Top 40 Census Quotes

Americans are fed up with these mandatory census surveys, and they’re asking us to stop the harassment.

I’m going to continue to do the work we’re doing on voter suppression, supporting the work that’s being done by Fair Count, ensuring a fair Census count.

There are some who complain that there is not enough food grain. But I put the argument that at the moment we use 2000 census population figures and require 50-55 million tonnes for distribution.

We didn’t think taxes ought to go up. They ought to go down. We didn’t think the census ought to be weakened.

In my view, the government has ample justification to inquire about citizenship status on the census and could plainly provide rationales for doing so that would satisfy the Supreme Court.

The census should not be political.

While the Census Bureau already has a legal obligation to keep people’s information confidential, we all know that in an age of cyber attacks and computer hacking that ensuring people’s privacy can be difficult.

The reason the government sells the census as your ticket to getting goodies – rather than as your civic duty – is that distributing goodies is now all the government does.

It’s impossible for most black Americans to construct full family trees. Official census records, used by so many genealogy enthusiasts to piece together their families’ pasts, don’t include our non-European ancestors.

I struck upon this kind of crazy idea that I was going to go to New York and stop 10,000 people on the streets and take their portrait and create kind of a photographic census of the city.

With the removal of questions about gayness and transgender status in the Census, we really stand to lose a lot of the progress that has been made, and certainly not to make further progress. In order to have a fair system, you need a system you can measure.

America’s demographic shift was obvious to everyone in the 2010 Census – but Republicans stubbornly rejected math, facts, and polls to their electoral peril. While Republicans tailored their platform by and for the pale stale and male, among us, Obama and Democrats are embracing America’s diverse mosaic.

One thing that we learned that we published on our blog post is that uniformly, men lie about their height by almost exactly two inches. So if you look at a plot of census bureau data on the distribution of men’s heights in the U.S. and you plot men’s heights on OKCupid, it is exactly shifted two inches to the left.

I hope all of you are going to fill out your census form when it comes in the mail next month. If you don’t return the form the area you live in might get less government money and you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you.

I’d love to thwart the Census form, but I want a constitutional basis for doing it – and here’s the tricky thing. I think even constitutional purists would tell you that just because something isn’t in the Constitution does not mean the government cannot do it.

Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census.

I did tell the census man I was white, and I’m telling you, I started getting offers for the black American Express card in the mail.

The long view of the Census bureau allows some changes that are taken for granted to be studied in more detail. Everyone knows, for example, that people get married later than they used to.

I don’t think the government is out to get me or help someone else get me but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were out to sell me something or help someone else sell me something. I mean, why else would the Census Bureau want to know my telephone number?

The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged this fact when it reported that those with a bachelor’s degree earn on average $1 million more over their lifetime than those with only a high school diploma.

Census data is used to determine more than $675 billion in federal funding; it is a demographic Rosetta Stone that is referenced in the drawing of congressional districts, each states number of Electoral College votes and the application of civil rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act.

If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps.

There is a shortage of teachers but the January 2001 schools census showed that teacher numbers were at their highest level than at any time since 1984 – and 11,000 higher than 1997.

My subcommittee will be thoroughly investigating this issue and demanding answers from Census officials on allegations that the Census Bureau is changing the wording of survey questions used to determine our nation’s annual report on health insurance coverage.

The first census in 1790 asked just six questions: the name of the head of the household, the number of free white males older than 16, the number of free white males younger than 16, the number of free white females, the number of other free persons, and the number of slaves.

As we search for change and seek for our voices to be heard, completing the census will help get us the resources we need.

Undocumented residents and even green-card holders may fear that filling out the census could put them at risk of deportation and decide its better not to be counted at all.

Census data influences decisions made from Main Street to Wall Street, in Congress and with the Federal Reserve. Not to mention, the American people who look to, and trust, the data the government releases on our nation’s unemployment, state of our economy, and health insurance coverage.

We know the point of the 2010 Census is to count us, one by one, to tally every last resident, but the massive project of course has more prying, if limited, interests.

According to the U.S. Census, the most common reason people give for not voting is that they were too busy or had conflicting work or school schedules.

Republicans and blacks had an unlikely alliance around ‘max black’ after the 1990 census. By concentrating black voters in some districts, the strategy elected a record number of black congressmen in 1992. But the remaining ‘bleached’ districts were more likely to elect white Republicans.

At the last census it indicated that about 22 per cent of Australians were born overseas.

It’s perfectly reasonable for someone to be hesitant to share their personal information with the government. The Census Bureau shouldn’t be forcing anyone to share the route they take their kids to school or any information other than how many people live in their home.

An accurate census is critical to our democracy and to our economy. It underpins fair representation in government and allows us to ensure that our communities receive equitable funding for schools, roads, health care, and much more.

The government has become a mechanism for distributing largess, and your census form is your ticket.

Certainly, last year we did an episode about the census and sampling versus a direct statistic. You just said the word ‘census,’ and people fall asleep.

Genealogy is among the fastest-growing leisure pursuits in the U.K. Indeed, the urge to uncover the truth about our ancestors has proved so compelling that, when the 1901 census first went online, the website crashed after a million people logged on within hours of its launch.

Census figures be damned: If you choose to be alone, you’re destined to spend a certain amount of time wondering why.

To be counted in the census is to be both seen and supported.

I grew up in Harlem, a block away from what was then the most crowded block in New York City, according to the 1950 census. Something like ten thousand people lived in one city block.