You have seen its catchy advertisement while watching the Super Bowl and riding the T. Your parents have received at least one announcement in the mail. Your House Master may already have e-mailed you an advance warning.

This week, an event 10 years in the making finally arrives--the United States census.

Over the next few days, almost every household in America will receive a simple form, seven questions long, in the mail.

Though the form should only take about 10 minutes to fill out, the federal, state and local governments, in addition to private corporations, will use the information it provides to dole out billions of dollars in funding every year for the next decade.

"On April 15, you have to settle with Uncle Sam on what you owe the government. The census form is your way of telling the government what they should give back to your community," says Steven E. Clinkenbeard, manager of the district census office.

Over the next several weeks, Cambridge will embark on a series of measures to maximize responses throughout the city and at Harvard. Cambridge will rely on Harvard students--considered inhabitants of Cambridge even if they vote, pay taxes or legally reside elsewhere--to both return their forms promptly and assist local census-takers.

A complete count, Clinkenbeard says, will ensure that the community receives its full share of government funding, provide accurate demographic data and help guide city planning.

Census 2000

The census occurs once every 10 years, as mandated by the Constitution. Its purpose is to provide a complete count of all individuals living in America, regardless of race, age, nationality or citizenship status.

This year's census includes a number of changes from 1990, when the census was last administered.

Audrey Dolar Tejada, media specialist of the Boston regional census office, says the effort this year is "multicultural and multilingual [to] reflect the changing face of America."

"It's the only common civic institution," she says. "All classes, all racial groups [participate]. The census makes no distinction if you are a citizen or not."

The census will be available in six languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog, a Philippine dialect. Local census centers established to help residents with forms will have aids in 49 languages.

In addition, the 2000 census represents the first time respondents will be able to specify more than one race.

In previous years, the form instructed respondents to check only one race category. But this year, respondents may check as many boxes as they feel apply.

The census this year is also the shortest in more than a century.

Five-sixths of American households will receive a form of seven questions, asking for the name, age, sex, race, possibility of Hispanic origin, and homeowner status of everyone in the household, in addition to every residents' relationship to the person filling out the form. The form should take about 10 minutes to complete.

The remaining one-sixth of households will receive a longer form of 34 questions to complete, providing more detailed information about family relationships and history, work status and income, educational level and housing opportunities and costs. The longer form should take about 38 minutes to fill out.

All forms are due April 1.

Information with a Purpose

Census data is used for a variety of purposes by the government and private industry.

The primary purpose, that enumerated by the Constitution, is for political reapportionment, to ensure equal representation at the federal and local levels.

By the end of this year, the U.S. Census Bureau will release information to determine which states will gain or lose Congressional representatives. A few months into 2001, information will be available for local redistricting. The bureau will release more demographic information by the end of 2001, and by 2002 the entire census will be available on CD-ROM, Clinkenbeard says.

Massachusetts lost one seat in the House of Representatives in 1990, but is not expected to lose another this year.

In addition to redistricting, the government uses census data to provide more than $185 billion in services every year, in programs ranging from schools, hospitals and infrastructure to senior services and daycare.

Private industry also takes advantage of census data. Corporations use the demographic information the census provides to evaluate regional growth.

"Census data [is] the informational bedrock for industry and market research and investment planning," Clinkenbeard says. "[When companies are deciding] where to put that shopping mall or McDonald's, some of the data they look for is the census."

The census office releases information in statistical form only. All personal responses remain confidential for 72 years.

Playing the Numbers Game

The federal government has allocated $6.8 billion to fund the census effort.

Twelve regional offices and 520 local offices have been established to help in its administration. The Boston regional office, located at Copley Place, serves all of New England and upstate New York, and the local census office, located in East Cambridge, targets Cambridge, Somerville, Melrose, Malden and Medford.

This year the government has embarked on a much more aggressive advertising campaign to inform the public about the census and to encourage responses.

In addition to public service announcements, which have run in the past decades, the government will spend $167 million on paid television, radio and print advertisements, designed to inform mainstream audiences and target communities whose response rates have been historically low.

"This is the first time ever the census has tried to use advertising to try to appeal to the wide demographics that make up America," Tejada says.

