Much Debate Surrounds 2010 Census' Six Questions

"Three years before the next census -- just around the corner by the deliberate pace of the U.S. Census Bureau -- the nation's enumerators have come up with the six seemingly simple questions they want to ask everyone in the country on April 1, 2010. Simple, it seems, is quite hard. The bureau has spent years developing and field testing questions to make them so user-friendly that everyone understands them -- and answers."

"The old long-form census questionnaire, with its queries about house size, commutes to work and other details about daily life is out -- spun off in 2000 to the new American Community Survey, which questions 3 million households a year. For the 2010 census, every member of the country's 120 million households will get a one-page form asking for information that Congress has said it wants to know. (The final form of the questions is subject to congressional review.)"

Querying 120 million diverse households about their age, race, ethncity, homeownership and other details -- and having the questions pass Congress' muster -- is proving to be a monumental task. It seems that what constitutes an "American" is becoming harder and harder to define in six simple questions.

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