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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 25 February 2020
Who is No. 1? Whoever gets to fill out 2020 Census form

By MIKE SCHNEIDER May. The 2020 Census will
Associated Press help determine how $1.5
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It's a trillion in federal spending
question spouses, domestic is distributed as well as how
partners and roommates many congressional seats
are going to be forced to each state gets.
confront in the next few The Census Bureau offers
weeks as they fill out their no guidance on how to
2020 Census forms: Who sort out who comes first.
gets to be the primary per- When asked how people
son in the household? should decide who in their
Everyone else who lives home gets to respond,
in the home has to be Census Bureau director
identified on the form by Steven Dillingham said he
how they are related to wasn't going to venture
so-called "Person 1." It's an opinion, "just as long as
a question that even the someone is answering and
most egalitarian homes are we get a self-response."
going to have to figure out And who will be filling out
— though it's sure to spark the form in his home?
some intriguing conversa- "That's a good question,"
tions. Dillingham said.
For married couple Debbie "Hopefully, I'm home and
Kleinberg and Frankie Huff, In this Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, Diana Betz, an assistant professor of psychology at Loyola maybe it will be me. But if
it's a no-brainer. University Maryland, poses at her home in Crofton, Md. Associated Press not, my wife will do a great
"Me, because anytime job."q
Frankie has paperwork, I do Betz said. In Betz's home, Census — and it points to a
it," said Kleinberg, a credit her husband, an econo- fairly even divide.
administrator, who lives mist, will be filling out the In2018, there were a to-
with her college-professor questionnaire when it first tal of79 millionhouseholds
wife in an Orlando suburb. becomes available in mid- with families. In 41 million
Kleinberg says the 2020 March, but that's only be- of those homes, the house-
Census-answering process cause he wrote his disserta- holder was a man, and in
in their home will follow a tion about the census. "So, 38 million homes, the house-
familiar pattern. that's a complicating fac- holder was a woman.
"The notice will come in the tor," she said. This year, there are more
mail. It will sit on the kitchen The 2020 form says "Per- options on the census form
table for a couple of days, son 1" should be someone for describing how people
or weeks. It may even get who pays the rent or owns are related to Person 1 since
lost, and we will find it after the home. If nobody meets the Census Bureau has
sorting through a pile of bills that description, "start by added categories like "op-
later," Kleinberg said. listing any adult living here posite-sex unmarried part-
But she will eventually fill it as Person 1," according to ner," "same-sex husband/
out. the form. wife/spouse" and "same-
"Being introverts, we don't Knowing how everyone sex unmarried partner." The
want anyone knocking on else is related to "Person 1" change came after the
our door," she said. helps the Census Bureau 2010 census when the form
Deciding who fills out the understand the different only had "husband or wife"
questionnaire may force types of households there and "unmarried partners"
spouses or domestic part- are, and their numbers, to describe romantic at-
ners to talk about power such as family households tachments. Several studies
dynamics they might not with a grandparent living in have theorized that same-
have discussed for 10 the home. sex couples from the 2010
years, since the last time Until 40 years ago, Person 1 census were inflated due to
there was a decennial was called "head of house- unintentional mis-markings
census, said Diana Betz, hold" or "head of family." by confused heterosexual
an assistant professor of But the U.S. Census Bureau married couples.
psychology at Loyola Uni- stopped using those moni- Unlike in years past, most
versity Maryland. In some kers as more women were people won't be filling
households, she added, entering the workforce out the form by hand and
the topic might never have and fewer men were the mailing it back. Instead,
come up. sole breadwinners. "House- the Census Bureau is en-
That could mean contem- holder" also is used to de- couraging a majority of
plating whether having a scribe the person to whom respondents to answer the
bigger salary or a more im- the relationship of all other questions online, although
portant job title trumps the household members is re- people also will be able to
traditional gender norms a corded. answer by telephone and
couple may have settled The most recent American by mailing in their respons-
into, or if doing more for a Community Survey offers es. Census workers will be
household through domes- a sneak-peak of how the sent out to knock on the
tic chores or child-raising genders of "Person 1" may doors of homes of people
gives someone the claim, break down in the 2020 who haven't responded by