Problems with the 2010 Census

By C.N. Le

For many sociologists and other scholars like me, the Census data that is compiled every ten years is the most reliable, comprehensive source of data on the American population. We rely on it for us to not just do our research and publish papers, but to help us understand the world around us better.

It's with that in mind that I was rather frustrated to see this article by CNN—an accumulation of mistakes and glitches will apparently cost the Census Bureau several billions of dollars in wasted funds, not to mention the trust of scholars and the American people in general:

[T]he government will scrap plans to use handheld computers to collect information from the millions of Americans who don't return census forms mailed out by the government. The change will add as much as $3 billion to the cost of the constitutionally mandated count, pushing the overall cost to more than $14 billion. 

This was to be the first truly high-tech count in the nation's history. The Census Bureau has awarded a contract to purchase 500,000 of the computers, at a cost of more than $600 million. The devices, which look like high-tech cell phones, will still be used to verify every residential street address in the country, using global positioning system software.

But workers going door-to-door will not be able to use them to collect information from the residents who didn't return their census forms. About a third of U.S. residents are expected not to return the forms. . . . Interviews, congressional testimony and government reports describe an agency that was unprepared to manage the contract for the handheld computers. 

Census officials are being blamed for doing a poor job of spelling out technical requirements to the contractor, Florida-based Harris Corp. The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.

In my previous life, I worked as a Research Associate for the Center for Technology in Government, doing applied research on how government agencies use information technology to improve their public services.

The most common and costliest mistake we saw was caused by exactly what happened with the Census Bureau -- a technological change was implemented from the top down, with little consultation with the actual workers who will use the technology on an everyday basis on what exactly they need and would like the technology to do.

This miscommunication and lack of consensus input from day-to-day workers led to poorly designed and inferior technology, which led to its ultimate failure, costing American taxpayers billions of dollars. Time and time and time again, this continues to happen.

I suppose this would be the textbook example of the negative connotations of bureaucracy that many of us have -- inefficient, little communication, lack of coordination, and incompetence that leads to public funds being wasted and public outrage.

So it will benefit all of us if the Census Bureau gets their act together, and soon. Rather than simply another form to fill out, the Census helps us understand who we are as Americans. As the response rate declines, the Census data that we as academics rely on becomes less reliable and more prone to sampling error, and that can lead to diminished confidence in our research.

Ultimately, scholars like me end up paying a double penalty for the Census Bureau's mistakes. The first is having our money as American taxpayers wasted. But even more important, the second penalty is that instances like this make Americans less trusting of the Census Bureau and also perhaps less likely to eventually fill out and return their Census forms. What other factors do you think prevent people from returning their Census forms?

Comments

[Brandon Jackson]

I think the author did a great job of expressing his point in this article, it's ashame that american people had to waste bilion of tax dollars on a census that was incorrect, i would be outrage this country already has a huge budget deficit as it is so i completely agree with the authour hopefully next time they will get it correct.

[Dean Armes]

I think this is just another example of how the bureaucracy of the U.S. has gotten out of control, the top-down method of “improving” the government just doesn't work. The census bureau was trying to fix something that wasn't broken, a common problem in the government. Why did we need to spend millions of dollars to buy these computers when pen and paper has been serving those conducting the census just fine since the 1800's? At least everyone knows how to use a pen and pencil. And if they really needed the GPS locations, a $100 store bought device would work just fine.

I had similar personal experience with wastefulness of the government when I was in the military. The army bought, at cost of billions of dollars, a computer for nearly every vehicle that it had overseas called the FBCB2. This computer was supposed to interconnect every vehicle and allow it to share information, yet it was so slow and complicated that almost no one could use it, it just got in the way and collected dust.

The government seems to have a problem listening to the needs of its employees and the people it governs. It seems more and more that the bureaucrats come up with an idea that they think will help, and then execute the idea with out thinking to ask if the people it will affect really want it, or if it will even work in the real world.

When will people wake up and vote for someone that will fix what's broke (the economy, public schools, health care, welfare....) or end things that don't work at all (war on drugs) and leave what's been working alone? We may not have put the people that implemented these policies and ideas in charge, but we voted for the people that did.

[Nicole]

I understand the concern of the Census being inaccurate, although it is impossible to make it 100% accurate. A lot of schools, high school and college, use this as a source of information for data.

My dad has lived at the same residents since he was 20 he is almost 50 now. For 10 years he never recieved a census questionnaire. They came to our house one day asking him why he didn't turn it in. They told him he should've got on the internet and let someone know. My dad is the most computer illiterate person I have ever met. He doesn't even know how to turn one on.

This makes you wonder how many people in the U.S. this has happened to. Also, there are people who jump around from house to house living with friends and such, or the homeless people. The U.S. Census has almost no statistics on this, which is understandable because it is very hard. I feel that if they gave people some sort of incentive they would get more accurate results.

[Concerned Worker]

There should not only be a concern about the data being collected but also about speed versus accuracy. Known data errors are being discovered by workers in the field but there is no way to correct them in a lot of instances. Also, quite a few people who are in temporary shelters, for instance hotels, may not be counted. If the economy continues to displace people, quite a few people in uncounted temporary shelters such as hotels, may be overlooked. Another concern is regarding actions toward older census workers. Certain areas are attempting to get rid of older workers in the field and, therefore, discriminatory actions against older workers who are meeting the quota are occurring. If these types of activities continue to occur, technical problems will not be the only issues from Census 2010.

[HILARY HELLEN]

am very intrested even developed country like US have such problems in collecting census! i think the goog thing you have to do is Publicatin, event like census is vey big needs a lots of commitments as it involves the whole country, so from now people must have known next year is CENSUS year all mass media should advertise this is big event with pricious outcome leading to succes,just like voting for President also census should be given that attention all the peole to giveup their information is very usefull for Planning.
Thats all. HILARY HELLEN,MA-DEMOGRAPHY STUDING.

[gadgettown]

My dad has lived at the same residents since he was 20 he is almost 50 now. For 10 years he never recieved a census questionnaire. They came to our house one day asking him why he didn't turn it in. They told him he should've got on the internet and let someone know. My dad is the most computer illiterate person I have ever met. He doesn't even know how to turn one on.