# Census Day!



## Northerner (Mar 27, 2011)

Don't forget to do your census, if you haven't already!


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## Steff (Mar 27, 2011)

I am off to fill it in later on online, im guessing and hoping it will be straight forward x


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## cazscot (Mar 27, 2011)

I did ours online and it was reasonably easy


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## Steff (Mar 27, 2011)

At least doing it online wont have to worry over black or blue ink....but i guess capitals are to be used on the online one too


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## Andy HB (Mar 27, 2011)

Steffie said:


> ....but i guess capitals are to be used on the online one too



If the programmers were on the ball, that shouldn't be necessary. Capitals are probably only required to aid OCR (optical character recognition ... just off to the accronyms thread now!) when reading the forms electonically into a computer (probably!)


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## margie (Mar 27, 2011)

I have 2 to fill in but only one to sign. FIL's eyes not really up to reading and answering the questions.


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## Northerner (Mar 27, 2011)

Steffie said:


> I am off to fill it in later on online, im guessing and hoping it will be straight forward x



I'm slightly worried that the online option might get overloaded.


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## Northerner (Mar 27, 2011)

Just did it online with no problems. Not many questions as I live on my own, don't drive, never been married and not expecting visitors!


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## Steff (Mar 27, 2011)

Ahh that was easy enough to do, even truste dmy lad well i watched over his shoulder


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## am64 (Mar 27, 2011)

done the paper version ...


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## Andy HB (Mar 27, 2011)

Northerner said:


> Just did it online with no problems. Not many questions as I live on my own, don't drive, never been married and not expecting visitors!



I just made up six people to make it look like I'm popular.

No harm, surely!!!


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## margie (Mar 27, 2011)

I am having trouble with 2 questions - my FIL knows the year he arrived (47) but not the month, and he is not sure when he retired. I could make an educated guess.

Surely there comes a point where your old job is no longer relevant - if you are say 100 and last worked when you were 65.

The have you ever worked and when did you last work is badly worded - in its context it is after paid employment - but you could have done loads of voluntary (which with the exception of taking care of family/elderly relatives) is not recorded.


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## KateR (Mar 27, 2011)

margie said:


> Surely there comes a point where your old job is no longer relevant - if you are say 100 and last worked when you were 65.



I haven't done paid work since 1981 but the details are engraved on my brain, LOL. The Civil Service does that to you! I filled that in anyway.


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## Caroline (Mar 28, 2011)

we did our census on line. We have had changes in our house. Big boy is now working and was at school when we did the last one, we have little feller who wasn't even born for the last one and hubby is retired.


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## Andy HB (Mar 28, 2011)

Heard a report on the news this morning that people were having problems with the 10 minute inactivity timeout on the website.

Poor dears lost everything they'd entered previously.

Andy


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## Mark T (Mar 28, 2011)

I must admit I was good this time and decided to not be a "Jedi"  and listed myself as non-religious instead.

It was tempting to be Wicca instead - but to be fair that is a proper religion and I know very little about it in reality.  So the false claim would of been a little disrespectful.

So those that have very young children, what did you put down as their primary language?

I was also surprised for a 2 year old it bothered to ask me if they were married!


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## vince13 (Mar 28, 2011)

Northerner said:


> Just did it online with no problems. Not many questions as I live on my own, don't drive, never been married and not expecting visitors!



Did ours by post as I thought online might be overloaded.  

Alan, I thought I was the only one left in this country that didn't drive !  Now you've left an open invitation for us all to descend on you as visitors just so it makes you've filled your form in wrongly.......


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## Andy HB (Mar 28, 2011)

vince13 said:


> Did ours by post as I thought online might be overloaded.
> 
> Alan, I thought I was the only one left in this country that didn't drive !  Now you've left an open invitation for us all to descend on you as visitors just so it makes you've filled your form in wrongly.......



I'm a non driver too, by the way. 

Just doing my bit for the planet!! (and my wallet)


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## Robster65 (Mar 28, 2011)

Did mine on paper. Leavesa record of my handwriting (or at least printing) for all to see in years to come. 

