Talk:United States census

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Text and/or other creative content from Census Day was copied or moved into United States Census with this edit. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.

On 24 May 2021, it was proposed that this article be moved from United States Census to United States census. The result of the discussion was moved.

People are not "illegal"

My comments here are largely based on and taken from this very thoughtful article: What Is the Proper Term: Illegal or Undocumented Immigrant?

While a person who has entered the USA without completing the proper process has committed a crime, that can only be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction. Even if convicted, the individual is not an "illegal person" - there is no such thing. The terms, "illegal immigrant" and "illegal resident" are legally vague and attempt to erode the rights of the individual guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, that states that the government may not, "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wp-sh (talk • contribs) 17:30, 17 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Actually you are wrong, there in fact people who's existence is illegal under international law. Hostis humani generis, such as pirates and slavers, are considered under international law to be enemies of mankind and have no rights under international law once determined to be such.XavierGreen (talk) 16:50, 16 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No, your culture invented “people aren’t illegal” as a propaganda term in order to frame the debate over illegal immigration in a favorable way, and you know it. “Illegal immigrant” didn’t mean anything of the sort until people such as yourself decided it did, leaving the only people who use the term as opponents of illegal immigrants...and me. I will not change to become an instrument of your political advertising, nor will I let you off the hook for your attempt to manipulate society simply because your end goals are broadly similar to my own. You should be ashamed of yourself for your attempt to redefine the words used by your opponents so as to discredit them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.228.31 (talk) 17:23, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Captitalization of census

Is there any good reason that Census in the title of this article (and its daughter articles) is capitalized? I was looking through the constitution and I don't think that's any justification there. I can't see anything in the article or at census.gov either. Census is usually a common noun not a proper noun. It appears to me this might be a hangover from the original title of 'U.S. Census', which is wrong in a slightly more obvious way. Any thoughts on this? -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 20:28, 21 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

zzuuzz - I've started a discussion on this very topic. --Woko Sapien (talk) 14:34, 24 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 24 May 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) ~ Aseleste (t, e | c, l) 14:26, 1 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

United States Census → United States census – Per WP:TITLECON, this would match the naming used for the decennial census articles:

Note: United States Census Bureau would not apply, as this is the proper name of a government agency. Woko Sapien (talk) 14:32, 24 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I posted the section above about this a couple of years ago, which contains additional comments and no objections. More recent discussion here. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 17:01, 24 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support for both consistency and MOS:NCCAPS reasons. My initial cursory search engine test suggest this phrase isn't predominantly used as a proper noun. Firefangledfeathers (talk) 02:09, 25 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Rreagan007 (talk) 02:49, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Has the US Census Bureau ever used Census with a lowercase c? I might be going off from the proposal here but I'm trying to think of publications where USCB has used a lowercase c - it's usually they maintain uppercase c due to usage of a program or bureau. I'm surprised a similar move discussion hasn't been made before. – The Grid (talk) 03:06, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It is a little unclear what you're asking, so I'm attempting to answer both of my (possibly wrong) interpretations:
1. Is the name of the organization US Census Bureau ever spelled with a lowercase c? No, and it shouldn't be.
2. Does that same organization use lowercase cs when referring to the US census? Yes, and the first example I found was lowercase at their website.
Firefangledfeathers (talk) 03:14, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Point 2. I can understand point 1 - Wikipedia differs from that with using sentence case. I properly should have just said title case versus sentence case. – The Grid (talk) 22:06, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Even if the Census Bureau did use an uppercase C for the census, Wikipedia's manual of style seems to take priority anyway. For instance, the official website of the U.S. House clerk uses uppercase for congressional districts, as seen here. Despite this, all congressional district articles use lowercase (see New Mexico's 1st congressional district). --Woko Sapien (talk) 13:13, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Census takers vs. mail-in forms

This article ought to indicate when the census transitioned from having census takers go door to door for everyone, to having forms mailed out and then sending out census takers to get information from the households that didn't respond. I don't see that mentioned here. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 18:09, 5 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]