I'm a data and government info librarian, so read this newsletter as soon as I saw it this morning! (And I'd already ordered this book for my library a few weeks ago and am psyched to read it).
I don't often look closely at the stories in the Census in the work I do, but am endlessly fascinated by them. When the Census 1950 enumeration scans were released earlier this year, I looked up all of my family members I could think of and even in a few lines felt really connected to them -- for example, I learned my great grandmother worked as a Census-taker herself. My grandfather (who died before I was born) was a veterinarian in a rural agricultural area and under "how many hours per week do you spend working?" he had an emphatic "???", which told me that he probably scoffed at the question 🙂
If you watch Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., you know the importance of Census data in unlocking family mysteries. A research librarian used Census data to help me trace the history of my grandmother’s bakery a century ago. The Census is a delightful thing.
My household was chosen for an additional census bureau survey this year, and it’s interesting to see how ill-equipped the questions sets are for the complexity of our lives. My partner and I are both freelancers in different industries, and trying to explain how our jobs work and what is involved was really difficult! I remember at one point, they asked my hourly rate and I gave them an approximate number, and the form couldn’t capture it because it was above their upper limit of $100 🫢
This was really interesting! I've always been fascinated by census data, and am very keen (to the amusement of my friends and family) on taking surveys. I was very excited when I finally got to respond to the Canadian census in the spring of 2021! The Canadian census and question formulation is actually a really illustrative story of how the way we phrase questions can drastically change what data we can receive and what information we can then glean from it. In 2016, on the question about ethnic identity/background, the Canadian census removed "Jewish" from its list of examples. It was still an allowable answer, but it was no longer among the 10 or so listed examples. This resulted in data that appeared to show a 56% decrease since the 2011 census in the Jewish population of Canada, which obviously was not what had actually occurred. Half of Canada's Jews had not died or left the country – but a lot of Jews evidently inferred that they weren't allowed to describe their ethnic background as "Jewish" on the census.
Obviously this made the news, and within the Jewish community there were multiple calls leading up to the 2021 census to make sure to list "Jewish" as one's ethnic background (of course, only if that was true for the individual in question, as not all Jews are ethnically Jewish; such individuals would answer with their actual ethnic background(s) and put their religion as Jewish). Basically, it was a real "stand up and be counted" moment, a rare moment of near-total cohesion in the rather polarized Canadian Jewish community. The 2021 data showed almost twice as many Jews as the 2016 one did.
I recently found out that a friend of mine's family is a Nielson family and I had kind of forgot that was a thing that existed and was INSTANTLY jealous that she got to be one. I always thought that was so cool. I also love doing the Census, so all this tracks.
I wrote a little bit about looking at the Census records for my neighborhood (https://wendyrobinson.substack.com/p/this-old-house) and it really was fascinating to look at the prior residents of my house and to try to understand what life on the block looked like that period between World Wars. As an owner of an old house, it never felt more real to me how much life has happened in this small house.
¨(I also really, really, REALLY wanted to be a Nielsen family; that never happened) ¨
It was anti-climatic and kinda creepy. Now being profiled Nielsen-style is mandatory and still basically gross. Unlike the Census.
¨But the size of House has been frozen for a century now, while the number of people being represented has tripled. Before I began Democracy’s Data I knew nothing about this. Now, I (and others) think it’s well past time to enlarge the house.¨
Abso-freaking-lutely. Way way way past time. Unfortunately the elderly (and not so elderly) in charge have a hard time bending their brains around the idea, and as always, the quants are going to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
As a genealogist, I've spent a lot of time with census records: US, Canada, Scotland. It's a great resource, but the politics of asking whether individual people can read or write, or asking where each parent was born, is definitely two sided.
Absolutely loved this interview - it's exactly why I'm a subscriber. Also, sheesh, thanks a lot for keeping me awake till all hours being interested in this so much !
I'm currently serving on a municipal committee and we have recently charged a hired consultant to compile and illustrate data from multiple sources relating to a fairly nascent and quite controversial housing-related public policy issue.
After reading the interview and hopping over to Professor Bouk's blogs, it was a good reminder that while we aren't exactly dealing with even close to the same scope as the Census of course, but with respect to how the decisions on the parameters for how certain data is collected, portrayed, and used for political purposes––good, bad, or indifferent––it's imperative for those making policy decisions be very aware of what they are endeavoring to 'prove' to the public and why.
Maybe to stretch it a little here... Or as Prof. Bouk puts it: "As Michelle Murphy explained in her magnificent 2006 book, scientific investigations make some things newly visible, but they also make it impossible to see other things, things defined out of existence, things placed outside the focus of the microscope."
