OT: Australian Census

[EEVblog]

We have a census coming up in Oz, and they now want to get our names and addresses as part of an anti-privacy data collection heist 
Just wondering if any other countries do this on their census?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/07/14/census-cannot-force-you-to-give-data/

[firewalker]

Yes, in Greece they always asked many personal question. Long before the data-collection era. The file below is a typical questionnaire (it is from Cyprus, but more or less the same with Greece. I could not find the Greek one in English). Page four for the personal questions.

http://www.cystat.gov.cy/mof/cystat/statistics.nsf/All/8B26C8436C943170C22578A20033A09E/$file/Census2011-HHQST-EN-010611.pdf

Alexander.

[German_EE]

Don't forget to put your religion down as 'Jedi Knight'.

[EEVblog]

Don't forget to put your religion down as 'Jedi Knight'.

NO!
PLEASE don't do that, it's completely screws with the intention of the the question and the usage of the results. It can ultimately have big political ramifications in society. Writing Jedi actually gets you lumped into the religious category and you'll be helping shape public policy based on the number of religious people. So it defeats the entire purpose of "I think religion is silly, so I'll write Jedi, that'll show'em" stand.
If you are non-religious (now), tick "No Religion".
Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question, and this year they have finally done it. It was the #1 formally requested change. They have changed to wording for this year and put "No Religion" first as it should be 

[timb]

Don't forget to put your religion down as 'Jedi Knight'.

NO!
PLEASE don't do that, it's completely screws with the intention of the the question and the usage of the results. It can ultimately have big political ramifications in society.
If you are non-religious (now), tick "No Religion".
Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question, and this year they have finally done it. It was the #1 formally requested change. They have changed to wording for this year and put "No Religion" first as it should be 

What if someone actually believes they're a Jedi?

[BradC]

I'm taking the family camping. Had enough of the privacy invasion.

[nctnico]

We have a census coming up in Oz, and they now want to get our names and addresses as part of an anti-privacy data collection heist 
Just wondering if any other countries do this on their census?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/07/14/census-cannot-force-you-to-give-data/

In the NL they don't have something like that but you are required to register yourself in the city you live in and provide an address. That way the NL government keeps track of where you are. Every person also has a number which is basically necessary for getting a job and do anything involving money (like opening a bank account). Registering religion has not been done in the NL for a long time and some politicians have pitched the idea to also stop registering the gender of people. The idea is to only register information which is necessary to keep track of the number of people and -more importantly- collect taxes.

[German_EE]

I can think of an excellent reason to register gender. Men do not get pregnant and have babies. Governments therefore need to know the number of women of child bearing age so that advance planning can be made for things like maternity hospitals and number of midwives.

Religion? None of a governments business.

[station240]

Actually I think they always got the names and addresses, but they were simply to ensure they didn't get fake names or people filling it out several times. Such details were not kept as records though.

What is means is the government, and anyone else with Census access, can match names to religions, income, etc etc.

[Richard Crowley]

IIRC last census here in the US, they asked how many toilets we had.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/pew_research_foundation.html

Homes without indoor plumbing

[dannyf]

Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question,

Sounds like those "secular australians" are every bit as religious about their non-religion than those religious people. What an oxymoron.

[nctnico]

I can think of an excellent reason to register gender. Men do not get pregnant and have babies. Governments therefore need to know the number of women of child bearing age so that advance planning can be made for things like maternity hospitals and number of midwives.

They don't need to register gender for that. There are an equal number of women and men so divide the number of people in a certain age range by 2 and you know the number of women who potentially can have a kid. Not that you'll get a meaningfull number because people have kids at much older ages nowadays.

[zapta]

Don't forget to put your religion down as 'Jedi Knight'.

NO!
PLEASE don't do that, it's completely screws with the intention of the the question and the usage of the results. It can ultimately have big political ramifications in society. Writing Jedi actually gets you lumped into the religious category and you'll be helping shape public policy based on the number of religious people. So it defeats the entire purpose of "I think religion is silly, so I'll write Jedi, that'll show'em" stand.
If you are non-religious (now), tick "No Religion".
Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question, and this year they have finally done it. It was the #1 formally requested change. They have changed to wording for this year and put "No Religion" first as it should be 

You are taking the religions of others too seriously.

