For every census there is supposed to be an official census date. It does not always work out that way as census takers cannot be at every home on the precise date of the census. While respondents were told to answer questions as of the census date, there is no doubt that some got confused and answered questions as of the date the census taker was at their home.
Sometimes the extra month (or two or three) did not change the answers.
But sometimes it did.
One response
I have family who moved from Georgia to Florida, and while trying to figure out when they might have made the move I found them counted in the spring in Georgia, and then I found them again counted in September in Florida! It was 1860 or 1870. Had the census dates been reversed, I might have lost track of them for those twenty years.
I have another uncle who was listed with his family in Alabama in 1880 I think, and later that same year he was counted in Texas and listed as a boarder on the same page with his future wife and her family. Very fun details to come across.