2020 Census Day is Just One Year Away: Is Your County Prepared?

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April 1, 2019, marked exactly one year away from the start of the 2020 Census! Having an accurate and complete count for your county is very important. Each person counted represents $1339 in federal funding to be distributed to states and local governments throughout the country. The census data collected will be used for a 10 year period following the census and will impact the following:

• local, state, and congressional representation

• tier designation

• grant eligibility, such as for CDBG grants

• LOST negotiations

• determine eligibility for over $600 billion in federal funding for numerous programs including Medicare, highway planning and construction, health center programs,  SNAP, WIC, Section 8 housing, Head Start, etc.

• determine eligibility for state programs and grants

• comprehensive planning

• service delivery

The best way to ensure an accurate count is to create a local complete count committee. Details on how to create a local complete count committee are available on the U.S. Census website. To have a Census Bureau staff member visit your county to help with this process, contact Vicki Mack at vicki.r.mack@2020census.gov. If you were unable to attend one of the five workshops that ACCG and GMA provided across the state on how to create a local complete count committee, the meeting materials are available at http://www.accg.org/2020_census.php.  All counties creating a local complete count committee should register through  the State 2020 Census website at https://census.georgia.gov/webform/local-complete-count-committees.

Once you have created a local complete count committee, it is important to identify the hard-to-count areas and  populations within your county. Hard-to-count information for Georgia, including resources and maps, is provided on the ACCG 2020 Census Page, through the Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM), and through the following article published in the Spring Georgia County Government Magazine: Working with Hard to Count Communities.

The 2020 Census also brings local employment opportunities for your county. The U.S. Census Bureau is hiring hundreds of thousands of temporary workers to assist with the 2020 Census. Details on how to apply for a position is provided through the U.S. Census website.

Don’t miss out on being counted! Start your county’s 2020 Census efforts today!