Census questions

Yoda

I was rather surprised at the limited nature of some of the questions in the Census.

It is disappointing that the Census does not ask any question about languages other than English and Irish spoken in Ireland. We have a great many immigrants now, and information on what languages are actually spoken would be of benefit in terms of educational planning and so on. It would also be a way of determining the ethnic makeup of our country.

It is disappointing that the Census considers four varieties of Christianity and Judaism to be the only religions worth asking about. Members of world religions such as Buddhism, Islam, Daoism, Hinduism, and Sikhism -- or indeed Neopagans -- should not be lumped together as "other". How many Muslims do we have in Ireland? How many Buddhists? How many Baptists? Do we have access to such information?

Finally, it is very disappointing that my "marital" status cannot be correctly identified. While Person 2 can identify himself or herself as Person 1's Partner, neither of them are able to correctly themselves in question 10, because there is no box for partnership. I am not single; nor am I married. I am, however, partnered, and that is a significant and useful piece of demographic information.

A census is only as good as the questions it asks. Thoughts on the matter?

Beastie Boy

I agree with you Yoda

it would obviously add a lot more work to the info gathering process but do we want the best / most accurate info ?

If yes, then we should have a broader line of questioning

The Gopher

Er,actually im fairly sure that Islam is on the form.

Yoda

Ah. The 2002 Census does include Islam. When I was writing my posts I'd been looking at the previous Census data online, which did not. It's still scandalous. The form used to say

Roman Catholic
Church of Ireland (including Protestant)
Presbyterian
Methodist
Jewish

And now it replaces Jewish with Islam. (Doh!)

No mention of Buddhism, Hinduism, Baha'i, Sikhism, Neopaganism. No cognizance taken of Baptists or Lutherans or Quakers. No Mormons. No clear understanding that there are three Catholic churches in the world, namely

Roman Catholic (head of church in Rome)
Anglican Catholic (head of church in Canterbury)
Orthodox Catholic (numerous primates)

and that while Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists are Protestants (rejecting the laying on of bishops' hands in the apostolic procession for confirmation and ordination, and preferring to read the bible than have doctrine given you from on high, that makes you Protestant), the Church of Ireland is not at all Protestant.

The worst of it is that even if these weren't all properly enumerated on the census sheet, in the results from the data http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenrel.html all but the "top four" are lumped together as other.

I, by the way, am a Buddhist, and I did an MA in the History of Religions at UCLA, if that matters much.

Yoda

Originally posted by Beastie Boy
do we want the best / most accurate info ?

Of course we do. Why bother otherwise? Look at the religion statistics in the link in my previous post. Between 1981 and 1991 the "other stated religions" increased by 28,000. Certainly we ought to want to know what this means. Were most of them Muslims, which is why the Census was changed so that Jewish no longer appears but Islam does? Or do we have a lot of Buddhists down in Kerry now? In principle either could be true. In fact, whichever one it is means something.

gurramok

Originally posted by Yoda
Finally, it is very disappointing that my "marital" status cannot be correctly identified. While Person 2 can identify himself or herself as Person 1's Partner, neither of them are able to correctly themselves in question 10, because there is no box for partnership. I am not single; nor am I married. I am, however, partnered, and that is a significant and useful piece of demographic information.

Agreed Yoda, there are alot more people in 'partnerships', ie..living together that are not neccessarily married than there was lets say 10 years ago.
Time for the census to be modernised

beardedchicken

regarding the religion question, there is nothing to explain the raw question "what religion are you?"

does that mean what religion do you practice? what religion do you believe in? what religion were you born into?

it doesn't ask levels of religious participation or belief either- not taking into account lapsed beleivers, people who believe but dont practice, people who practice and dont believe and people who wish they could just get back into it (or out of it!)

also, i didn't know before i read our form at home that only one person in the household fills out the form for *everyone else*!!!!! surely that's no way to get accurate results!! what if person 1 doesn't know the details of another person in the house? for example how often that person speaks irish, or even religious beliefs!

Victor

Yoda can I suggest you talk to your census enumerator?

(a) if you are living with other people and you are not quite 'one' household ask for another form (notes page 1)

(b) if either you or your partner are the head of the household (or the appointed adult), by being person #1, the other partner (person #2) can answer question 3 and designate person #1 as their 'partner'

---

Regarding religion, they specificly make provision for other religions. I can only assume that the list the biggest ones based on historical figures (not sure if there were legislative requirements to check for certain religions).

Buddhism - probably several thousand, haven't any figures, but only material since the last census.

Hinduism - probably low thousands, haven't any figures, but only material since the last census.

Baha'i - a few hundred.

Sikhism - probably several hundred, haven't any figures, but only material since the last census.

Neopaganism - is this a religion? or more correctly a recognised / organised religion? I'm sure poepl can put it on the form if they want.

Victor

Originally posted by beardedchicken
also, i didn't know before i read our form at home that only one person in the household fills out the form for *everyone else*!!!!! surely that's no way to get accurate results!! what if person 1 doesn't know the details of another person in the house? for example how often that person speaks irish, or even religious beliefs!

The notes say any adult can fill in the form, so fill in your own page and let others do theirs.

Yoda

I did find a breakdown of the "lesser-used" religions for last Census' data. It is at http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenrel1.html. It is irritating that "religion" is misspelt "region" in the title bar, and that "agnostic" is misspelt "Angostic". I take it that are lumping neopagans as Pantheist.

Victor

Originally posted by Yoda
I did find a breakdown of the "lesser-used" religions for last Census' data. It is at http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenrel1.html. It is irritating that "religion" is misspelt "region" in the title bar, and that "agnostic" is misspelt "Angostic". I take it that are lumping neopagans as Pantheist.

Correct link http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenrel1.html

bonkey

Originally posted by Yoda
[BI take it that are lumping neopagans as Pantheist. [/B]

Or they simply didnt receive a significant number of professed neopagans for them to appear on anything but "other specified religion".

Statistics are meaningless when you get to such small numbers from your sample space - there is no practical benefit for the compilers to distinguish to such a granular level.

Sure, you may argue that this is demeaning to the neopagans (and other "minority belief systems"), but the simple fact is that the purpose of the census is to compile statistical data. Once the statistics become too small to be meaningful, they should be ignored.

jc



jc

colinsky

Originally posted by Yoda
I did find a breakdown of the "lesser-used" religions for last Census' data. It is at http://www.cso.ie/principalstats/cenrel1.html. It is irritating that "religion" is misspelt "region" in the title bar, and that "agnostic" is misspelt "Angostic". I take it that are lumping neopagans as Pantheist.

I find this a bit strange -- on this list there is a separate listing for "atheist" and the "no religion" category. Perhaps some people decided to do a write-in without reading the form all the way through?

Our man in Havana

As a census emnummerator I havent found too many people bothered by the form.

If anyone wants to ask me anything I can help, I do have the manual!