For 2010 Census this month, the questionnaires arriving in America's mailboxes will ask only 10 questions.

Mike Burns, a Spokesman for the U. S. Census Bureau, said, "We like to say you can fill out the 10 questions in only 10 minutes".

Census officials expect that the short forms will encourage million more people to fill out the questionnaire, instead of finding it intrusive and throwing it in the bin.

To be sure, census officials still ask the probing questions. But five years ago, they began taking a new approach to collect details, surveying 250,000 people each month on a variety of topics, rather than hitting up millions of households with a long census form every 10 years.

"Information comes at the speed of light now", said Sonny Le, a Bay Area Census Spokesman. "We can't afford to wait every 10 years".

Frequent reports allow cities and businesses to closely follow trends, making necessary adjustments year-to-year instead of waiting a decade to realize the culture has shifted.

Hans Johnson, a Demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, said, "I love having the data on a more timely basis".

This year, for the first time, the bureau will send out questionnaires in Spanish, Chinese and three other languages to every household in specific neighborhoods, even if some people there speak only English or another language.