The deadline to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census is now October 15.
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American households are urged to participate in the short 10-question survey, whose responses are used to count the population across the U.S. and five U.S. territories. The deadline to respond to the 2020 Census is now October 15.
Every 10 years the U.S. census is conducted to identify city, county and state populations, which in turn determine how much federal funding each region receives for programs and services -- including for hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads and other resources.
Americans began responding to the 2020 Census in March online, by phone and by mail.
If you haven’t yet responded to this year’s census, you can:
- respond to the 2020 Census by phone by calling 844-330-2020.
Workers with the U.S. Census Bureau -- the agency that oversees the census -- have also been going door-to-door around the country to help residents with the survey-taking process.
Click here to learn more about the U.S. Census.
Deadlines for 2020 Census operations have shifted numerous times due to uncertainties caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The U.S. Census Bureau earlier this year asked Congress to push the census response deadline from July to the end of October. The date was set at September 30 -- which many still said was too soon and would impact how many households are actually counted. Due to more court rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Trump Administration could end census operations as early as October 15.
The bureau also asked Congress in April to extend the deadline for turning in census data used for drawing congressional districts from Dec. 31, 2020, to April 30, 2021. Top bureau officials have said it would be impossible to meet the end-of-the-year deadline, but the U.S. Senate never responded to the request.
Related: Census document says cutting steps risks errors in count