The 2020 Census Day is right around the corner!

April 1 is the official Census Day, but many people have already received and completed their Census in the mail. Due to current health concerns, door-to-door data collection for non-respondents (yes, if you don’t fill it out, they will contact you) has been delayed, but it is expected to resume at some point later in the year. Follow-up by mail will still occur. 

I’m going to be honest with you– until very recently, I knew next to nothing about the Census except that it had to do with how many representatives each state gets in the House of Representatives, and it’s about population and demographics. 

Oh, and that old Census records are digitized and are pretty cool. If you can find it, it’s neat to see your grandparents as children written in as a line-item on the old handwritten lists. I found out that my great-grandmother was a nurse while checking old Census records. My grandfather never said much about her, so I enjoyed discovering that bit of my family history. 

So other than that, I knew very little about the Census. The more I learned, the more interesting it became, so in case you want to learn a little about the Census, too, here are some facts I came across. 

Did you know…

• Each person counted in a US Census represents about $1600 worth of federal funds for various services and about $200 in state funds annually. Since the Census is only conducted every 10 years, that means 10 years of missed funding per person not counted. 
• The first US Census took place in 1790 and conducted under George Washington’s Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. 
• Title 13 is what keeps your census information secret. To protect current respondents, detailed Census records aren’t publicly available for 72 years. 
• This is the first year that the Census will be conducted primarily online… but you can request a paper copy or call in your answers as well. Use the code that is mailed to your address (it will not be addressed to a specific person!) for quickest completion. 
• The purpose of the census is to measure residents where they are at that point in time (April 1), not only citizens, adults, or homeowners. Renters, don’t be under-counted! (And don’t forget your roommates and children!) If you’re not sure if a roommate has already completed the Census for your household, the Census Bureau has tools to unduplicate responses, so fill it out! 
• Census data is self-identified– no one is going to check up on you, but try to be as accurate as possible, especially with the basics such as numbers of individuals per household and ages. Also, while some may be comfortable answering the nationality question, if you’re not, you are allowed to skip it. 

Census documents and assistance are available in multiple languages, too: 

Have you filled out your Census yet? Have any questions about the Census? Email us at library@durhamtech.edu and we’ll try our best to answer.

Let’s be counted!