The 2020 Census: Why It Matters

In 2020, our nation will conduct the once-a-decade Census with the goal to count every person living in the United States once, only once, and in the right place. Everyone matters and responding to the Census helps communities get their fair share of federal funding. Census data guides how more than $675 billion in funding gets distributed to states and communities each year and helps communities create jobs, provide housing, prepare for emergencies, and build schools, roads and hospitals. The Census also helps determine how many seats a state receives in Congress and state and local governments use the data to redraw boundaries for congressional districts, state legislative districts and school districts, adapting to population shifts.

The 2020 Census is easy, safe and important. Responding is easier than ever since for the first time, people will be able to respond to the Census online. It asks just a few questions and takes a few minutes to respond. Your responses are safe, secure, confidential and protected by law. If you respond online, your answers are encrypted to protect your privacy and are safe from hacking and other cyber threats. If you don’t have Internet access, people can respond by phone or by mail.

The Census Bureau is bound by Title 13 of the U.S. Code to keep your information confidential. Under Title 13, the Census Bureau cannot release any identifiable information about you, your home or your business, even to law enforcement agencies. The law ensures that your private data is protected and that your answers cannot be used against you by any government agency or court. Census Bureau employees are sworn for life to protect personal information and we have strong security measures in place to safeguard against cyber threats. By law, your responses can only be used to produce statistics and the Census Bureau takes extraordinary steps to protect the confidentiality of your responses.

Conducting the Census is a massive undertaking and requires years of planning with the support of thousands of people. As the 2020 Census approaches, our success will rely on everyone’s participation in every community. The Census Bureau is hiring hundreds of thousands of people to help ensure a complete and accurate count across the U.S. and in every community. Watch for these jobs as they become available on 2020census.gov/jobs or USAjobs.gov. Applicants for temporary field and office positions can complete the entire application process online.

Census outreach also consists of building relationships in the community where Area Census Offices are located. For the past several months, the Census has garnered support from local communities, governments, cities, towns and school districts throughout the Arizona state. The state has embraced all Census efforts and through the Arizona partnership team, business and community organizations.

To obtain more information about the upcoming 2020 Census, how you can become involved and how to enlist the support of your community, please visit www.2020census.gov.