can you send the census 2011 forms back directly to the cso ?

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asdfg

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Hi just wondering can you send the census forms back directly to the cso ?
 
I was just about to post about Census 2011 too. Maybe you can send to an office near you? [broken link removed]

I was also wondering, why in this day and age, you cannot complete the form online like the UK are advertising.

Would there not be a better response and also a better cost to serve if you register online?
 
Reading the front page of the the census form it contains the following information.
Your Enumerator will return between Monday 11th April and Monday May 9th to collect your completed form.

If your form has not been collected by May 9th, please return it fully completed to:
Central Statistics Office
PO Box 2011
Freepost 4726
Swords
Co Dublin

Hope that helps!
 
Yes ,and i have a problem with the privacy aspect of this as i live in rathgar and it turns out the man who is collecting them is my neighbour.I dont want him knowing my business
 
So why arent we promoting this online and cutting out the cost of the middle man?

Surely the cost to print a small slip of paper with a pin would be cheaper than full forms?

I certainly wouldn't want my neighbour having access to read mine..
 
asdfg said:
Yes ,and i have a problem with the privacy aspect of this as i live in rathgar and it turns out the man who is collecting them is my neighbour.I dont want him knowing my business
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I think you should give the CSO Census office a call - I'd agree that someone shouldnt be collecting forms from their immediate neighbours. Surely the CSO can swap this person's allocated streets with a enumerator in a neighbouring area.
 
csirl said:
I think you should give the CSO Census office a call - I'd agree that someone shouldnt be collecting forms from their immediate neighbours. Surely the CSO can swap this person's allocated streets with a enumerator in a neighbouring area.
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It seems to be the done thing. I know a person collecting the forms in her own neighbourhood.
 
This thread raises the question of whether the Census itself is justified.

I had a lecturer some years ago who made a compelling argument for the scrapping of the process. Many of the questions are meaningless - How many bathrooms do you have. Why should this be of interest to the State?

He argued that a fully representative survey, focussed on the issues for which information was really needed, would be much more accurate and could be done at a fraction of the cost of the Census.
 
Staples said:
He argued that a fully representative survey...would be much more accurate
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Ah, but how do you know that its a representative survey if you never do a census to compare it to?

The 1976 census was scrapped to save money, but then had to be done anyway in 1979 because it turned out we did need the info after all.
 
Berni said:
Ah, but how do you know that its a representative survey if you never do a census to compare it to?

The 1976 census was scrapped to save money, but then had to be done anyway in 1979 because it turned out we did need the info after all.
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How do you know the Census is representative? For example, can you be sure it catches the ethnic minorities who (it's suspected) don't engage with State authorities (at least not proportionately to the rest of the population).

How also can you attest to the accuracy of the census. Might some people include some porkies to impress the neighbours who subsequently collect it (see earlier posts)?

And what about proportionality. If the State needs information about the average number of bathrooms per household (although I can't imagine why), is it really necessery (never mind efficient) to consult every household in Ireland?

To present the census as the benchmark standard against which the representativeness of all others surveys needs to be tested is just wrong. The CSO conducts a lot of very good surveys as part of its services, but the census is not one of them.
 
The census is not a survey. It is a demographic exercise aimed at collecting raw data. This data is vital to planning in both the public and private sector.
 
I worked as an enumerator before, so here goes:

- You can ask for a confidential return where the enumerator will give you an envelope which you post back to CSO & then the supervisor holds onto it until the crates are returned......HOWEVER, other than date of birth, there is nothing really all that confidential on the form. The enumerators are collecting about 450 forms - we have no interest in reading them. All we do is scan the form at the doorstep (in front of you) which is just to check the form was filled in correctly (no pencil or red pen, has been signed, all people accounted for etc)

- The Census form does not ask anything about bathrooms - other than to expressly exclude them from the total number of rooms in a house.

- We have gotten so much info on our ancestors via the 1901 & 1911 Census, I can't imagine why anyone would not want to fill it in.

- Online systems and Postal return systems would have a much lower return rate

- Re Foreign Nationals....they were generally quiet happy to participate. I'm sure there were some who were not included, probably becasue they are here illegally or doing something dodgy. You'll find the same with Irish people.....

- It is not possible to ensure each enumerator does not know anyone in their area. I knew lots of people in my area & nobody had an issue with that. It is normal to use local people who will know the lay of the land & help keep costs down. Imagine how expensive it would be to have everyone travel out of their own area to reduce the likihood of knowing people.

- I agree there are a fair few questions & you'd wonder behind the logic of some of them, but they do extensisve research on what questions to include. If you are going to go to the expense of doing a Census, you may as well gather as much info as is feasible.
 
It was certainly CSO policy back in 2002 when I was an enumerator to send people to areas that were not local to them. My nearest household to collect from was over 5 miles away. There was no way that neighbours were working in their immediate neighbourhoods.
 
sam h said:
- We have gotten so much info on our ancestors via the 1901 & 1911 Census, I can't imagine why anyone would not want to fill it in.
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I agree - I got some interesting facts in the 1901 and 1911 census forms for my ancestors.

Theres a website with lots of info on the census here.
 
Thanks Sam, that neatly covers most of what I was going to say

Regarding the other surveys the CSO do, the samples included aren't random. They are structured to reflect the overall population, otherwise you couldn't extrapolate totals from the sample. If you lose the input from the census, then the quality of those surveys would decline.
 
If the purpose of the census is to provide information on how we lived for future generations, that's one thing. It's a very expensive way to go about doing this, however, and I'm not convoinced it's worth it. The 1901 census was valuable in that there are few other information sources available at that time. Someone doing research in 100 yeras time will have the benefit of the internet.

If, on the other hand, the fucntion of the census is to inform policy and decision-making, I still maintain there are cheaper and more efficient ways of garnering the required information.

Berni said:
Regarding the other surveys the CSO do, the samples included aren't random. They are structured to reflect the overall population, otherwise you couldn't extrapolate totals from the sample.
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I'm not sure if this comment was directed at me, but if so I never mentioned random surveys. I was referring to representative surveys that would be both valid and reliable. You don't need to reach every member of te population to achieve these standards.

Berni said:
If you lose the input from the census, then the quality of those surveys would decline.
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For the reasons given above, I don't accept this but perhaps we should just agree to differ.
 
I'm just curious how you would construct surveys which are representative of a population without first knowing the nature of that population.
Had we stopped doing the census after the 2002 one, how would you capture the massive demographic change that has happened since then?
 
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Thing that annoys me about the Census here in England is that it printed in 50+ languages.
 
I never got a census form... got a slip of paper in the door today to day to say "i called today bla bla and i will call back tomorrow between 3 and 7"... should i not have already got a form?
 
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