Census Workers Hit the Streets Sunday April 1, 2012

March 23, 2012

Starting Sunday April 1, 2012 more than 1,400 census workers will begin knocking on doors to count every person who lives in Edmonton.

Census workers will ask the following questions: how many people live in the house, their gender, the month and year of their birth, citizenship, marital status, employment status, mode of transportation used to get to work, school residency, term of residence at current location, previous residence if living in dwelling for less than a year, and whether the home is owned or rented.

For an average family of four, this takes just a few minutes.

“Accurate census information is vital to delivering City services,” explains Laura Kennedy, Director of Elections and Corporate Records. “With reliable numbers, we can more accurately plan for the services, facilities and infrastructure that we will need. It also ensures that the City of Edmonton receives appropriate funding levels from other orders of government.”

All census workers wear photo identification. “If a census worker’s ID is not plainly visible, please ask to see it before you provide information,” Laura says. Census workers go door to door and never phone residents. They do not ask for residents’ names or addresses.

If residents are not home, census workers will leave a notice in their mailbox. “Please watch for a notice and call your census worker at the number provided,” says Laura. “It’s vital that we don’t leave anyone out.”

Notices will be posted in apartment lobbies to let residents know when the census workers will be in the building.

The City keeps all information confidential. Reports are released only at the neighbourhood level, in groups of no less than 50 people. The census forms that workers fill out at the door are mechanically scanned into a database and destroyed within six months.

In July 2011, City Council passed policy C520B. The policy states that the City of Edmonton will conduct a biennial Census starting in 2012.

The last municipal census was conducted in 2009. Edmonton's official population on April 1, 2009 was 782,439.

Residents can find out more about the census and the census questions at www.edmonton.ca/census.

 

For more information:

Gary Dyck

Title	Communications Officer, Office of the City Manager
Telephone	780-496-8676