The constitutionally mandated census of every person living in the U.S. officially kicks off next month.
And for the first time ever — the count has been conducted every 10 years since 1790 — in addition to responding through paper questionnaires and phone surveys, U.S. residents will have the option to fill out a survey online.
For months, much of the public attention to the census has focused on the Trump administration’s fight to include a question about U.S. citizenship. But now officials have shifted their attention to rolling out its paid advertising campaign and hiring hundreds of thousands of Americans, most of whom will go door to door to follow up on households that don’t respond to the census.
The bureau opened seven Dallas-Fort Worth field offices in October that will each employ between 1,200 and 1,500 workers to help with the count locally. About 230,000 Texans, including close to 33,000 North Texans, will be hired across the state to count the growing population.
Billions of dollars in federal financing and political representation are at stake for the Lone Star State.
Here are a few answers to questions you may have about next year’s census and how you can expect to respond to it:
When will the 2020 census start?
Most of the country will be invited to fill out the 2020 census online, by paper questionnaire or by telephone starting about mid-March. But the official counting process actually starts in late January in Alaska.
Officials will start the count in Toksook Bay, a village that “can only be reached by dog sled, snow machine or bush plane when the ground is still frozen,” according to the bureau.
Census Bureau officials start the counts there earlier than the rest of the country because of the limited access and because some villagers leave their homes to hunt as the area around them thaws.
When will I get my questionnaire?
Most households in Dallas will receive invitations to fill out the census online, either in English or in Spanish, sometime about mid-March. Some households, depending on past frequency of responses, internet subscription rates and the age of residents, will get paper questionnaires, too.
Read more: Will my house get a paper questionnaire? Use our interactive tool to find out.
The bureau will try to contact the public over the course of a few weeks before census takers head out to households that have yet to respond:
- Initial invitations will go out from March 12 to 20.
- Reminders will be mailed March 16 to 24.
- Second reminders will be mailed March 26 to April 3.
- Third reminders with paper questionnaires will be mailed April 8 to 16.
- And final reminders before door knocking begins will go out April 20 to 27.
How will the online response process work?
If your household is initially receiving a online-only invitation, you’ll get a letter that contains instructions and a unique user ID that is specific to your home address. You’ll go to the website listed in the instructions and input the user ID.
The same questions that appear on the paper questionnaire will appear online as well.
Is my information kept private?
The Census Bureau will ask U.S. households questions ranging from how many people live in a household to queries about income, race and gender. That’s why census officials have been stressing for months that information shared with the bureau will be kept confidential.
Information is kept private for 72 years. Census workers from door-to-door counters to the director of the bureau take a lifetime oath not to share personal information — even with other federal agencies. And if they break the law, they face up to five years in prison or up to a $250,000 fine.
Advocacy organizations have tried to ease privacy concerns, primarily among immigrant households, because fear about the potential inclusion of a question about U.S. citizenship has worried many immigrants and mixed-status families.
How does the census impact me?
The federal government uses the data collected by the Census Bureau to distribute about $675 billion for federally financed programs and other public initiatives. The data collected by the census also helps companies decide where to do business.
The political stakes are high for the Lone Star State because it has seen its population balloon during the last 10 years, largely thanks to a rapidly growing Latino population and residents from other states moving here. That growth could lead to Texas securing three more seats in the House of Representatives.