The principle of church/state separation has nothing to do with the religious makeup of the population.  I would focus on that.

My 2c.

[vodka]

We have a census coming up in Oz, and they now want to get our names and addresses as part of an anti-privacy data collection heist 
Just wondering if any other countries do this on their census?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/07/14/census-cannot-force-you-to-give-data/

In the NL they don't have something like that but you are required to register yourself in the city you live in and provide an address. That way the NL government keeps track of where you are. Every person also has a number which is basically necessary for getting a job and do anything involving money (like opening a bank account). Registering religion has not been done in the NL for a long time and some politicians have pitched the idea to also stop registering the gender of people. The idea is to only register information which is necessary to keep track of the number of people and -more importantly- collect taxes.

Here Spain, according the Taifa kingdom  or Cacique council  may vary the requirements, but if you want  to get subsidies, using the health service or education  you must  register . And you must give the names ,surnames , DNIs( Identification National Document ) of the group familiar, furthermore they can to request the bills of electricity  or gas , 2 neighbors as eyewitness that confirm(according Cacique Council) . This last ,it is by avoiding that 40 Mohameds and 50 Ibrahims are registred to same address.

[dannyf]

Homes without indoor plumbing

Trailer? RV? Mobile homes? semi-trucks with beds? ...

[dannyf]

And you must give the names ,surnames , DNIs( Identification National Document ) of the group familiar, furthermore they can to request the bills of electricity  or gas , 2 neighbors as eyewitness that confirm(according Cacique Council) .

In the 3rd world I live in, that would be called "racist" / "xenophobic", or just "discrimination" if they feel nice to you.

[Nauris]

Everyone gets registered at birth. When you move, get married, have kids or die - such important things in human life get written down in the official books. Has been about so since early 17th century.
If you are not in the registry, then you are an illegal alien or something, so no bank account, healtcare, education, house, car or anything.

[rolycat]

Everyone gets registered at birth. When you move, get married, have kids or die - such important things in human life get written down in the official books. Has been about so since early 17th century.
If you are not in the registry, then you are an illegal alien or something, so no bank account, healtcare, education, house, car or anything.

Most countries' censuses are - ostensibly at least - solely for gathering information for statistical purposes and have nothing to do with citizenship or entitlement to services.

I believe Finland is unusual in deriving its census data from existing government files rather than requiring its population to complete a specific census form.

[vodka]

And you must give the names ,surnames , DNIs( Identification National Document ) of the group familiar, furthermore they can to request the bills of electricity  or gas , 2 neighbors as eyewitness that confirm(according Cacique Council) .

In the 3rd world I live in, that would be called "racist" / "xenophobic", or just "discrimination" if they feel nice to you.

Ya ya , you can say me all you want , but the taifa kingdom when they want they put very hard.

First problem

At 2011 , when my father went to  pharmacy for buying his drugs , the pharmacist couldn't sell the drugs becuase  he wasn't  on the census  but he had the health card  of taifa kingdom. But there are more, apart that my father wasn't  on the census , I and my mother neither were during years(less my brother).

On resume , we dissapeared to census and enjoyed the  service during  years without problems. Now ,you image with the illegal inmigrants

Second problem

At 2013 , i suffered an accident and i broke the elbow , when i was an Emergency, the nurse said me that i wasn't on the system, she said me that my health card put "transferred",but i said her that i was census . Then ,i had any problem.

But the next day ,i had to return for repeating the blood samples(loses), but the rushes i forgot to get the health card, and the nurse gave a papers to my mother and she filled the documents and i signed.
When i returned to home, my father read the document, he told to my mother and I ,that i signed a document that i compromise to pay the Emergency Service*.
*(The very B**** NURSE companion of my mother(too nurse)had cheated to booby mother and i stupid for trusting of my mother.)

