Is the census mandatory in the US for both citizens and tourists?
They give you either a link where you complete the census online or a physical booklet with all the questions present to collect data from the population. What happens if you continue disregarding the census in the US? When was the last census conducted on the entire country? Even then, is answering questions on the census mandatory for both citizens and tourists alike? Also, what are the repercussions for providing false answers?
6 replies
they don't count tourists. Or at least, not foreign tourists. if you live in the US, you're obligated to be represented on the census in some way- every household is expected to fill it out once, so if you live with your parents, Also you can chose to not answer questions, but they'll do what they can to fill them in. (including potentially making shit up.)
I've visited Australia as a tourist (whom just conducted a census recently) and they count them, like WTF?! They don't even live in the country yet make it mandatory for them whilst they're physically present since they don't bind census data to citizenship, rather EVERYBODY who is on their turf from citizen to visitor.
In that case, tourists are given a form upon visiting a info center or by their hotel. If they're staying at an AirBnB or at relatives place: the landlord or property owner has to acknowledge that other occupants are present on their form. To Australia, it doesn't matter if you're a citizen or tourist: YOU must complete the census.
That's in stark contrast to the US: where census data is only collected from citizens omitting tourists.
Well, we count all persons residing in a state or territory of the US.
It’s about allocating resources (and votes in the electoral college and house of reps.)
So people who are undocumented are counted as well- or they try to, anyways. They’re not supposed to use census data for anything other than resource allocation, but with this current admin…. Uh… yeah.
That's how a census works. They're trying to understand how many people are in the country, including tourists. USA doesn't do that, but I hope you're not confusing the census for voting rights.
Non-citizen long-term residents are also included in the US.
If you ignore the thing in the mail, they send a person to your house to knock and ask the exact same questions.