Senior Citizens

Census 2000 Education Kit

Senior Citizens

Accuracy is Critical in 2000

WHY IS AN ACCURATE CENSUS SO IMPORTANT? Article I, Section 2, of the United States Constitution places the Census at the core of our democratic system of governance. The decennial Census provides information that is the cornerstone of knowledge about the American people. It is the basis for virtually all demographic information used by educators, policy makers, journalists, and community leaders.

Census data directly affects decisions made on all matters of national and local importance, including education, employment, veterans' services, public health care, rural development, the environment, transportation and housing. Many Federal programs are statutorily required to use decennial data to develop, evaluate and implement their programs;
Federal, state, and county governments use Census information to guide the annual distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in critical services;
Congressional seats are reapportioned and legislative districts are drawn based on decennial Census data; and,
The data are also used to monitor and enforce compliance with civil rights statutes, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and employment, housing, lending, and education anti-discrimination laws.

A Number of Programs Critical to Seniors Rely on Accurate Census Information

Census information is

Used by state and county agencies to forecast people eligible for Social Security and Medicare;
Used by planners to determine the number of hospitals, health service centers, and retirement homes;
Used to help elderly persons with nutritionally sound meals through senior citizen distribution centers or via meals-on-wheels programs through the Nutrition Education Program;
Used to distribute funds and develop programs for people with disabilities and the elderly under the Rehabilitation Act.
Needed to enforce equal employment opportunity under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act;
Used by planners to ensure that comparable public transportation services are available for all segments of the population;
Required to award Federal grants, under the Older Americans Act, based on the number of elderly people with physical and mental disabilities;
Used to enable older people who cannot afford to repay a loan the ability to remove health and safety hazards in their homes under the Very Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants program;
Needed for the Senior Community Service Employment program - a national program that recruits, trains, and offers job placement services to economically disadvantaged individuals aged fifty-five and older. SCSEP, funded under Title V of the Older Americans Act, helps seniors with poor employment prospects to gain financial independence through employment training, referrals and counseling;
Needed for the Prevention of Elderly Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation program to coordinate state and local adult protective efforts with other states and local service programs that focus on elderly abuse prevention and intervention;
Used under the Long Term Care Ombudsman Services for Older Americans program whereby state and local long term care ombudsmen speak and act on behalf of the residents of nursing homes by investigating nursing facility complaints and providing community support to those who often cannot speak or act on their own behalf; and,
Needed for Indian Program Grants to Indian Tribes and Grants to Native Hawaiians that help provide meals, health-care, and transportation to elder Native Americans and Native Hawaiians who are disproportionately poorer than the older population in general.