The government purchased a 30-second commercial for half price during the Super Bowl and will rival major advertisers like McDonald's and Burger King in ad volume for March and April, Clinkenbeard says.

Advertisements, and radio ads in particular, will run in several languages to encourage the participation of historically underrepresented minority and immigrant groups.

In addition to advertisements, the government will rely on a series of mailings and home visits to ensure maximum participation.

This year's census will include a series of three mailings. The first, which most households should already have received, is a letter announcing the upcoming census. The second, mailed out at the beginning of this week, is the form itself, and the third is a postcard due to arrive in April reminding residents to complete the form.

Should the mailings fail to elicit a response, the census office will dispatch a fleet of enumerators--men and women who will visit households in their neighborhood that have not yet responded--to offer assistance.

Tejada says the government will hire about 800,000 enumerators nationwide, and Clinkenbeard estimates Cambridge will require at least 400.

Offices will rely primarily on those not in the regular workforce--including the elderly, part-time employees and college students--to serve as enumerators.

"Given an unemployment rate of under two percent in Cambridge, we are going to be relying heavily on part-time workers," Clinkenbeard says.

He says he hopes to attract at least several dozen Harvard students to work on campus and in Cambridge. Enumerators earn $15 per hour.

Enumerators are, however, a last resort. Clinkenbeard says a response returned by mail costs taxpayers about $3, but the cost of a response obtained by enumerators going door to door jumps to about $27.

Completing the Count

Like all communities across America, Cambridge is eager to maximize its census returns to garner as much government funding as possible and provide accurate demographic data.

But Cambridge differs in two fundamental respects from most other cities of its size. Cambridge is home to a number of immigrant communities, making the city very linguistically diverse, and much of Cambridge's population is composed of transient college students.

Both of these factors complicate the information-gathering process.

"For Cambridge, with a relatively high immigrant population, making sure that members of those groups are counted is very significant," says Stephanie E. Ackert, chair of the Cambridge Complete Count Committee (CCCC). "Also sometimes there is confusion with college and university students about where they should be counted."

Cambridge established the CCCC last fall to help maximize local response. The committee represents a collaboration between city officials, the school department, community agencies and churches.

The CCCC, which meets about once a month, distributes written information about the census and works with local groups that may be "harder to enumerate," such as immigrants and minorities, Ackert says. The committee also plans to send letters to all city employees to inform them about the census and possible job opportunities as enumerators.

Ackert says the CCCC aims to prevent an undercount in Cambridge. She says she believes the 1990 census missed about 4,000 to 5,000 Cambridge residents--an amount symptomatic of a major undercount in 1990, that was a problem across the nation.

The CCCC works closely with the local census office, which faces similar concerns regarding Cambridge's population.

The district office has already begun searching for qualified personnel to serve in question assistance centers.

"We've recruited heavily among the major language groups," Clinkenbeard says.

Assistance centers in Cambridge will offer aid in Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian-Creole, among other languages.

The office has also begun targeting neighborhoods with historically low response rates.

"Renters are less likely to return than homeowners. Low-income and public housing [residents] tend to have an historically lower response rate," Clinkenbeard says.

He says the district office has been recruiting applicants to serve as enumerators for several months, and is now beginning to offer training sessions.

Enumerators will begin going door to door towards the end of April, well after the April 1 deadline, and will be active through June, Clinkenbeard says.

The district office opened last September and will remain open through September of this year. Its current staff numbers about 100.

Home at Harvard

Harvard students will have the opportunity to fill out their census forms from April 10 to April 12 in their Houses and the Yard. In addition, the local census office plans to hire Harvard students to serve as enumerators.

Enumerators will set up tables in dining halls to collect completed forms and answer questions. Clinkenbeard says he hopes to complete the process before final exam period in May.

Clinkenbeard says Harvard students are considered Cambridge residents, and should so indicate on their forms.

"The census has no connection to legal address, tax status or place of voting. It is a physical count of where you are on April 1," he says.

He stressed the need for Harvard students to fill out the census forms.

"It does have an impact on the amount of funding Cambridge will get from the government," he says. "Cambridge is very much relying on Harvard students."