And I like using pen on paper. Weirdo through and through, me !

Rob


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## Caroline (Mar 28, 2011)

Mark T said:


> I must admit I was good this time and decided to not be a "Jedi"  and listed myself as non-religious instead.
> 
> It was tempting to be Wicca instead - but to be fair that is a proper religion and I know very little about it in reality.  So the false claim would of been a little disrespectful.
> 
> ...



It asked if children were ever married or if they had ever worked. I don't know many people under 18 who work these days!


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## AlisonM (Mar 28, 2011)

Much as I was tempted to put down something utterly ridiculous, such as Devotee of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pantheistic Multiperson Solipsism, I put non-religious as well. Coward that I am.

I also claimed to speak, read and write Scots, which was an option up here. Fan wit ah ackshully spik an aw is Lallans, as opposed tae Doric wit is anurra leid awthegither. Thur's really fower leids in Scotland, aside frae Lallans an Doric, we awso huv Anglish an Gaelic (at's Gah-lich no Gay-Lick) annaw. A polyglot nation sae we ur.


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## Caroline (Mar 28, 2011)

I was tempted to put down good and bad for languages and polytheist for religion


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## Robster65 (Mar 28, 2011)

It's important to get your beliefs down because they make policies based on it. I put no religion because I don't want to be restricted by other people's beliefs, any more than I would want others restricted by my lack of. 

We had the Welsh speaking options here. I did try to sign up for a course at the college but missed the deadline. Maybe next time round.

Rob


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## Copepod (Mar 28, 2011)

Recording religion in census is more about how money is spent eg church schools. I had to go to my nearest primary school, in the next village, which happened to be Church of England - no choice, really. Then we moved to a city, and because that school had been so good parents got us into another C of E primary school, which wasn't as good, and as most pupils went to different secondary schools to our allocated comprehensive, it caused me social problems for the rest of my schooling. So, I ticked "no religion", although have lots of friends of many religions, denominations and none. 

Alison - shame I'm not give the option of declaring that I can read Scots, despite having lived in England nearly all my life, apart from one summer working at Helensburgh and a few days at various adventure races & mountain marathons over the years; having 2 Scottish grandparents living in England, with whom I spent lots of time made the difference.

Shame they didn't ask about transport other than car - of the 3 adults in our house, I'm the only one who can drive and had a car; we also have 7 bikes and 3 single kayaks between us.


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## margie (Mar 28, 2011)

I put my FIL's main language down as English as that is what he speaks day in and day out. However, if he was with his friends from his homeland (happens a few times a year) they would be speaking their native tongue.


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## AlisonM (Mar 28, 2011)

What is his native language then Margie, Geordie maybe?


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## margie (Mar 28, 2011)

I have sent you a PM. There is a large community in Manchester and they have a church and club there.


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## falcon123 (Mar 28, 2011)

Mark T said:


> I must admit I was good this time and decided to not be a "Jedi"  and listed myself as non-religious instead.



Apparently in some parts of Africa they refer to diabetes as "jedi jedi". So we are all jedis!


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## AlisonM (Mar 28, 2011)

It seems odd to me that, given how many dialects there are in the UK, Geordie or Lallans for instance, that only the Scots option was taken up. I'm not talking about other languages such as Welsh and Gaelic, but separate dialects which, in spite of our increasing Americanisation are still going strong. Lallans and Doric are going strong in Scotland although Doric is restricted to a relatively small area, they are thriving and evolving Leids (Leid is the Lallans word for language). There's even a Lallans spin-off called Weegian which is spoken, guess where.

A market research report some years ago showed that people were more likely to believe an advert if it was presented in a regional accent or dialect than if it was recorded in Estuary English. Which I suppose is why Dougray Scott and Sean Bean have such lucrative advertising careers. On the other hand, legend has it that when Billy Connelly did his first tour of the States, he need interpreters because the audience couldn't understand him.


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## Steff (Mar 28, 2011)

Andy HB said:


> I'm a non driver too, by the way.



