Census 2020: What you need to know, How to make sure you are counted
It was the year that the Census Bureau was primed for an arrogant task - a census of nearly 330 million Americans for the digital age at the time of the huge national divide and the impediments to an accurate count.
The 2020 census will help determine how many congressional seats and electoral college votes each state gets, plus a distribution of some $ 1.5 trillion in federal spending. Officials say the census can be completed online, by telephone or via mail. But census officials vowed the job would be completed by its year-end deadline.
Census Day - the date used for reference where a person once lived for a decade of counting - has almost crippled a nation by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Then came Coronavirus.Initial indications are that the first part of the process - getting more and more Americans to respond via the census website, by mail or via phone - has gone well.
The spread of the virus has forced the US Census Bureau to suspend field operations for a month from mid-March to mid-April, when the recruitment process ramp up for 500,000 temporary census takers. The bureau has delayed starting counting for homeless and people living in group quarters like college dorms and nursing homes, and pushed back the deadline to wrap up the head count from late July to mid-August.
But the severe limitations related to the virus on mobility and personal contact have retained a decade of thorough planning on how to accurately count those who do not respond on their own and specifically reach parts of the population Are difficult to Fair political representation and billions of federal dollars are riding on the result.
The official start of the perennial reckoning that began 230 years ago. The Census Bureau requires federal law to send the president, which will be used to engrave congressional districts - a process known as distortion - and draw the state's legislative districts by Dec. 31. . Some groups are suggesting that the deadline was pushed back, although it is currently mandated by federal law.
Census Day is mostly a way of drawing attention to the census and its importance. Almost all the houses have already received instructions to complete the form. But April 1 is also a fundamental marker - the bureau mandate is to count everyone who is a member of the household on that day, often including unseen people such as young children, borders and relatives.
Michael Cooke, head of the Department of Public Information, Michael Cook, said, We are focusing on the application for the date of December 31, with a deadline for appellate counts and population calculations. We will continue to assess all our actions. Office at the US Census Bureau, said Tuesday.
Head count began in late January in rural, native villages in Alaska, but the rest of the country was unable to begin answering the questionnaire until the second week of March, when the Census Bureau's self-response website went live and people received notice In the mail that they can start answering questions. But it was only a week before many governors and mayors began issuing house-hold orders to slow the spread of the virus, which led to rallies, meetings and doorstep by activists to raise awareness about the 2020 census - was obstructing the knocking.
Since the online portal opened on March 10, about 38 percent of households have responded, consistent with bureau estimates. If you want to see how your state, city, or neighborhood is doing, the Census Bureau is monitoring daily responses, and the City University of New York is publishing maps that offer even more granular breakdown.
Other aspects of the count, though, are facing unexpected obstacles. Already, a multi-day nationwide count of about one and a half million homeless people has been discontinued. Processing of mail-in census forms has slowed as the bureau has moved to Jeffersonville, Ind. And shaved off its staff at regional centers in Tuscan, Ariz. And social-distraction cuts in the bureau's call center work force have slowed down the reactions people want. Complete the census by phone or require other types of assistance.
Experts say that engaging with personally trusted community leaders is the best way to get people into hard-to-count groups that may be wary of the federal government. "There is a point to note. Certainly when people are concerned about the issue of public health, and children are away from school, and they are getting away from work, it is a concern that the census is at the top of people's minds No. Thomas Sainz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "You want this."
The US Census Bureau is spending $ 500 million on efforts, including advertising, and is dependent on more than 300,000 nonprofit organizations, businesses, local governments and civic groups to encourage participation in their communities. Those efforts have been hampered by a nationwide shutdown. Two surveys by the Pew Research Center suggest the message was reaching listeners - at least before the outbreak of coronovirus. Pew conducted two surveys, one in early January and another in late February and early March. During that time, people who had seen or heard something about the census had grown from half to two-thirds of the respondents, the center survey found.
Most census takers will not be sent out until the end of May to knock on the doors of homes, where people have not yet responded to online questions by telephone or by mailing a paper questionnaire. Until then, the Census Bureau is pushing people to answer questions, so that they don't have to knock on someone's door in late spring and summer.
Researchers at the Urban Institute are concerned that the location in response to coronovirus may have changed, presenting a distorted picture of where people are living on Census Day. Some people have left their normal place of residence to move back with parents or elderly relatives, fled to vacation homes, or have to relocate because they do not pay rent due to lost jobs during the epidemic. Could do, he said.
Researchers at the Urban Institute said that the Census Bureau needed more processing time to identify duplicate responses and to give people additional guidelines as to when you are staying on April 1. How to respond to the traditional recommendation to give. They are asking that the 31 December deadline be postponed, which would require an Act of Congress.
"There's no way reliable counts are going to be generated by the end of December," said Robert Santos, vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute. "It's implausible."
