“WASHINGTON—For the first time, the Census Bureau is giving U.S. households a chance to respond to government surveys over the Internet, part of a bid to save costs and boost sagging response rates in a digital age. The new online option will supplement the traditional census mail-out operation. It is a major shift for the agency, which has relied almost exclusively on paper forms since 1970 but is now moving toward a more Internet-based system after spending a record $13 billion on the 2010 census.”

The article further states “The once-a-decade count has traditionally missed hard-to-count groups such as minorities, the homeless and the poor, who also may be less likely to have access to computers.”

But it doesn’t offer an answer to that. It does include a quote that says it doesn’t mean that it alleviates the cost and work involved to reach those segments of the population.

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