Census Bureau Pares Forms for Year 2000

Busy Americans who don’t like dealing with government paperwork will get a break in the year 2000--the Census Bureau short form will have just seven questions, the fewest since 1820.

No longer does Washington want to know the source of your water, how many children you have ever had, your method of sewage disposal or the last year in which you worked, the Census Bureau said Monday as it sent Congress a list of proposed subjects for the next census.

The short form will have seven basic questions: name, sex, age, relationship to other people in the house or apartment, race, Latino origin and whether you own or rent your home.

The slimmed-down list of subjects is “an appropriate balance between the government’s need for data and the Census Bureau’s commitment to reduce the reporting burden on the nation’s residents,” said Martha Farnsworth Riche, the Census Bureau director.

“Congress gave us very clear instructions to shorten and simplify the forms,” Riche said.

The questions dropped reflect information that government agencies would like to have but is not required by law or considered vital to government activities.

The actual questions will be sent to Congress by April 1 of next year.

The new long form, which goes to one household in six, also will be pared down, with 34 subjects, compared with 38 in the 1990 census.

Americans’ skepticism about government, busy lifestyles and decisions to throw away mail all have combined to cut the response rate to the bureaus. The response rate by mail, combined for both the short and long forms, was 85% for the 1970 survey. It fell to 70% in 1980 and 65% in 1990.

The low-response problem plagues all government surveys, not just the census. Officials hope that forms with fewer questions will help get a better response. There is a lot of money at stake: “It costs us $2 if you mail back the form, and $12 if we have to send someone to your door,” Riche said.

The census, which has counted the American population at the start of every decade since 1790, provides a treasure trove of information for business, government and scholars.

Companies depend on census data to develop marketing campaigns and prepare new products. Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are reallocated among the states when the population changes.

Money going to states and cities from a vast array of federal programs also is linked to the national count. Census information is used in the distribution of more than $100 billion a year in funds for education, public health, housing, job training and programs for the poor, the elderly and the disabled.

The 50 state governments and 43,000 local government agencies use the information to help decide where to build schools, hospitals and police and fire stations.

The long form will add a question ordered by Congress as part of last year’s welfare reform bill. The census will ask how many children are living with their grandparents, an issue drawing attention in an era of increasing family dissolution.

Several other questions could be added if the federal government redefines its measure of poverty, which was first developed in 1963. Since then, poverty has been defined in dollars as the amount equal to three times the cost of food.

Government programs added since then include noncash benefits, such as food stamps, and the Medicaid health program for the poor.

If the poverty definition is changed, the long form will contain questions to help the Census Bureau calculate more precisely the number of Americans living in poverty. The form would ask for information about noncash benefits, child-support payments and health insurance coverage.