** Reply to message from John Wm Sloniker <johnwms@serv.net> on Mon, 30 Nov 1998 13:26:32 -0800 (PST) > Granted, some of the info collected has nothing to do with who those > people counted are or how many representatives we need. > > However, now they are saying they don't want to see or count the people, > that a better way is to estimate how many live in a house based on what > they saw in another house of the same size. > > The "estimates" will not include ANY personal information or names. How > will we be able to know "who" those people were that were "estimated" ? > Totally useless for genealogists; but then, they didn't institute the census for our benefit, not in this country at any rate. The various statistics extracted were supposed to be the point of the exercise. Personally I have no confidence in that sort of depersonalised analysis, but statisticians don't share my view. John, in Lewisham, Greater London, England