Did you send in your census form yet? (Alexandria: income, living)

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by car54

The question that puzzled me was whether you own your home free and clear or do you have a mortgage.

What's that got to do with anything?

This question has been asked since 1890 and is used as an economic indicator, and to administer housing programs. Here is a question-by-question guide to the form (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php - broken link).

[CAVA1990]

I do recall a more detailed set of questions on earlier ones including the number of rooms in your house. Under Federal law the information is confidential. Anyone thinking otherwise is ill informed.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I do recall a more detailed set of questions on earlier ones including the number of rooms in your house. Under Federal law the information is confidential. Anyone thinking otherwise is ill informed.

Here are questions from the past:
Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000

[CAVA1990]

My great grandfather's occupation recorded on the 1900 census is "cowboy". I've never been able to top that.

[car54]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

This question has been asked since 1890 and is used as an economic indicator, and to administer housing programs. Here is a question-by-question guide to the form (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php - broken link).

I can understand them wanting to know if one owns one's home vs. renting. It's the free and clear vs. mortgage part that puzzles me.

The website doesn't explain it, that I can see...

[chocolatelover]

I didn't mind filling out the census form since it's so short, but a few months ago when I was living in NC i got the American Community Survey which was much longer and more detailed. I wasn't going to respond, as it had a lot of questions I didn't want to answer, until I saw it said it was required by law.

[normie]

So putting a more local angle on this question, what surprises about Northern Virginia do you think it will reveal? Will we discover a surprising number of people here own their homes? Will we discover the racial balance is different than we thought it was? Or, in this day and age, is that information already available?

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by car54

I can understand them wanting to know if one owns one's home vs. renting. It's the free and clear vs. mortgage part that puzzles me.

The website doesn't explain it, that I can see...

I'm just guessing here, but perhaps, with all the mortgages that are or will potentially be in trouble, getting some idea of mortgage vs free-and-clear by locality could be a great help in planning. I'm sure the information is available elsewhere, but perhaps scattered and not easily compiled.

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by normie

So putting a more local angle on this question, what surprises about Northern Virginia do you think it will reveal? Will we discover a surprising number of people here own their homes? Will we discover the racial balance is different than we thought it was? Or, in this day and age, is that information already available?

I'm not sure about surprises, but the census could mean more representation for NoVA in the General Assembly due to redistricting based on census results, and if the population in Virginia overall has increased (with a corresponding decrease in another state or states), perhaps Virginia will get another representative in Congress?

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by normie

So putting a more local angle on this question, what surprises about Northern Virginia do you think it will reveal? Will we discover a surprising number of people here own their homes? Will we discover the racial balance is different than we thought it was? Or, in this day and age, is that information already available?

I thought these articles were interesting:

Northern Virginia officials predict power shift from rural areas (Washington Post)

After more than a century of domination by Virginia's rural interests, dramatic demographic changes will force the redistribution of political muscle to the urban-suburban Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads regions that power the state economically, several officials said. This could have big impacts on educational, transportation and other funding formulas whose importance seemed even larger during a 61-day session focused on balancing the budget by cutting spending without raising taxes.

"What you're seeing to a great extent is kind of the last gasp of the Virginia of the 20th century," said Del. Robert H. Brink (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/votersguide/2007/va/candidates/adam-p-ebbin/ - broken link) (D-Arlington). "We're going to have a census and we're going to have redistricting next year, and what it's going to show is a major shift toward the urban, suburban and exurban portions of the state and away from the rural Virginia of the past."

and one example of what this may look like for RoVA:

9th District boundaries will likely shift after census tally (http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/9th_district_boundaries_will_likely_shift_after_ce nsus_tally/42941/ - broken link) (TriCities.com)

Because Northern Virginia communities have grown at a faster – and denser – pace than those in Southwest Virginia, redistricting has required Northern Virginia districts to shrink geographically, while those in South and Southwest Virginia have been stretched across more landscape.
....

Southwest Virginia and other rural parts of the state did see some growth in their populations over that 30-year time frame, Boucher said, but it wasn’t on par with the growth in the state’s urban areas such as Northern Virginia, which is covered by the state’s 8th, 10th and 11th congressional districts.


“The same thing will probably happen again,” Boucher said, when asked to give his predictions for the outcome of this year’s census and whether he thought his district would continue to grow.


According to the census bureau’s American Community Survey, Virginia had a population of 7.7 million people in 2008 – representing a gain of almost 10 percent during the eight years since the last census. Meanwhile, the 9th District’s population stayed relatively the same, gaining only 3,000 residents or five-tenths of a percent during those eight years.