The Census Takes a New Turn, with Workers Going Door-to-Door

A planner in Champaign County says response to the 2010 census is slightly better than at this point during the last census two years ago.

But Andrew Levy says census workers will still have to go door-to-door to find and count the 30 percent of people in the county who won't have turned in their forms by the end of this week. Levy says enumerators are already at work in some parts of the county that are usually tougher to count.

"They're focusing in rural areas and they have been out there for quite awhile," Levy said. "In Champaign-Urbana, census workers are concentrated around the U of I campus to make sure that they count the students before they leave for the summer. But they'll be all over Champaign-Urbana in the next few weeks."

Levy says if an enumerator comes to your door, they'll only ask the 10 short questions found on the census form - there's no long census form this year. Census workers are also required to show official identification and will not ask for anyone's social security or credit card number.