Word: census
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...Constitution requires a census every decade so that there will be a basis for reapportioning seats in the House of Representatives. During the past ten years, people have been migrating from the traditionally Democratic urban centers to the suburbs and rural areas, where the vote is more likely to be Republican. The Democrats are pressing the Census Bureau to make sure that all big-city residents are counted. Republicans are urging the bureau to see that people are not overlooked down on the farm. If the Census Bureau's predictions check out, New York will decline in population...
...second concern about the census arises because federal funds are distributed according to population. Minority groups argue that they have not been receiving their fair share because they were undercounted in the last census. The bureau estimates that its survey missed 5.3 million people, or 2.5% of the population. Most of those overlooked in the census live in metropolitan areas; the rate for missing blacks was 7.7%, compared with 1.9% for whites. Every person left out of the final count can cost a state as much as $200 a year in federal grants...
This year the bureau will take special pains to get the count as accurate as possible. The census will cost about $1 billion, compared with the $221.6 million spent in 1970. Part of the rise is due to inflation and part to the need to cover a larger population, but millions will be spent on projects like hiring community workers who are at home in crowded urban areas, where the count has been difficult to conduct. More extensive questionnaires will be used this year, and for the first time they will be available in Spanish. More money will be spent...
...questionnaire by mail. About 90% will be asked to send back their completed forms; the remaining 10%, living for the most part in remote rural areas where returns in the past have been poor, will be instructed to keep their forms until they are picked up by a census taker...
...household does not mail back a questionnaire, it will be sought out by one of the census takers, called enumerators. Judging from the past, they may have trouble. The counters often run into suspicious or hostile people who slam the door in their faces or even threaten them physically. Discouraged enumerators may then indulge in what is called curbstoning, making up phony statistics. This year the enumerators will face additional problems. Since more married women are working (50%, compared with 40% in 1970), fewer will be home during the day to provide the census taker with information...