U.S. Census Information

The U.S. Census is an official count of every person living in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. It officially determines our country's complete population. The Census was mandated by the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 2) and is conducted by the government every ten years. Your participation in the Census is required by law and is vital to your community. The information collected via the Census can only be used for statistical purposes that will not identify you or your household personally. Participation ensures that your community will receive adequate state representation and funding. Government funding for schools, neighborhood improvements, emergency preparedness, transportation, public health, senior services, disaster recovery and much more are all determined by census data.

Census data determines congressional seats and federal funding for local, state and tribal governments. Without the Census, it would be impossible to appropriately and fairly distribute the billions of dollars our government collects from tax revenue and then redistributes to support different state and community resources. The Census allows the government to determine the amounts in relation to the people in any given area.

The official Census date for 2010 is April first. Every single person living in the country should be counted, regardless of immigration or naturalization status. The 2010 Census is one of the shortest questionnaires in the history of the U.S. Census.

The 2010 Census questionnaire will ask four basic questions about your household: How many people live there? Is the property owned or rented? What is the household telephone number? Will anyone else reside there as of 04/01/2010?

For each member of the household you will be asked: What is their name, sex, age and date of birth? What is their relationship to the homeowner? What is their Hispanic origin? What race are they? Does this person ever stay or live elsewhere?

Persons living in detention facilities, nursing homes, prisons, colleges and other locations will NOT be counted as residing in your home. Persons living away in the Armed Forces are NOT counted as a part of your household. These persons are counted where live & stay most of the time, meaning they will be counted by the facility they are residing in as of the count date, even if they will return to your home at some point. Institutions such as prisons, nursing homes and military bases will conduct population counts on their own, which means these people will be counted without being included as part of your household. Babies born before you complete the questionnaire are counted; babies not yet born are not counted.

It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete the written questionnaires, which will be mailed to all households in the United States, sometime between February and March, 2010. ( Reminder Postcards will be delivered between March 22 and March 24, 2010 in all areas where the U.S. Postal Service delivered the questionnaires, as well). If you do not complete and return the questionnaire in a timely manner, a census worker may be sent to your home and fill out the information with you. Census takers will visit homes that did not return questionnaires between April & July, 2010.

Those persons who are homeless or otherwise do not have a 'fixed' address as of 04/01/2010 will also be counted. These people will be counted by Census workers at service-based locations such as soup kitchens, emergency & transitional shelters, scheduled mobile food service vans, and pre-identified, non-shelter locations. Special 'Be Counted' forms will also be available at various locations throughout the community for those who believe they might not be counted otherwise.

Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559 states that the fine for anyone over 18 years old who refuses or willfully neglects to complete the Census questionnaire or answer questions posed by Census Takers from a fine of not more than $100 to not more than $5,000. Title 13 also requires that the Census Bureau keep your answers confidential. Every Census Bureau employee has taken an oath to protect your information. The census worker is subject to a jail term, a fine (or both) if he discloses ANY information that could identify you or your household.

An important thing to note about the information you provide: It is unlawful for the Census Bureau to give personal information about an individual or household to ANY other individual or agency until 72 years after it is collected. That means none of what you reveal will be shared with ANY other organization (government or private) including the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the courts, the police, bill collectors or the Internal Revenue Service. After 72 years, the Census records will be sent to the National Archives, mainly so they can be publicly accessed for genealogical research. Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you, and all other respondents, strictly confidential. Again: any Census Bureau employee who violates these provisions is subject to a fine up to $250,000, a prison sentence up to five years, or both.

All 2010 Census workers carry official government badges marked with just their name. You can ask them for a picture ID from another source to confirm their identity. In addition, many Census workers carry a bag labeled 'U.S. Census Worker'. If you wish to confirm the identity of any Census worker, you can call any of the Regional Census Centers to confirm the workers status. The numbers are toll free and if the worker does not provide you with one, a list is available at http://2010.census.gov/ It should be noted that serious penalties exist for threatening any official Census Worker that attempts to obtain information from you and, since they are considered government agents, this is considered a prosecutable, federal crime.

After completing your Census questionnaire, you may be contacted for 'coverage follow-up'. The Census Bureau will conduct a coverage check to make sure no person is left out of the Census or is counted in more than one place. The Coverage Follow up Operation clarifies responses that were collected previously to ensure that there is a complete and accurate count.

The 2010 Census is a short-form only questionnaire. Further information on population and housing is collected via the 'American Community Survey'. The ACS is a longer questionnaire that is sent to only a small percentage of our population on a rotating basis every year, rather than once every 10 years and provides more current data through the gap between the larger U.S. Census data. Since this questionnaire details more information than is required by the U.S. Census questionnaire, it gives more precise data to the government about similar households and their needs. The ACS is considered an official part of the larger, U.S. Census and is governed by the same laws. If you receive one of the ACS questionnaires, you are required to complete the form in its entirety and are subject to the same penalties if you refuse.

For more complete information regarding your rights and responsibilities regarding the 2010 U.S. Census or the American Community Survey, see the official website at http://2010.census.gov/