# American Community Survey **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 6, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606 "2019-03-06T02:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FatOrangeCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@FatOrangeCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatOrangeCat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/1 "2019-03-06T02:16:16Z")
Has anyone received one of these? Sent out by the US census bureau, complete with bolded YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW on the envelope. Apparently it takes 40 minutes to complete and includes very detailed and private questions about your habits, finances, relationships. Has anyone refused to complete one? Were there any consequences for refusing? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/2 "2019-03-06T02:26:28Z")
Looks like it’s [legit…](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/about/top-questions-about-the-survey.html) > [@](#): > > If your address was selected for the American Community Survey, you are legally obligated to answer all the questions, as accurately as you can. The relevant laws are Title 18 U.S.C Section 3571 and Section 3559, which amends Title 13 U.S.C. Section 221. > > Your answers are important. The American Community Survey is sent to a small percentage of our population on a rotating basis. As part of a sample, you represent many other people. Learn how you can respond to the survey today. > > Why is the ACS required by law? > > Response to the survey is required by law because the American Community Survey is part of the decennial census, replacing the “long form” that previously was sent to a percentage of households once every 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/3 "2019-03-06T02:27:08Z")
I have not recieved one. They are a smaller, but not small, survey from the US Census Bureau. Politifact has a look at the legal claims [here](https://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/jan/09/us-census-bureau/americans-must-answer-us-census-bureau-survey-law-/). The short answer is you can be fined by law. They don’t really enforce it against those that don’t fill it out. Compliance has been between 97 and 98 percent since they implemented it in 2005. I’ve also never received the US census or had anyone knock on my door. ISTR my parents included me as a dependent in college. They’ve completely missed me twice since then. 2020…third times the charm Census Bureau. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/4 "2019-03-06T02:34:27Z")
I did one recently - I think October, maybe? Didn’t refuse to fill it out, and I think it was closer to 30 minutes. The questions were things I wouldn’t tell a random person, but if the government _really_ wanted to find out those things about me, it wouldn’t have been that hard. I mean, they’re literally the people I already send my tax forms to. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/5 "2019-03-06T05:09:31Z")
ACS is the substitute for the “long form” that every 10th household used to fill out as part of the decennial census. It allows more up-to-date statistics, which are important for making lots of government (and private business) decisions. ACS uses a very sophisticated statistical technique to prevent anyone from discerning sensitive info about any particular person, something that _could_ happen if there are only a few ACS responses in a census tract or block. Census employees also take _very_ _ **very** _ seriously the anonymity of all responses, just as they do with the decennial census. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/6 "2019-03-06T06:11:00Z")
Yes, I have refused to fill the ACS out, twice. There will be no consequences. No one has ever been fined and probably never will be. They will tell you that you can be fined, but the census people can’t do it, so who is going to. I did extensive research on this when I got mine. If you feel uncomfortable then don’t fill it out. They will keep trying and may send someone by to personally ask you to comply. It is all hot air and empty bullying. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/7 "2019-03-06T09:42:13Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Yes, I have refused to fill the ACS out, twice. There will be no consequences. No one has ever been fined and probably never will be. They will tell you that you can be fined, but the census people can’t do it, so who is going to. I did extensive research on this when I got mine. If you feel uncomfortable then don’t fill it out. They will keep trying and may send someone by to personally ask you to comply. > > It is all hot air and empty bullying. Probably true, but there is such a thing as social responsibility. Your government need data to make informed decisions; it’s a bit like the anti-vax argument that assumes that other people will do it so I don’t need to. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/8 "2019-03-06T13:57:33Z")
I believe there was a thread on this 10 yrs ago - I may have started it. The conclusion was essentially what **Dallas Jones** says. Yes, there are technically potential penalties, but (at least then) they had never been imposed. Each person may need to weigh for themselves how they feel in terms of social responsibility vs invasion of privacy/hassle. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/9 "2019-03-07T03:38:39Z")
[Moderating] Since this is asking for personal experiences, it’s a better fit for IMHO. Moving from GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2019, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/10 "2019-03-07T05:03:10Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Yes, I have refused to fill the ACS out, twice. Any reason you’re willing to share? ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/11 "2019-03-07T05:52:51Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Any reason you’re willing to share? Yes. Our personal information is no longer secure, at any location. Not at your bank, work, school, places that you do business, anywhere. Large databases are exposed by hackers all the time. Despite all of the government’s assurances that this information is secure and not identifiable to you, it is there, it is held, and it is retrievable. And I am not about to voluntarily give out what is a very detailed snapshot of my life. Short form fine, ACS can stuff it. Names, ages, birthdates, of everyone in the home, they don’t need any of that stuff to get the information they say that they need. It seems like voluntary identity theft, only it isn’t theft, you are giving it away. Here is the form. If you feel comfortable giving out this info, go right ahead. [https://usa.ipums.org/usa/resources/voliii/formACS2017.pdf](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/resources/voliii/formACS2017.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/12 "2019-03-08T05:11:24Z")
“Names, ages, birthdates, of everyone in the home” is on the long form, too. And—at least for the adults—probably can simply be purchased from your state DMV. You didn’t ask me, but you may want to recalibrate what you think is fodder for identity theft. I’m reminded of my elderly aunt obsessing over shredding every piece of junk mail she got—because it had her name and address right there on it. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/13 "2019-03-08T12:10:15Z")