Thank you for this rich discussion. I immediately signed up for Dan Bouk's newsletter and will look out for his book. As a data person, of course I know that data tell stories, but I appreciate so much the reminder that the collection and definition of data themselves necessarily lead to flattening/obscuring of nuances and interesting outliers. Also, the History Lab sounds like a dream set up!
Oh, I’m ordering this book right away! I “met” the census in the early 1980’s as a newly minted government information librarian at a university. As those paper volumes started pouring in, I was fascinated with the wealth of data and pondering all the questions that could be answered with that data. That led me to start a “small” project to index some of the paper volumes to help my colleagues use the overwhelming volumes. That small project grew into a published book, an index to all the 1980 population and housing data. Thank goodness subsequent data came out online. I’d never want to repeat that project!
Years later, as a consultant, I taught many workshops on using census (and other data) to help librarians learn more about their their communities. Of course, this led to a fascination with the history of the census and what it reflects about our history and culture. Can’t wait to read this book and geek out. (Over the summer, a long form community survey arrived at a cottage I was renting. Oh, how I’ve longed to fill out one of those! I was so tempted, but not being the owner of the cottage, I resisted!)
I also reeeeeeallly wanted to be a Nielsen family, despite the fact that my family didn’t even own a television 😂 It wasn’t just that we didn’t have cable, we didn’t even have a physical TV. It wasn’t until we got a Windows 98 computer that we could watch DVDs at home!
I can so relate to desperately wanting to be a Neilsen family. Would sometimes keep my own diary of what we watched on TV or listened to on the radio for practice - just in case! The ultimate irony was that my family did end up getting a diary when I was *away at college* (getting my degree in media studies as was my destiny). I was so jealous!
This was a fascinating interview and I'm going to look for his book! For my work, I spend a fair amount of time with the various state and federal census data from 1850 through 1910 and there is so much there. It's interesting to see how information like race was recorded for a single person over the years - lots of shifts between "black" and "mulatto" and variations in names and spellings that raise so many questions.
I'm a data and government info librarian, so read this newsletter as soon as I saw it this morning! (And I'd already ordered this book for my library a few weeks ago and am psyched to read it).
I don't often look closely at the stories in the Census in the work I do, but am endlessly fascinated by them. When the Census 1950 enumeration scans were released earlier this year, I looked up all of my family members I could think of and even in a few lines felt really connected to them -- for example, I learned my great grandmother worked as a Census-taker herself. My grandfather (who died before I was born) was a veterinarian in a rural agricultural area and under "how many hours per week do you spend working?" he had an emphatic "???", which told me that he probably scoffed at the question 🙂
That feeling of connection, through a form(!), is so surprising...but I feel it all the time too!
If you watch Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., you know the importance of Census data in unlocking family mysteries. A research librarian used Census data to help me trace the history of my grandmother’s bakery a century ago. The Census is a delightful thing.
My household was chosen for an additional census bureau survey this year, and it’s interesting to see how ill-equipped the questions sets are for the complexity of our lives. My partner and I are both freelancers in different industries, and trying to explain how our jobs work and what is involved was really difficult! I remember at one point, they asked my hourly rate and I gave them an approximate number, and the form couldn’t capture it because it was above their upper limit of $100 🫢
I can relate to this!
This was really interesting! I've always been fascinated by census data, and am very keen (to the amusement of my friends and family) on taking surveys. I was very excited when I finally got to respond to the Canadian census in the spring of 2021! The Canadian census and question formulation is actually a really illustrative story of how the way we phrase questions can drastically change what data we can receive and what information we can then glean from it. In 2016, on the question about ethnic identity/background, the Canadian census removed "Jewish" from its list of examples. It was still an allowable answer, but it was no longer among the 10 or so listed examples. This resulted in data that appeared to show a 56% decrease since the 2011 census in the Jewish population of Canada, which obviously was not what had actually occurred. Half of Canada's Jews had not died or left the country – but a lot of Jews evidently inferred that they weren't allowed to describe their ethnic background as "Jewish" on the census.
Obviously this made the news, and within the Jewish community there were multiple calls leading up to the 2021 census to make sure to list "Jewish" as one's ethnic background (of course, only if that was true for the individual in question, as not all Jews are ethnically Jewish; such individuals would answer with their actual ethnic background(s) and put their religion as Jewish). Basically, it was a real "stand up and be counted" moment, a rare moment of near-total cohesion in the rather polarized Canadian Jewish community. The 2021 data showed almost twice as many Jews as the 2016 one did.
