The material on the album was inspired by an incident where they almost died while on a road trip through a blizzard, horror movies, and the music of the singer-songwriter Ethel Cain.

The album received positive reviews from publications; Paste and Pitchfork included the single "Census Designated" in their best songs of the year lists.

Jane Remover released their debut studio album Frailty in November 2021, to positive reviews from Pitchfork,[2] Paste,[3] and Anthony Fantano.

[7] The track "Lips" served as "a skeleton key for the rest of the album in both mood and sound", as Remover became obsessed with the climax of the song, and thought: "I can find a way to build a whole universe out of this."

[7] On Census Designated, Remover wanted to distance themself from the labels that were given to their previous work, specifically the term "Internet music".

[8] Remover cited the music of the American singer-songwriter Ethel Cain, namely her album Preacher's Daughter (2022), as another source of inspiration for material included on Census Designated.

The song "Cage Girl", which Remover revealed was originally "a demo that [they] made in an hour" for a creative writing class in 2022, is a favorite of Cain's.

[8][22] The second half of the album is largely based on nightmares Remover feared would materialize in their own life; the tracks "Census Designated", "Video", and "Contingency Song" are told from the perspective of being in a relationship.

[16][23] Emma Madden of Them described the lyrics as "rich with half-vague, half-precise poetry" and thought Remover's guitar tone "holds both a sense of terror and beauty".

He further questioned, because Remover has experimented with drum and bass, ambient, glitch rap, and Jersey club in the past, "why would [they] choose fiery avant-rock as a primary vehicle?".

[7] The Guardian's Ben Beaumont-Thomas compared their vocals to that of K-pop and Europop singers, and mentioned how they reinvigorates guitar sounds by layering them with static and subtle noise elements.

[21] Madden proposed that the album should be listened to "just past sundown, when there's a brief and lonely pause in space and time and it feels like you are the only person experiencing reality".

[7] It is followed by four post-rock tracks; "Lips" is also an indie ballad[17] that begins with gentle vocals discussing the unpredictability of young love,[6] and being someone's "nervous wreck".

[22] Fantano described it as having "super righteous riffs" and "screaming walls of distorted chords laced with some glossy vocal harmonies" and "stuttering noise".

[29] The penultimate track "Video" tells the story of a woman who becomes infatuated with a man she watched touch himself online, before he exploits her when the two eventually meet outside of the Internet.

[17] The final track, "Contingency Song", contains dissonant drones, and Press-Reynolds described it as containing a "sparse winter horizon" and that "you can almost feel the chill of its malign fog".

[17] The album's artwork was shot by the American photographer Brendon Burton,[15] and depicts Remover standing alone in a field with their back towards the camera as they face the remnants of a dilapidated house.

[14] Speaking with Them, Remover commented that they chose this photograph to serve as the artwork because it represents Census Designated's overarching coming-of-age theme.

When Madden proposed that the empty house featured prominently in the image might embody emotions related to "feeling further away from home", Remover welcomed the idea.

[14] In preparation of Census Designated's release, Remover posted images to their social media accounts that consisted of their standing in places such as empty wheat fields, in front of bare buildings, and outside a window in a deserted landscape.

He concluded by writing that there "isn't a single weak song" on the album and called the title track the "greatest [realization] of [their] visionary approach".

[21] Press-Reynolds described it as "a feverish mutation of shoegaze and bedroom pop", saying the album offers an immersive experience, and called it their "most poignant and piercing music" yet.

The former website considered it the 73rd best song of the year; Daniel Bromfield wrote that Remover is "acutely aware of how dangerous show business can be for those who find early success", calling its lyrics "no less alarming than the hair-raising music behind it".