I did, probably 15 or so years ago (I got a call from an enumerator when I hadn’t returned the form after, like, 2 days, so I just talked to her). There were a lot of questions about ethnicity. I asked what y options were for choosing an ethnicity and was astonished to find out that I could declare myself Samoan, but not Ashkenazi. A long debate about nationality vs. ethnicity in Eastern Europe ensued. (“So where are your grandparents from?” “Which grandparent? Do you mean what country it was when they lived here, or what country is it now? One grandmother was born in Canada, but her parents were from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire, but are now Ukraine and Belarus. OK, the simplest example: one grandfather was born in Riga, Latvia.” “So he’s Latvian!” “Umm, no, he’s Jewish. The Latvians are a mostly blond, Scandinavian-looking people who speak Latvian. My grandfather was a Mediterranean-looking guy who grew up speaking German and Yiddish in the house.”) To her credit, she saw the ridiculousness of the question pretty quickly and was laughing by the end of our conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/14 "2019-03-09T05:46:19Z")
Yes, ethnicity is tricky business, and I believe 1980 is the last time it was asked on the decennial. Race allows you to write in whatever you’d like if the choices aren’t to your liking. One of my friends is a midlevel exec at the Census Bureau, and worked on the 2000 Census Atlas. Internally, they thought the large number of Southerners who answered “American” was some sort of political statement. I had to explain that for lots of us Scots-Irish-German-whatever mongrels, our forebears have been here for 350 years already, and we simply don’t know what else to put. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/15 "2019-03-09T10:52:39Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Yes, I have refused to fill the ACS out, twice. There will be no consequences. No one has ever been fined and probably never will be. They will tell you that you can be fined, but the census people can’t do it, so who is going to. I did extensive research on this when I got mine. If you feel uncomfortable then don’t fill it out. They will keep trying and may send someone by to personally ask you to comply. > > It is all hot air and empty bullying. Speaking as someone who did follow-up in 2010… If a census employee is _actually bullying_ you call the Census Bureau and report them because that is definitely not allowed. (In 2000 I had a Census employee park her car across our driveway and tell us we couldn’t leave until we answered her questions. I called the police and her employer. She found out the hard way that yes, we COULD leave whenever we wanted and she wasn’t allowed to block people in. Hope she enjoyed the towing fee.) But back to follow-up. If you don’t respond to a Census form most likely an actual human being will be sent to ask you to pretty-please fill out the form. In 2010 they’d send us back three times to the same address before giving up. The Census employee can’t force you to do anything. I had a number of people who didn’t want to answer the Census. For the most part, all you need to do is politely say “I’m not answering this.” Eventually you’ll stop being bothered. Please do not scream, swear, or otherwise be rude to a polite Census employee who is only doing his/her job. If the Census employee is not behaving professionally report them. If you only partially fill out a Census form (maybe you’re comfortable with some questions but not all of them) you are likely to get a follow-up visit as well. Not always, though - if the form was something like 90% complete we didn’t usually bother. Same rules apply. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/16 "2019-03-10T14:10:13Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Speaking as someone who did follow-up in 2010… > > If a census employee is _actually bullying_ you call the Census Bureau and report them because that is definitely not allowed. (In 2000 I had a Census employee park her car across our driveway and tell us we couldn’t leave until we answered her questions. I called the police and her employer. She found out the hard way that yes, we COULD leave whenever we wanted and she wasn’t allowed to block people in. Hope she enjoyed the towing fee.) > > But back to follow-up. If you don’t respond to a Census form most likely an actual human being will be sent to ask you to pretty-please fill out the form. In 2010 they’d send us back three times to the same address before giving up. > > The Census employee can’t force you to do anything. I had a number of people who didn’t want to answer the Census. For the most part, all you need to do is politely say “I’m not answering this.” Eventually you’ll stop being bothered. Please do not scream, swear, or otherwise be rude to a polite Census employee who is only doing his/her job. If the Census employee is not behaving professionally report them. > > If you only partially fill out a Census form (maybe you’re comfortable with some questions but not all of them) you are likely to get a follow-up visit as well. Not always, though - if the form was something like 90% complete we didn’t usually bother. Same rules apply. I did the census in 2000. Yes follow up person comes to your house. I only had one household with a grumpy man at the door that said he refuses to fill it out. I told him supervisors would be along sooner or later. If nothing else, all the info can be used in 70 years for genealogy purposes. You should see some of the early ones from the 1800’s, OH so I wish they had asked more questions! And printed better! Oh and I had the community survey the other month, didnt seem that hard to fill out or the length of time that long. I dont mind filling them out but I do understand the OP, there is WAY too much crap out there about all of us. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/17 "2019-03-10T15:01:50Z")
Yep. Leafed through it (my favorite question was if I have running water - yes, yes I do) then promptly tossed it in the trash. The Census Police have yet to come arrest me. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/18 "2019-03-10T15:17:10Z")
IIRC, at the last census (2010), there was a $150 fine if you refused to answer questions on the census form or from a door-to-door census taker. I refused to answer any except the number of persons living in my household. I’m still waiting for the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/19 "2019-03-10T16:49:41Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > IIRC, at the last census (2010), there was a $150 fine if you refused to answer questions on the census form or from a door-to-door census taker. I refused to answer any except the number of persons living in my household. I’m still waiting for the bill. The fines are just language in the law. Congress specifically left out any method of enforcement. They didn’t want to hear from angry constituents. The language is there so it can be quoted to you to get you to comply, that is all. No agency is empowered to enforce the fines, certainly not the Census Bureau . You can search all you want but you will never find anyone who paid a fine for refusal. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606/20 "2019-03-10T19:02:29Z")
I think we something about the census one last fall, about the time we were getting ready to move. I don’t know what happened to it. What would happen if we move in the middle of census-taking? Would we get counted twice? 10 years ago, when asked about race on the form, my Paleolibertarian heart kicked in and I wrote in “human.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-community-survey/830606.md?page=2)