2020
The Conversation, May 1.
So, you’ve likely received your census questionnaire in the mail by now. But you might be wondering: Why these questions? Who came up with this list?
The questionnaire has changed a lot over time. In the first census, in 1790, U.S. marshals posed just a handful of questions to each head of household: their name; the number of free white males under and over 16; the number of free white females; the number of other free persons; and the number of slaves. Since then, the census has added and removed questions, as well as changed around the format – for example, by giving some households longer, more detailed questionnaires, or by splitting questions into separate forms.
I called up Emily Klancher Merchant, a historian of science and technology at the University of California at Davis, and asked her to walk us through the 2020 questionnaire.
