2011 Census

The census is a great record for people checking their family history.

Indeed!

I don't know -- I think of "ethnicity" as a racial thing and not same as "nationality" but they're not using it that way obviously. I would think of myself as just white -- or maybe white - northern European if I had to be more specific. But not white - American 

Indeed!

I don't know -- I think of "ethnicity" as a racial thing and not same as "nationality" but they're not using it that way obviously. I would think of myself as just white -- or maybe white - northern European if I had to be more specific. But not white - American 

Yeah white-American is just strange to me.  Especially since white people in the US come from so many different backgrounds.

Yeah white-American is just strange to me.  Especially since white people in the US come from so many different backgrounds.

Exactly!

I agree, to me American isn't an ethnicity...it is a nationality.

I always have trouble here when asked on forms what my ethnicity is - I usually just say white, other. I've had some forms filled in for me (such as at the job centre) where they tick the white - British box for me, because I've got an English name (so they're going on ancestry).

For example, in the US I always considered people from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh to be white, and in the UK they are considerd Asian.

I think most people in the US would be pretty unlikely to think of those groups as 'white'.

To me, Asian means East Asian (as in, China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, etc) and Indian/Pakistanis/Bengalis are Southeast Asians or just Indian.

The groups you mention in the second half of the sentence are generally considered "South Asian", whereas Southeast Asia refers to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and so on. And calling Pakistanis or Bangladeshis 'Indian' is a little like calling a Frenchman German. Different languages, different cultures, different governments, different food. Yes, they may all be brown, but they're not all Indian.

I think what he's pointing out is that most people filling out the UK census do not file US tax returns. US expats are a very small portion of the UK population.

No, I was referring to Americans living in the UK that haven't filed a US tax return since they moved here.

Well that was fun...

I was really amused at the question "briefly describe what you do in your main job" in 56 characters or less.  Hmmm- well with only 56 characters, its pretty much what much job title says- which doesn't describe anything!

Just finished mine.  I wanted to put caucasian for ethnicity. 

You can select more than one option so for my "mixed" child I checked white - British and 'Other' (white - American).  I'm like most people here that I don't consider American to be an ethnicity but a nationality.  But I guess it's no different then saying English for nationality and white - English for ethnicity. 

I put in the information about my previous job (2009) even though it was in the US...which I thought was kind of weird but I guess for future generations possibly chasing family history it might be beneficial.   

I did mine online which automatically skipped the n/a questions but I thought it was pretty stupid that they still asked certain questions for infants (i.e. are you taking care of someone who is disable?  what is your marital status?).

I did mine online which automatically skipped the n/a questions but I thought it was pretty stupid that they still asked certain questions for infants (i.e. are you taking care of someone who is disable?  what is your marital status?).

Really? That's pretty weird.

Really? That's pretty weird.

Not really, it's just that the website hasn't been built to do any calculation based upon a date of birth entered.

Funny text on the radio this morning - on the subject of how do you travel to work, a taxi driver had texted "I'm at work once I get in my car, so do I put that I walk to work?"

Not really, it's just that the website hasn't been built to do any calculation based upon a date of birth entered.

Funny text on the radio this morning - on the subject of how do you travel to work, a taxi driver had texted "I'm at work once I get in my car, so do I put that I walk to work?"

That's really funny. 

You'd think if they were going to go through the trouble to setup the website to skip not applicable questions, they could design it to understand birth date also.  To me it seems like it will skew the results of the census.  For example, if they say 37% of the population is single...that's not really an accurate representation  since a certain percentage of those people are children.

Not really, it's just that the website hasn't been built to do any calculation based upon a date of birth entered.

I can't remember which, but I did it online too, and there were some questions skipped because of age, so it was set up to take age into account--I think it might have been the occupation question.  I thought it was pretty funny too when I answered a couple of the questions about my new baby.

I was really amused at the question "briefly describe what you do in your main job" in 56 characters or less.  Hmmm- well with only 56 characters, its pretty much what much job title says- which doesn't describe anything!

This might only make sense to geeks, but I loved this response to that question...

That's really funny. 

You'd think if they were going to go through the trouble to setup the website to skip not applicable questions, they could design it to understand birth date also.  To me it seems like it will skew the results of the census.  For example, if they say 37% of the population is single...that's not really an accurate representation  since a certain percentage of those people are children.

Based on having looked at data from other censuses and surveys, I have a feeling that they cross-reference and tabulate all the data, so, for example, they will take the number of people looking for work and divide them into age ranges, e.g. under 15, 16-30, 31-45, 45-60, etc.  They will probably also break them down by all the other parameters, e.g. postcode, ethnic group, etc.

When this type of info is available to the public, it is usually downloadable in spreadsheet format.