Census 2011 - How Accurate?

[Pork]

Just seen an advert for the Census 2011 and was wondering how accurate they are?

I know its a criminal offence not to complete it, but how accurate are they? How many people can't/won't fill in the right information for one reason or another? I.e. it will affect things like benefits recieved, council tax paid etc.

So how honest is the UK and how accurate will the information be?

[Shaw Tarse]

Pork said:

Just seen an advert for the Census 2011 and was wondering how accurate they are?


So how honest is the UK and how accurate will the information be?

Not very!

[grantone]

Pork said:

...Just seen an advert for the Census 2011...

I wondered why I was seeing adverts at all. I expected this sort of stuff to stop with the coalition government, surely a few mentions on TV, Radio, Newspaper and Internet news as a regular news item is enough to make people aware? Why bother spending money making an advert and buying airtime on ITV / Sky?

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disciplines/adverti...

[Victor McDade]

Not very,


And yet it's going to cost half a billion pounds - brilliant!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...

[andy_s]

Until they recognise Dudeism as a religion it'll always be less than 100% accurate. Man.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=297196961824

[paulrockliffe]

There was some stuff in the papers a few months ago, Tescos had approximated the population based on food sales at about 80 million. If that was accurate, then the census won't be.

Can you imagine if the UK population jumped by a third over night?

[BlueMR2]

andy_s said:

Until they recognise Dudeism as a religion it'll always be less than 100% accurate. Man.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=297196961824

I thought if you got enough people to call themselves something the same as their religion you could get it to be made an official religion.

Rule number 1 at the alter of Pistonheadism is thou shall not pay tax or duty for fuel.

[ClassicMercs]

I do the door to door knocking for the annual electoral registration - chasing up the non responders to the postal part of the process. I'm sure the census will be similar, or probably slightly worse results due to the length of the form.
Our patch is a mix of a main street (flats above shops etc) and various mature, modern estate and council housing. The results do vary with each area in our small patch. The variances will be mirrored throughout the country.
We manage about a 96% return - in a fairly good area (and get paid by results so its worth the effort). Inner cities will be a nightmare - like our main street area. The big advantage we have is that we have covered this area each autumn for many years now - take half the time of earlier years. You get to know the characters and can twist some of their arms in the end. These census guys doing this as a one off job will have their work cut out. I hope the wages are good - but as mentioned above - payment by results (if that is part of the package) will help the figures.

[dandarez]

Be a tad different this time - you will be able to fill it in online.

As for the high return rate of forms, well there would be, who want's a £1k fine!!

Last time, 2001 census, was the first in which the government asked about religion.
Amazingly 390,000 people entered their religion as Jedi Knight (more than Sikhs and Jews), with some areas registering over 2.5% of people as Jedi.

Jedi then became the 4th largest reported religion in the country.

So, how about a trend?

I'm gonna put my religion as PH. well, it's partly true!

Imagine the reaction, thousands put their religion mysteriously as PH.

[wolves_wanderer]

paulrockliffe said:

There was some stuff in the papers a few months ago, Tescos had approximated the population based on food sales at about 80 million

Have you seen how many fat people there are now?

[Aids]

I`m intending to state under the heading of religion:-

None

I would urge all readers to do likewise. I suspect this information will be used by LA`s, Dept of Education to plan for more "faith schools".

[Gun]

I've heard this might be the last census, can't remember where I heard it though. I personally hope it is as they're a complete waste of money.

[F i F]

It will be, then data will be based on superbly accurate databases like the DVLA's.

HTH.

[Pork]

The last Census? That's a frightening thought...."Big Brother has enough information now, thanks"

[Carl_Spackler]

dandarez said:

Be a tad different this time - you will be able to fill it in online.

As for the high return rate of forms, well there would be, who want's a £1k fine!!

Last time, 2001 census, was the first in which the government asked about religion.
Amazingly 390,000 people entered their religion as Jedi Knight (more than Sikhs and Jews), with some areas registering over 2.5% of people as Jedi.

Jedi then became the 4th largest reported religion in the country.

So, how about a trend?

I'm gonna put my religion as PH. well, it's partly true!

Imagine the reaction, thousands put their religion mysteriously as PH.

http://www.yourenotajedi.com/

[Mojooo]

The data is only as good as we make it.

I don't really have a problem with it and TBH if I was in charge I would want detail stats about the population, as would all of you.

[Pork]

Mojooo said:

The data is only as good as we make it.

I don't really have a problem with it and TBH if I was in charge I would want detail stats about the population, as would all of you.

I don't have a problem with it at all as its once every ten years and I dont think I'll be telling them anything they dont already know. afterall, they do need to plan srervices etc.

However, how will the 4-bed Aussie/Kiwi houses which have 16 guys crashing there be captured?

[aclivity]

Aids said:

I`m intending to state under the heading of religion:-

None

I would urge all readers to do likewise. I suspect this information will be used by LA`s, Dept of Education to plan for more "faith schools".

Why would the LA plan for a faith school? LA's generally hate faith schools.

Ther view seems to be "Who do these faiths think they are, running schools better than the LA's, setting high standards and giving better education."

[Megaflow]

grantone said:

I wondered why I was seeing adverts at all. I expected this sort of stuff to stop with the coalition government, surely a few mentions on TV, Radio, Newspaper and Internet news as a regular news item is enough to make people aware? Why bother spending money making an advert and buying airtime on ITV / Sky?

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disciplines/adverti...

The Census has been around for ~160 years, why would they get rid of it today?

It might not be useful to the wider public today, but it is a very good historical record of the country.

[F i F]

Megaflow said:

why would they get rid of it today?

It might not be useful to the wider public today, but it is a very good historical record of the country.

Because the Coalition knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

I know there is no money thanks to Labour, but I'm very disappointed with the current lot.

Saving money where they are and then just spunking huge amounts on other stuff. No clue.