Will now reply on this one (I'm one who put the subject on 'Totally off topic"!)
It may seem that some questions are 'intrusive' but the government needs a lot of information that may not seem relevant - or to be too personal - in order to collate details that can be used for future planning. We lived in Canada and one of the questions on the 'long' census was "how long do you spend doing housework in a week" (among a lot of other questions on activities). Now, most people would think this was stupid, after all, the gov't doesn't provide these services does it? However, my company used to complete what were known as "Cost of Future Care" reports for the courts for traumatically injured people who needed the majority of assistance in all aspects of daily living activities. As part of the report, one could assess the need for housework (light or heavy tasks) and produce an annual cost, along with all the other costs. These would then be forwarded to an actuary who would 'futurise' the costs to present to the court for a settlement. This is just one simple instance of how such a question - which would eventually form part of the National Statistics data - becomes so pertinent.
