Completing the census

[vickster]

Just done mine. I notice that you fill in one census per household. I completed my bit and handed the code over to Al to complete his. I notice that he can view my answers and got me thinking what if you don’t want the people you live with to view potentially sensitive info such as sexuality or religion?

you can request a separate code

 

[Julia9054]

you can request a separate code

Ah - ok. Missed that.
Edit: though I still wonder if separate access codes as a default wouldn't be a better idea. Eg adult child wants to keep sexuality private from disapproving parents "why do you want a separate access code?" awkward questions.

 

[annedonnelly]

I thought it was extremely boring. None of the questions was remotely interesting.

 

[dodgy]

Only problem I had was religion - made me think
dunno what my religion is really - born CofE but only been to church when I had to - so school, weddings and funerals

pretty sure I don;t believe in an afterlife - so there's that
don't really believe in what the religious authorities say I should believe in - or like a lot of what they do

but.........


Ended up ticking Christian - but I haven't saved it yet so I may go back and change it to 'No Religion'

rest of it was fine

Important to remember when filling out census forms why they ask the questions to do. A lot of it is to ensure there are adequate services to meet the nation's needs. So if everyone ticks the religion they were born with, instead of 'no religion' then for instance, in hospitals there will be faith counsellors on hand for <insert religion>, which has to be paid for.
tl;dr if you don't consider yourself religious, tick 'no religion' and not the one you were born with as it's not relevant.

 

[vickster]

I thought it was extremely boring. None of the questions was remotely interesting.

It’s a census to gather data, it’s not meant to be interesting

 

[steverob]

Only problem I had was religion - made me think
dunno what my religion is really - born CofE but only been to church when I had to - so school, weddings and funerals

pretty sure I don;t believe in an afterlife - so there's that
don't really believe in what the religious authorities say I should believe in - or like a lot of what they do

but.........


Ended up ticking Christian - but I haven't saved it yet so I may go back and change it to 'No Religion'

rest of it was fine

Personally given what you've said, I'd veer more towards "no religion". I can understand why people would tick a religion given the ambiguity of the question - it doesn't say whether you are practising or not after all, but to me it's more to do with who you are now, not how you may have been in the past or how you were brought up.

My example - I was brought up Catholic. Was baptised as a baby, went to an RC school (headmistress was a nun) until I was 11, attended mass until I was in my late teens and most of my family are still very religious. But I left the faith before I hit 20 and now do not believe in a god or an afterlife and apart from family occasions (weddings, funerals etc.) I haven't set foot in a church in about 25 years, so while some people might say I am still Catholic/Christian, I cannot honestly say I believe in any faith and so quickly ticked the n/a box. Yet my other half, who did not have any religious upbringing at all and also does not attend any church services or pray, does think of herself as nominally C of E for some reason and admitted she did toy with ticking the Christianity box. On balance she decided not to, but said it was a question she had to ponder - probably took her longer than the rest of the census.

 

[biggs682]

My other half did ours then she did my parents one bless her

 

[steverob]

I think the "what does that entail" isn't aimed at simple old fashioned job titles like policeman, nurse, market researcher, low end porn star... probably more aimed at helping statisticians understand what an "operations, facilitation and technical team lead scrum executive" actually does in a day. The next box i guess allows them to clarify that they do tedious office work in a grey building in Milton Keynes.

Yeah, they do need that follow up page on what a job entails when the answers can include vague non-titles such as "Services Support Officer" and "Accuracy Checking Technican". By the way feel free to take a guess at what those roles really mean if you're that way inclined!

 

[PK99]

We just did ours. I discovered that my wife is British but I'm English.

 

[Pale Rider]

We just did ours. I discovered that my wife is British but I'm English.

That was a question where you could tick more than one answer, so anyone reading mine will discover I'm British and English.

 

[Julia9054]

We just did ours. I discovered that my wife is British but I'm English.

You are left to interpret this question how you like. I see it as a legal type question so I am British (on my passport) rather than a how I feel type question.

 

[vickster]

I’m British and live in England, which they know

 

[theclaud]

View: https://twitter.com/mrdavidwhitley/status/1373585655679348738?s=19

 

[welsh dragon]

Did mine just now. They didn't like my answer to how many passports I have. Shame but it didn't not go to the next page until they liked my answer so that was a plus.

 

[annedonnelly]

It’s a census to gather data, it’s not meant to be interesting

But are they gathering the right data? - nothing they asked allowed me to tell them about my needs for sustainable travel. Based on my car ownership they'll give me roads & car parks. As I'm working from home due to Covid I couldn't say anything about using train/bike to commute to work.