It was the year that the Census Bureau was primed for an arrogant task - a census of nearly 330 million Americans for the digital age at the time of the huge national divide and the impediments to an accurate count.
The 2020 census will help determine how many congressional seats and electoral college votes each state gets, plus a distribution of some $ 1.5 trillion in federal spending. Officials say the census can be completed online, by telephone or via mail. But census officials vowed the job would be completed by its year-end deadline.
Census Day - the date used for reference where a person once lived for a decade of counting - has almost crippled a nation by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Then came Coronavirus.Initial indications are that the first part of the process - getting more and more Americans to respond via the census website, by mail or via phone - has gone well.
The spread of the virus has forced the US Census Bureau to suspend field operations for a month from mid-March to mid-April, when the recruitment process ramp up for 500,000 temporary census takers. The bureau has delayed starting counting for homeless and people living in group quarters like college dorms and nursing homes, and pushed back the deadline to wrap up the head count from late July to mid-August.
But the severe limitations related to the virus on mobility and personal contact have retained a decade of thorough planning on how to accurately count those who do not respond on their own and specifically reach parts of the population Are difficult to Fair political representation and billions of federal dollars are riding on the result.
The official start of the perennial reckoning that began 230 years ago. The Census Bureau requires federal law to send the president, which will be used to engrave congressional districts - a process known as distortion - and draw the state's legislative districts by Dec. 31. . Some groups are suggesting that the deadline was pushed back, although it is currently mandated by federal law.
Census Day is mostly a way of drawing attention to the census and its importance. Almost all the houses have already received instructions to complete the form. But April 1 is also a fundamental marker - the bureau mandate is to count everyone who is a member of the household on that day, often including unseen people such as young children, borders and relatives.
Michael Cooke, head of the Department of Public Information, Michael Cook, said, We are focusing on the application for the date of December 31, with a deadline for appellate counts and population calculations. We will continue to assess all our actions. Office at the US Census Bureau, said Tuesday.
Head count began in late January in rural, native villages in Alaska, but the rest of the country was unable to begin answering the questionnaire until the second week of March, when the Census Bureau's self-response website went live and people received notice In the mail that they can start answering questions. But it was only a week before many governors and mayors began issuing house-hold orders to slow the spread of the virus, which led to rallies, meetings and doorstep by activists to raise awareness about the 2020 census - was obstructing the knocking.
Since the online portal opened on March 10, about 38 percent of households have responded, consistent with bureau estimates. If you want to see how your state, city, or neighborhood is doing, the Census Bureau is monitoring daily responses, and the City University of New York is publishing maps that offer even more granular breakdown.
Other aspects of the count, though, are facing unexpected obstacles. Already, a multi-day nationwide count of about one and a half million homeless people has been discontinued. Processing of mail-in census forms has slowed as the bureau has moved to Jeffersonville, Ind. And shaved off its staff at regional centers in Tuscan, Ariz. And social-distraction cuts in the bureau's call center work force have slowed down the reactions people want. Complete the census by phone or require other types of assistance.
Experts say that engaging with personally trusted community leaders is the best way to get people into hard-to-count groups that may be wary of the federal government. "There is a point to note. Certainly when people are concerned about the issue of public health, and children are away from school, and they are getting away from work, it is a concern that the census is at the top of people's minds No. Thomas Sainz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "You want this."
The US Census Bureau is spending $ 500 million on efforts, including advertising, and is dependent on more than 300,000 nonprofit organizations, businesses, local governments and civic groups to encourage participation in their communities. Those efforts have been hampered by a nationwide shutdown. Two surveys by the Pew Research Center suggest the message was reaching listeners - at least before the outbreak of coronovirus. Pew conducted two surveys, one in early January and another in late February and early March. During that time, people who had seen or heard something about the census had grown from half to two-thirds of the respondents, the center survey found.
Most census takers will not be sent out until the end of May to knock on the doors of homes, where people have not yet responded to online questions by telephone or by mailing a paper questionnaire. Until then, the Census Bureau is pushing people to answer questions, so that they don't have to knock on someone's door in late spring and summer.
Researchers at the Urban Institute are concerned that the location in response to coronovirus may have changed, presenting a distorted picture of where people are living on Census Day. Some people have left their normal place of residence to move back with parents or elderly relatives, fled to vacation homes, or have to relocate because they do not pay rent due to lost jobs during the epidemic. Could do, he said.
Researchers at the Urban Institute said that the Census Bureau needed more processing time to identify duplicate responses and to give people additional guidelines as to when you are staying on April 1. How to respond to the traditional recommendation to give. They are asking that the 31 December deadline be postponed, which would require an Act of Congress.
"There's no way reliable counts are going to be generated by the end of December," said Robert Santos, vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute. "It's implausible."
