If you’re selected to be interviewed for a non-decennial survey (like for an employment survey), the enumerator will set up an interview in advance and give you all the information you need to verify that they’re legit.
When I shadowed an enumerator working in the field a decade ago, enumerators collecting data for non-decennial surveys weren’t even allowed to share what they were doing when speaking to anyone other than the respondent, because that would violate the confidentiality of the data/respondent, and that is super-duper illegal (13 U.S.C.); no enumerator is going to risk going to prison for five years when they can just mark you as refusing to respond! Title 13 still exists, so I can’t imagine that you’d be able to tell randoms you’re looking for someone when collecting non-decennial data in 2026.
If somebody’s claiming that they’re trying to interview someone else for any census survey, you can ask the likely census-faker to wait with you while you call their regional office to identify them:
The regional offices are responsible for all data collection, data dissemination, and geographic operations under a new service area boundar
I worked on business-related surveys at HQ—I never went to anybody’s home or place of employment as part of my regular job—and I was still asked how to verify my identify pretty regularly. Real enumerators (and statisticians and everybody else who collects data for all the different kinds of surveys) are trained to help you confirm their legitimacy and they shouldn’t get upset if you try to do so.
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