Cencus Questions

While looking over the U.S Census questions I chose number three and four off the first page.
What are the key similarities and differences between the forms?

The biggest change among the forms is the separation of people among free white and free colored people. Today we have questions distinguishing race but not based on white or colored alone. Another big difference among the forms is that in 1830 people where required to state their Christian name. Today that wouldn’t occur because people worship many other religions and Christianity is not the main religion. The biggest differene among all three forms is how race is stated. In the 1990 census form people were given an explanation of how to answer questions that were based on race, while in 1970 the census form asked for color or race and in 1830 there were only two categories white or colored.

What is your overall sense about the likelihood of achieving accuracy on these forms for accounting and gathering data about the population?

I do not think that the census can get a full account of the population based on gather the information from the census. Not ever single person in the U.S answers the questions 100%. The forms in the past were so long and I believe this is the reason people would answer the questions quickly and without thinking about them. And if immigrants were answering the questions they might not be able to understand the questions due to their complexity. The census is sort of an invasion of privacy and many people to not agree with taking the time to answer such questions. When it comes to the question of race many people have so many choices that most of the time they are unsure and they choose other, which doesn’t give a correct representation of the race among that census neighborhood.