Count on changes in Census 2000

From Correspondent Kyoko Altman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To make it simple and easy for citizens to take part in the next national head count, Census 2000 will employ the shortest census form in 180 years, the government has decided.

There are a number of questions the United States will no longer ask its residents -- including where they get their drinking water or how they dispose of their sewage -- things census takers have been asking for nearly four decades.

But the government has delayed a decision on what is perhaps the most controversial question the next census will ask. At issue is whether the new census will offer a "multiracial" category for citizens who do not feel they fit the current choices of white, black, American Indian, Asian, or other.

Groups like Project RACE are pressuring the government to make changes but African-American and Hispanic groups strongly oppose any new category, fearing that it could end up diluting their political strength.

"We are saying we will ask about race and ethnic origin because federal agencies have told us we need this information," said Census Bureau Director Martha Farnsworth Riche. "How we ask it is something we've been researching to give to the (White House Office of Management and Budget) and they will make a determination this fall."

Riche said census officials have taken a restrictive look at what they will ask in 2000. "We have clear guidance from Congress to shorten the census to make it easier on busy people to fill out," she said. "So we have only posed questions that are mandated or required (by) legislation."

The Census Bureau will also drop questions concerning fertility, condominium status and the year last worked. Census 2000 will include one new subject, required by the Welfare Reform Act, regarding grandparents as care givers for young children. It may also add questions about support expenses and health coverage.

Another area of controversy is the new sampling method the Census Bureau plans to use to calculate information about the nation's 120 million households. Instead of the traditional door-to-door counting system that attempted to contact every household that did not return a census form, Census 2000 will count 90 percent of households in every census tract, an area that includes several thousand households, then use statistical sampling to estimate information for the remaining 10 percent.

That change is drawing fire from lawmakers whose congressional districts could be altered by the new method. The stakes are high because the result could cause new political boundaries within states and affect the distribution of federal funding.

Related story:

• Money, power at heart of census lawsuit - January 10, 1996

Related sites:

• U.S. Census Bureau
• Project RACE, Inc.

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