A census is a nationwide poll of all Talossan citizens, held every two years. It is mandated by law and it has two main purposes - gathering interesting demographic data about Talossans and ensuring contact information held by the Chancery is up-to-date.
Why do I need to answer the Census?
Contact information. Answering the Census is important first and foremost to ensure the Chancery holds up-to-date contact informations for you. We typically contact you in these circumstances:
For sending ballots and voting reminders during general elections;
For sending out invitations to answer the Census;
If you hold a seat in either house of the Ziu (Talossa's Parliament), the Chancery sends out the Clark (paper with monthly votes) and voting reminders;
If you agree, you may receive political literature during general elections;
If you agree, you may receive invitations to cultural events and/or newsletters (like La C'hronică).
Preserving citizenship. Holding Talossan citizenship requires you to either vote in an election or answer a Census at least once every two years; therefore, answering a Census is also an option to preserve citizenship for Talossans who do not wish to vote in general elections. Gathering aggregated statistics. Lastly, optional questions provide a way to anonymously gather aggregated data about the background of Talossan citizens.
What do I need to answer the Census?
It is not mandatory, but you may choose to provide the Personal Security Code from the last election in order to unambiguously determine your identity. This is a precaution in the unlikely case someone attempts to commit fraud by impersonating you.
If you do not provide a PSC, or you do not have one because you were not a citizen in the last election, the Chancery will still attempt to verify the validity of your responses.
If you have a Database account, you can simply log in before taking the Census, and your responses will be automatically validated.
What questions are asked on the Census?
The Census is comprised of a mandatory part, answering which is all you need to be registered as completing the Census successfully, and 10 demographic questions which are entirely optional:
How old are you?
What gender do you identify as?
What is your civil status?
What size is your household?
What industry are you in?
What ethnicity do you self-identify with?
What religion do you affiliate with?
What is your level of education?
What is the (approximate) annual income of your household?
What is the location of your physical residence?
You can answer as many or as few of these as you'd like.
The mandatory part, instead, collects:
Your real and Talossan names;
Your preferred email address to receive emails from the Chancery, and an optional "urgent" email to be used by the Chancery in case you were unresponsive and in risk of losing your citizenship;
Whether you wish your primary email address to be visible on the Database;
Whether you wish the Chancery to forward to you electoral literature during General Elections;
Whether you wish the Chancery to forward to you advertisements about cultural, nonpolitical events;
Whether you wish the Chancery to forward to you news about Talossa, such as La C'hronică.
Answers to the mandatory part are strictly confidential.
What do you do with the answers to the optional questions?
Optional demographic questions have strictly statistical purpose; answers to optional questions are presented in an anonymised, aggregated way. The Chancery will never release your individual set of responses, even if anonymised: it will be impossible to discern your individual responses to each question from the aggregated data.
What if I need to edit my answers later?
Upon completing the mandatory questions, you will receive a Census Code. You can enter that code to edit (or complete) your answers later.
If you have a Database account, you can simply log in to edit your answers - no Census Code is necessary.