Above: Census ad that asks “should we count the cows?” Very appropriate for Storrs which has a sizeable livestock population.
I attended a workshop with one of my fellow DC’ers on understanding the 2010 Census hosted by the CT SPJ at the Homer Babbidge Library this morning. Arthur Bakis and Ana Maria Garcia of the U.S. Census Bureau gave a fascinating presentation on how to find and intrepret census data that was tailored towards journalists. I found their discussion on how college students are counted to be particularly interesting. Apparently students (even if their dependents of parents that live in another town) are counted as part of the population of the town in which their dorm or off-campus housing is located. As a result, UConn students, like myself, are counted towards the population of Storrs. That means that the Census Bureau considers Storrs to have a population around 10,000 (according to the 2000 Census) when in reality, the number of full-time residents is much smaller.
In case you didn’t know, the Census is taking place this March-April and The Consitution requires everyone that lives in the U.S. to fill out one of their forms. The good news is that the Census will only be 10 questions this year. Longer questionaires are now distributed to random households on a yearly basis through the American Community Survey. For more information on the U.S. Census or to check out data from prior years, visit census.gov.
