U.S. census

Photo by Sheri Reed

My U.S. Census 2010 arrived yesterday. Getting ready to fill it out -- cause it's due April 1, 2010, and it's required by law, you know?

Unfortunately, an online version of the U.S. Census is still not available. So get out your blue or black ink pens. You gotta fill the 5-page questionnaire out by hand.

Thinking about skipping or refusing to fill out your census? Well, here are a few reasons you ought not refuse.

5 Reasons You Ought to Fill Out Your U.S. Census 2010:

  1. It's required by law. The law makes it a crime not to answer the decennial census and authorizes the courts to impose a fine of up to $5,000 for failure to respond. They probably won't fine you, but they could...
  2. If you don't fill it your census, the government has to pay a census taker to come to your door and collect the information (yep, that's money out of our collective pockets).
  3. Census information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  4. Census data is used to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more.
  5. The information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like: hospitals, job training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects, and emergency services.

See? It's important! And take heed, your answers are completely confidential.

* per the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 Census website

Have you gotten your U.S. Census in the mail yet?