Census 2020
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Census 2020 is approaching....Be counted! The United States constitution requires all residents to complete the Census form every 10 years. The goal of the Census is to ensure that everyone is counted once, only once, and in the right place. A complete and accurate count is critical for you and your community, because the results of the 2020 Census will affect community funding, congressional representation, and more. Everyone living in the 50 states, District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) is required by law to be counted in the 2020 Census.
How to Respond
In March 2020, all households will receive a postcard in the mail with instructions about how to take the Census in one of these ways: online, phone, or paper. (You can even respond on your mobile device.) One Census form should be completed for all residents in each household. The questionnaire takes about 10-15 minutes (more if there are more people living in the home), and asks ten questions about address, age, race, and relationship to the other residents in the household. Starting in May 2020, Census workers will begin going door-to-door to households that have not completed the Census, to ask them to respond.
Online and by phone, census questions are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Japanese. Paper forms are available in English and Spanish.
How Your Responses Will be Used
Under the law, the U.S. Census Bureau cannot share an individual’s Census data with the public, state or local governments, immigration enforcement, or other agency. The law states that the information collected may only be used for statistical purposes and no other purpose; your census responses cannot be used against you by any government agency or court in any way. Your responses are compiled with information from other homes to produce statistics, which never identify your home or any person in your home.