I recently found out that a friend of mine's family is a Nielson family and I had kind of forgot that was a thing that existed and was INSTANTLY jealous that she got to be one. I always thought that was so cool. I also love doing the Census, so all this tracks.
I wrote a little bit about looking at the Census records for my neighborhood (https://wendyrobinson.substack.com/p/this-old-house) and it really was fascinating to look at the prior residents of my house and to try to understand what life on the block looked like that period between World Wars. As an owner of an old house, it never felt more real to me how much life has happened in this small house.
¨(I also really, really, REALLY wanted to be a Nielsen family; that never happened) ¨
It was anti-climatic and kinda creepy. Now being profiled Nielsen-style is mandatory and still basically gross. Unlike the Census.
¨But the size of House has been frozen for a century now, while the number of people being represented has tripled. Before I began Democracy’s Data I knew nothing about this. Now, I (and others) think it’s well past time to enlarge the house.¨
Abso-freaking-lutely. Way way way past time. Unfortunately the elderly (and not so elderly) in charge have a hard time bending their brains around the idea, and as always, the quants are going to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
elm
still the right thing to do
As a genealogist, I've spent a lot of time with census records: US, Canada, Scotland. It's a great resource, but the politics of asking whether individual people can read or write, or asking where each parent was born, is definitely two sided.
Absolutely loved this interview - it's exactly why I'm a subscriber. Also, sheesh, thanks a lot for keeping me awake till all hours being interested in this so much !
I'm currently serving on a municipal committee and we have recently charged a hired consultant to compile and illustrate data from multiple sources relating to a fairly nascent and quite controversial housing-related public policy issue.
After reading the interview and hopping over to Professor Bouk's blogs, it was a good reminder that while we aren't exactly dealing with even close to the same scope as the Census of course, but with respect to how the decisions on the parameters for how certain data is collected, portrayed, and used for political purposes––good, bad, or indifferent––it's imperative for those making policy decisions be very aware of what they are endeavoring to 'prove' to the public and why.
Maybe to stretch it a little here... Or as Prof. Bouk puts it: "As Michelle Murphy explained in her magnificent 2006 book, scientific investigations make some things newly visible, but they also make it impossible to see other things, things defined out of existence, things placed outside the focus of the microscope."
( ^ source: https://censusstories.us/2020/08/13/urban-nation.html )
Thank you for this rich discussion. I immediately signed up for Dan Bouk's newsletter and will look out for his book. As a data person, of course I know that data tell stories, but I appreciate so much the reminder that the collection and definition of data themselves necessarily lead to flattening/obscuring of nuances and interesting outliers. Also, the History Lab sounds like a dream set up!
Oh, I’m ordering this book right away! I “met” the census in the early 1980’s as a newly minted government information librarian at a university. As those paper volumes started pouring in, I was fascinated with the wealth of data and pondering all the questions that could be answered with that data. That led me to start a “small” project to index some of the paper volumes to help my colleagues use the overwhelming volumes. That small project grew into a published book, an index to all the 1980 population and housing data. Thank goodness subsequent data came out online. I’d never want to repeat that project!
Years later, as a consultant, I taught many workshops on using census (and other data) to help librarians learn more about their their communities. Of course, this led to a fascination with the history of the census and what it reflects about our history and culture. Can’t wait to read this book and geek out. (Over the summer, a long form community survey arrived at a cottage I was renting. Oh, how I’ve longed to fill out one of those! I was so tempted, but not being the owner of the cottage, I resisted!)
I applaud your restraint! ;-)
P.S. I once got to be Nielson “family” 😀
I also reeeeeeallly wanted to be a Nielsen family, despite the fact that my family didn’t even own a television 😂 It wasn’t just that we didn’t have cable, we didn’t even have a physical TV. It wasn’t until we got a Windows 98 computer that we could watch DVDs at home!
I can so relate to desperately wanting to be a Neilsen family. Would sometimes keep my own diary of what we watched on TV or listened to on the radio for practice - just in case! The ultimate irony was that my family did end up getting a diary when I was *away at college* (getting my degree in media studies as was my destiny). I was so jealous!
This was a fascinating interview and I'm going to look for his book! For my work, I spend a fair amount of time with the various state and federal census data from 1850 through 1910 and there is so much there. It's interesting to see how information like race was recorded for a single person over the years - lots of shifts between "black" and "mulatto" and variations in names and spellings that raise so many questions.