Add me as another non driver, my chueffer  George does it all


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## grahams mum (Mar 28, 2011)

i was a bit surprise about all the qualifications at least i tick 4 and my partner only 1(no qualification)


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## bev (Mar 28, 2011)

Hi Northerner,

Thanks for the reminder - can you do it online.Bev


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## Northerner (Mar 28, 2011)

bev said:


> Hi Northerner,
> 
> Thanks for the reminder - can you do it online.Bev



Yes, you just enter the code at the top of the form. Very easy and directs you to all the questions you need to answer based on your earlier replies.

As for voluntary work, I would have thought it would be a very useful thing to ask about, given that we are supposed to be entering the 'Big Society' - it would have given them a measure of how things changed between census if they'd bothered to ask.


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## HelenM (Mar 28, 2011)

A bit off topic but the census isn't the only survey.
 Has any one ever done the Labour Force Survey? 
If so what did you think of it?

It's very detailed, hours worked last week, type of job, training, sickness, pay.. details what they earn in a week or a month, hours they worked last month, if they got a bonus whether  overtime was paid or un paid, (and not just an estimate, the interviewer has to try and get as accurate an answer as possible)  qualifications etc. 

Some people are surveyed every month for, I think it used to be 6 months, once face to face but then on the telephone. They get very fed up with the questions! Others were sent a letter and then just telephoned, even 30 years ago that ended up with some very angry people
The survey continues but  I've a suspicion that  people are so wary on the phone that they probably have to do more face to face interviews now.

I worked on the survey when the children were small, it was a p/t evening job so fitted in well but it was a surprisingly stressful job, and very badly paid. They paid us as clerical assistants even though we had to do a stats test to get the job and everyone in the office had a degree


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## katie (Mar 28, 2011)

http://www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/census-2011


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## Robster65 (Mar 28, 2011)

katie said:


> http://www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/census-2011


 
I've had the twibbon for this on my twitter avatar for a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see the stats when they're finally published. It could surprise a few people.

Rob


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## am64 (Mar 28, 2011)

i have had such a laugh reading this thread ...thank you for making me smile Heeeee


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## Tezzz (Mar 28, 2011)

I've posted mine off...

I hope computers can decipher my handwriting...


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## HelenP (Mar 29, 2011)

Well, the 4 of us here filled it in on paper - my husband obviously got fed up doing it, and squished the last 3 letters of one word into about one and a half boxes.  HOW hard is it to put one letter per box?? 

xx


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## Robster65 (Mar 29, 2011)

I posted ours yesterday.

I decided to read the notes AFTER filling it in and realised that I shouldn't have started a new line every time a word wouldn't fit on the same line. Oops. Lots of unneccesary spaces for someone to edit out 

But my printing was legible, so I might get 5/10 

Rob


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## margie (Mar 29, 2011)

I couldn't fit the industry I used to work in, into the box provided. It was one letter too long. So the s is now lost.


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## Vicsetter (Mar 29, 2011)

In Scotland you are asked if you could read, write or understand English, Gaelic or Scots, if you could do that how could you fill in the form.  You are also asked what religion - Church of England was not included.  Quite a lot of the answers didn't have big enough boxes.  And so many bit of paper and envelopes to go straight into the re-cycle bin.  What a waste of time and money.


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## HelenP (Mar 29, 2011)

Robster65 said:


> I posted ours yesterday.
> 
> I decided to read the notes AFTER filling it in and realised that I shouldn't have started a new line every time a word wouldn't fit on the same line. Oops.
> 
> ...



oooopsy, I didn't read that bit either! 

xx


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## rachelha (Mar 30, 2011)

Ours has been posted.  We were not sure what to put down for Nathan (7 months old) in the what languages do you speak/understand section so just left it blank.  There was not an option for baby babble.


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## Mark T (Mar 30, 2011)

rachelha said:


> Ours has been posted.  We were not sure what to put down for Nathan (7 months old) in the what languages do you speak/understand section so just left it blank.  There was not an option for baby babble.


I put down "Toddlerish" for our 2 year old


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