The 2010 US Census will start in the little village of Noorvik in Northern Alaska. The Inupiat population is around 650 people, there are no roads linking the village to the rest of the state. So census workers will fly in and then use snowmobiles and dog sleds. The village has a subsistence lifestyle with the people depending on caribou, fish, moose, waterfowl and berries for survival. The Census bureau plans to hire an extra 2500 workers to go door to door in the state of Alaska covering 586000 square miles.
The US census is carried out very ten years and mostly uses first class mail to survey residents but not everyone has a postal address. Its a mammoth task and one that costs the Government a great deal of money this years budget is $14 billion with a $130 million advertising campaign. But the data is very valuable giving a snapshot into America today.
Sources:
- http://www.maniilaq.org/noorvik.html
- http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2009/08/census-2010-to-start-in-northern-alaska.html
- http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0120/2010-Census-what-you-need-to-know