Every 10 years, the federal government conducts a population count of everyone in the United States. Data from the census provide the basis for distributing more than $675 billion in federal funds annually to communities across the country to support vital programs—impacting housing, education, transportation, employment, health care, and public policy. They also are used to redraw the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts and accurately determine the number of congressional seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives

Responding to the census is not only your civic duty; it also affects the amount of funding your community receives, how your community plans for the future, and your representation in government. Specifically, data from the 2020 Census are used to:

• Ensure public services and funding for schools, hospitals, fire departments, and more.
• Plan new homes and businesses and improve neighborhoods.
• Determine how many seats Tennessee is allocated in the House of Representatives.

The next census will take place in 2020. Beginning in midMarch, people will receive a notice in the mail to complete the 2020 Census. Once you receive it, you can respond online. In May, the U.S. Census Bureau will begin following up in person with households that haven’t responded to the census.

In 2020, for the first time ever, the U.S. Census Bureau will accept responses online, but you can still respond by phone or mail if you prefer. Responding should take less time than it takes to finish your morning coffee.

The decennial census will collect basic information about the people living in your household. When completing the census, you should count everyone who is living in your household on April 1, 2020

The Census Bureau will never ask for:

• Social Security numbers
• Bank or credit card account numbers
• Money or donations
• Anything on behalf of a political party

Strict federal law protects your census responses. It is against the law for any Census Bureau employee to disclose or publish any census information that identifies an individual. Census Bureau employees take a lifelong pledge of confidentiality to handle data responsibly and keep respondents’ information private. The penalty for wrongful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both. No law enforcement agency (not the DHS, ICE, FBI, or CIA) can access or use your personal information at any time. Data
collected can only be used for statistical purposes that help inform important decisions, including how much federal funding your community receives.

The Census Bureau has a robust cybersecurity program that incorporates industry best practices and federal security standards for encrypting data.

The census is so important that your response is required by law, and your answers are kept completely confidential. By the same law, the Census Bureau can only use your responses to produce statistics.

Most of the questions will be similar to what census forms have asked for in recent counts:

• The number of people living or staying in a home on April 1, 2020
• Whether the home is owned with or without a mortgage, rented, or occupied without rent
• A phone number for a person in the home
• The name, sex, age, date of birth, and race of each person in the home
• Whether each person is of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
• The relationship of each person to a central person in the home.

Notable changes for 2020 include new write-in areas under the race question for the non-Hispanic origins of those who identify as white and/or black ("German" and "Jamaican" are among the provided examples). There are also new household relationship categories that allow couples living together to identify their relationships as either "same-sex" or "opposite-sex."

In July, federal courts permanently blocked the Trump administration from adding to the 2020 census the question, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" The Census Bureau, however, continues to include a citizenship question on other forms it asks some U.S. households to complete, including the American Community Survey; census forms for American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and the 2019 Census Test, which is collecting responses through Aug. 15.

While paper forms will only be available in English and Spanish, you can respond online or by phone in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese. The bureau is also providing video and printed guides in 59 non-English languages, as well as a video in American Sign Language.

Applications for the half-million temporary census positions, including door knockers and outreach specialists, must be submitted online. You can find more information on the bureau's recruitment website.

The Census Bureau is expected to announce the new population counts by Dec. 31, 2020. That's the bureau's deadline for sending to the president numbers for the reapportionment of congressional seats, which goes into effect beginning with the 2022 elections. 2020 census data used for state and local redistricting are set to be released by March 31, 2021. The bureau is planning to release other new census data beginning in spring 2021.

The framers used the term “citizen” 11 times in the Constitution, but in Article 1, Section 2 (3), they expressly said that the census is an enumeration of persons. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution repeats this point, stating:

“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each State..."

What this means is that in accordance to the United States Constitution, the US Census counts everyone including citizens, non-citizen legal residents, non-citizen long-term visitors, illegal immigrants and prisoners in jails and penitentiaries.

The Census Bureau will never ask for:

• full social security number
• money or donations
• anything on behalf of a political party
• your full bank or credit card account numbers

If you are visited by someone from the United States Census Bureau, here are some recognition tips to assure the validity of the field representative;

• Must present an ID Badge which contains: photograph of field representative, Department of Commerce watermark, and expiration date.
• Will provide you with supervisor contact information and/or the regional office phone number for verification, if asked.
• Will provide you with a letter from the Director of the Census Bureau on U.S. Census Bureau letterhead.
• May be carrying a laptop and/or bag with a Census Bureau logo