On resume, they did me to sign a document for being to attend on Emergency while the illegal immigrant is free, i weighed that i had a health card (that they took off without motive) and i was on census.

Third problem

At 2015 , my mother suffer an labour accident and she have to buy a drugs  to pharmacy , and the pharmacist couldn't sell the drugs becuase her health card was "transferred "  as the mine years ago.

For more INRI, the taifa kingdom pay her salary, she works on an hospital that pertain to them but she hasn't the same rights that the illegal inmigrants.

[vodka]

Everyone gets registered at birth. When you move, get married, have kids or die - such important things in human life get written down in the official books. Has been about so since early 17th century.
If you are not in the registry, then you are an illegal alien or something, so no bank account, healtcare, education, house, car or anything.

That isn't true altogether, because an illegal can recieved education and healtcare service  and rent the house  ,without DNI , without family book and without civil register(Spain).

[HwAoRrDk]

I'm not sure of the specifics of how census-taking is governed here in the UK, but my layman's understanding is that personal details collected are not allowed to be disclosed to any parties outside of government for 100 years from date of census.

Governments therefore need to know the number of women of child bearing age so that advance planning can be made for things like maternity hospitals and number of midwives.

A government planning? Hahaha, good one!

In this country, many local government authorities seem to be wholly incapable of ensuring there are adequate primary school places for children, despite having birth rate (or other paediatric health care) statistics known to them several years in advance.

[EEVblog]

Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question,

Sounds like those "secular australians" are every bit as religious about their non-religion than those religious people. What an oxymoron.

No, we simply care about truth.
Any question that is a leading one is going to produce skewed results. Leading questions of any kind do not belong in a census.

[EEVblog]

You are taking the religions of others too seriously.

If the data is wrong because the question is deliberately written to skew the outcome, then yes.
The Census Bureau agreed that the question was a leading one and they changed it this year. They will get more accurate data as a result.

The principle of church/state separation has nothing to do with the religious makeup of the population.

Who was talking about that? Not me.

[apis]

Everyone gets registered at birth. When you move, get married, have kids or die - such important things in human life get written down in the official books. Has been about so since early 17th century.
If you are not in the registry, then you are an illegal alien or something, so no bank account, healtcare, education, house, car or anything.

Most countries' censuses are - ostensibly at least - solely for gathering information for statistical purposes and have nothing to do with citizenship or entitlement to services.

I believe Finland is unusual in deriving its census data from existing government files rather than requiring its population to complete a specific census form.

Same in Sweden I believe. Not sure what they keep track of exactly but birthday, gender and you need to have an address registered. Never heard of anyone filling out a census form.

Besides that there is a 'private data law' that regulates what can be registered and for what purposes (by anyone, not only the government). It is pretty good; although I understand that many government agencies find it very annoying . It's an implementation of an EU directive actually: The Data Protection Directive (officially Directive 95/46/EC). Then there is the article 8 of the european convention on human rights: which gives a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", while the ECHR is a bit vague it's legally binding in most of Europe.

[MT]

Secular Australians have been fighting for a long time to change the "leading" religion question,

Sounds like those "secular australians" are every bit as religious about their non-religion than those religious people. What an oxymoron.

No, we simply care about truth.
Any question that is a leading one is going to produce skewed results. Leading questions of any kind do not belong in a census.

But then Aussies must be very "weak minded" if they fall so easily for intended leading questions, right? Truth is still in the eye of the beholder some folks say.

Same in Sweden I believe. Not sure what they keep track of exactly but birthday, gender and you need to have an address registered. Never heard of anyone filling out a census form.

I have gott'n at least 3 different census forms over the years, all ignored because they where at least 9-10 double pages thick, and it is required by law that you must fill them else you can be fined, but gov didn't care much, they just sent me another round of the garbage which i ofcourse binned!
I remember that many of the questions in these census forms was unanswerable. Government always tell you they will anonymouse you from the census forms.

http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/lag/20010099.htm#P7S1N1