Govt Considering Using Internet, Smartphones for 2020 Census
Govt Considering Using Internet, Smartphones for 2020
Census
WASHINGTON — Jan 8, 2015, 5:34 PM ET
By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press
Associated Press
The days of the census taker with clipboard in hand may
be numbered. The Census Bureau plans to test digital tools in preparation for
the 2020 census, a change that could save millions of dollars.
People may be asked to fill out their census forms on the
Internet instead of sending them through the mail. Census takers may use
smartphones instead of paper to complete their counts.
The once-a-decade count is used to draw congressional
maps and helps determine how the government spends $400 billion on infrastructure,
programs and services each year.
Despite outreach and advertising campaigns, the share of
occupied homes that returned a form was 74 percent in 2010, unchanged from 2000
and 1990. The majority of the money the bureau spends during a census goes to
getting everyone else to fill out their forms, Census Director John H. Thompson
said.
In the Savannah, Georgia, area and in Maricopa County,
Arizona, census workers this year will be asking people to respond on the
Internet instead of filling out the traditional forms with such questions as
age, race and homeownership. During follow-up visits for those who don't
answer, census workers will forgo using paper and instead input answers
directly into their smartphones for instantaneous collection and analysis.
In addition, in Savannah and nearby South Carolina,
census officials will test an Internet response system that will only require a
person to input a home address to answer questions, instead of using a
government-generated identification number.
"All you need to have is an address where you
live," Thompson said. "If we do that, it opens up all kinds of new
ways to promote the census in targeted ways. If we contact someone at a
sporting event and they have a smartphone, we can get them to respond right
then and there."
The Census Bureau plans to discuss its upcoming tests in
a webcast on Friday.
Americans are ready for an Internet-driven census,
officials said. During 2014 tests in Washington, D.C., and nearby Montgomery
County, Maryland, 55 percent of the families who were asked to fill out their
census tests on the Internet responded without major prodding, an
"exceptional response," Thompson said. Census workers used iPhones to
collect information in follow-up visits.
Census workers will use Android phones during the test
this year, Thompson said. "Everything will be on those smartphones. No
paper," he said.
For government officials, going digital means they can do
real-time analysis on areas to figure out which households have not responded,
and be able to use their workers on the ground more efficiently, he said.
"You now can electronically control the flow of
information all the way, from when you get people to self-respond, hopefully by
the Internet, to when you give it to the interviewers to when you get it back
from the interviewers," he said.
The Census Bureau will also test using electronic records
from other government agencies to help fill in gaps in responses, Thompson
said.
———
Online:
Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov
Census webcast: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/census-live.html
Comments
Post a Comment