legislative representation (everything from Congress to state legislatures to local schools get redistricted based on Census numbers). So it is really important to send back...and sadly no, they don't count ex-pats for exactly those reasons, since they don't know where to count you. Would be nice if they did, though---then at least they'd have a good gauge of who's living abroad and where! (I bet if you file taxes at home and want to be counted, you could have your parents list you as someone who sometimes lives at home and usually lives abroad, though---there's an option for that.)
@oakster - eh, no big. Ironically, it's been my permanent address for 6 of the last 7 years (changed it to CA the year after college and then back 14 months later when I left the country), but I haven't spent more than a 10 days at a time there in that seven years. And I won't be living there again in the future, since I'll be with J in DC. Once we move to our new place in August I'll change my address to there.
We didnt get one! Our house is a new-build so I guess they don't know we exist?
@corgi - someone mentioned above that you can get a form even if they didn't send you one - you should totally do it!
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Does anyone know whether my parents (i.e. my permanent address) need to include me on their census forms? Or if there is a separate form for American expats living abroad on April 1, 2010?
I know it's a little thing, but I love stuff like the census and want to do my part to ensure accuracy. :)
Also, just a quick reminder to send in your form - I just read that they spend $57/household for those who don't send it in - and an average of 1/3 of all Americans don't send it back in!
Assuming our national population is just over 300,000,000 people (roughly), that's $5,700,000,000 of taxpayer dollars going to follow up on the people who don't take the time to fill it out and drop it back in the mail! CRAZY!!!
[actually, someone double check my math... I'm not so good with numbers]