Census 2021....

[NikNak]

Received in the post 10:50

Finished drinking coffee first

My other half signed in and started it...

She filled in her 'bit'

I filled in my 'bit'

All done and dusted by 11:30

Easy peezy lemon squeezy...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder if any benefit of a census justifies the cost? I seem to remember thinking before that there's nothing in them that the government couldn't find out from elsewhere if it wanted to and that anyone not wanting to be be found/traced isn't going to fill one out anyway.

 

[Sachakins]

I wonder if any benefit of a census justifies the cost? I seem to remember thinking before that there's nothing in them that the government couldn't find out from elsewhere if it wanted to and that anyone not wanting to be be found/traced isn't going to fill one out anyway.

Yes, there is a plethora of information sources out there. Most of which is protected by privacy laws, the rest that is out there is a mix of good, bad and blatantly lies. It is also not indexed consistently and not fact checked in general.
The census is nothing to do with tracing or finding people.
So to answer your question. Yes the census is the most cost effective, fast, consistent and accurate way to collect date for its use.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Why do you presume everyone fills in the census truthfully? I doubt they're fact checked.
According to the amount of sewage measured in large cities there are millions more people here than are accounted for so the census can't achieve very much. Google probably knows more than the government.

 

[Spectric]

I found the question regarding whether you are now the same sex as at birth rather amusing, you will always be even if you try to fool yourself but I did check with the misus and yes I am! Imagine having a bandsaw but the next day it became a food mixer. I will agree that Google definately knows more, are they not just a data collection service for the American intelligence agencies. Once you take a deeper look into a so called smart phone you soon see the darker side, I never realised that an awful lot of the system is hidden from the user/owner because Google owns the OS, so you cannot easily discover unwanted attachments and the like so your phone is potentially spying on you.

Having worked in metrology I can say that unless data is verified to be of a given level of accuracy then it can only be taken as for guidance only, is this census still relevant today or should it be resigned to history? I know that it was once used to tax the people but we now have HMRC and other government departments that probably already have all this information, it just needs collating.

 

[Rorschach]

Why do you presume everyone fills in the census truthfully? I doubt they're fact checked.
According to the amount of sewage measured in large cities there are millions more people here than are accounted for so the census can't achieve very much. Google probably knows more than the government.

Glad to see I am not the only one with doubts about them.

 

[Sachakins]

The census is not a taxation model nowadays. The primary function of the census is to provide a data source that, when aggregated, will provide a robust and statistically accurate, within given acceptable predefined statistical deviation confidence intervals, representation of a set of demographic information of the country. It is this that is then used to provide government an ability to design and inform infrastructure developments, population dispersal projections, and forecast where, when and what type of service and funding will be required over the following 5 to 15 years.

The census taken at an individual level is almost useless, and never designed to be. It is the aggregated data that is important, and by its design, collation and data volume, error rates caused by invalid entries is greatly minimised.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I once put "Whirling Dervish" as my ethnicity on a county council form - it wasn't queried.

 

[niemeyjt]

Is pastafarian still a valid religion?

 

[Sachakins]

I once put "Whirling Dervish" as my ethnicity on a county council form - it wasn't queried.

If you put it a down as "Other" please enter here" then it was counted as a +1 in the other categories aggregated tool, so didn't need to be fact checked.

 

[Sachakins]

Is pastafarian still a valid religion?

If you put it a down as "Other" please enter here" then it was counted as a +1 in the other categories aggregated for religious status.
Again, its not a case of validity of "Pastaferian" its just classed as an opinion option, which will be given less weight in statistical analysis.

 

[thetyreman]

when I worked on the last census in 2011 a guy put his occupation as 'monster slayer - protector of the village' as his job description, that gave me a good laugh, quite a few people said they are jedi as well as their religion.

 

[artie]

I read somewhere that Jedi is a popular and growing entry on the census form.

On a different tangent, if the entries could be fact checked, then surly there would be no need for the census in the first place?

 

[Sachakins]

I read somewhere that Jedi is a popular and growing entry on the census form.

On a different tangent, if the entries could be fact checked, then surly there would be no need for the census in the first place?

Fact checked in the sense of the data entry, ie, occupants 100, in 2 bed accommodation,this will be kicked back for error checking against entry by analysis algorithm.

 

[Garno]

We had one on Thursday with a letter telling us we were not to post it back or complete it online before 23rd March. My typing finger is looking forward to that date now.

 

[Oraclebhoy]

We had one on Thursday with a letter telling us we were not to post it back or complete it online before 23rd March. My typing finger is looking forward to that date now.

You can fill it in beforehand but have to answer it like it was the 23rd of March.

 

[Jester129]

Isn't it the 21st of March?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes.

 

[Cooper]

In my old age I have been quite interested in my family history and the records of past censuses has been of great interest.
I understand that a lot of government allocations of resources is informed by the data from the census, school places etc. The recent who-ha about the leveling up funds which seem to be going to some of the least deprived constituencies could not be queried without proper data. No doubt there will be other sources but that will be in the hands of politicians before statisticians have a chance to wheedle out the bias.

 

[Argus]

Interesting....... we've not had anything here yet, though this part of the world (Cededigion) was used for a web-based 'rehearsal/try-outl' last year.

What exactly do you get in the post?
Is it a paper version with the option to fill it in online, or just a link to the website?