By April 1, 2020, every home will receive an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census. You will have three options for responding:

• Online.
• By phone.
• By mail.

March 12-20, households will begin receiving official Census Bureau mail with detailed information on how to respond to the 2020 Census.

If you live in the following locations, there will be some differences in your timeline for completing the 2020 Census or in the ways you can respond:

• Puerto Rico.
• The U.S. Island Areas (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands).
• Very remote areas, such as parts of northern Maine and Alaska.
• Areas that experienced a natural disaster.
• Group living arrangements, such as on-campus student housing, correctional facilities, military bases, health care facilities, and shelters.

For some people, it’s not clear how they should count themselves or the people in their home. These circumstances may include:

• People who live in more than one place.
• People who are moving on Census Day (April 1, 2020).
• People who are born or die on Census Day (April 1, 2020).
• People experiencing homelessness.

For more information, visit Who To Count.

If you live in the United States of America, you are required to respond, regardless of your nationality.

Also, be aware that there have been some political mailings resembling the Census. Those are not the official census that you are required by law to fill out. Census documents will NOT have the name of a political party on them.

Census is done every 10 years, many Federal, State and local programs rely on the population data to allocate funding ot the communities. Please complete your Census and be accurate. You will be visited by a Census taker if you do not complete your required Census form. Remember participation is required by law.

[Editor note: As a historian, I have used so many past census records for historical information and geneaology. Remember you help future generations with this information too.]