Census Day for the United States is April 1, 1980. A few days before then, some 86 million households will receive a questionnaire. Of these households, 78 percent will get a short form that can be completed in about 15 minutes. Other households will get a form with more questions.

Most points of inquiry on a census form can be answered easily by filling in a small circle next to the most appropriate answer. Households that do not mail in the postage-free questionnaire will be visited by a census enumerator who will obtain the required information.

To make sure that census information is kept confidential, United States law imposes a fine of $5,000 and five years’ imprisonment on any census employee who violates the secrecy provisions. Says the Census Bureau: “Not even another Federal agency or the President can see individual census answers, whatever the purpose.” (The only exception is that a person can get information about himself.) To guarantee confidentiality further, no name and address ever enters a computer. Information is kept confidential for 72 years; then microfilm census records are turned over to the National Archives.

Usually the law of a country requires people to give answers in a census. In the United States, failure to answer can incur a fine of $100. In any event, God-fearing persons follow the principles set out at Romans 13:1-7 and Titus 3:1, about cooperating with the government in such matters as a census.

Many are the reasons for taking a census. Says the Census Bureau: “Without the census, proper planning and management would not be possible in such areas as economics, military manpower potential, school requirements, employment, national and international finance, Social Security, business cycles, highway use, and the needs for health services, parks, water, and energy.”

Census records often prove helpful to individuals. For example, it is estimated that there are 20 million Americans who are without proof of their age or birthplace. At times people need such proof. “Please send me a report,” wrote one man to the Census Bureau. “You are the only people who can prove I am not from outer space.” Whatever the reason, any American who needs to establish his age, citizenship or family relationship can write to the Bureau’s Personal Census Service Branch in Pittsburg, Kansas, and ask for a census search application form.