Residents across the nation have until Oct. 31—an extended deadline because of the coronavirus pandemic—to self-respond to the 2020 U.S. census, which is conducted every 10 years.
So far, the 2020 census has received a 61.9% response rate, and the U.S. Census Bureau plans to do a nationwide campaign in July using flyers, social media, advertising and grassroots efforts to push additional self-response participation, especially in areas where the response rate is low, said Al Fontenot, associate director for decennial census programs, and Tim Olson, associate director for field operations, in a July 8 media briefing on the 2020 census.
For individuals who have not responded, one of about 500,000 census takers, known as enumerators, will visit their household to collect responses, a process known as the nonresponse follow-up, Olson and Fontenot said.
The follow-up is the largest operation the bureau does during the census, Olson said. The follow-up will run between Aug. 11-Oct. 13—postponed from May 13-July 31 because of the coronavirus—and involves a census taker conducting a five- to seven-minute in-person interview, he said.
