The countdown to the 2020 Census hits the one-year mark April 1. Communities across Tennessee are working to ensure a complete and accurate count of their residents.
One of the best ways a community can help prepare for the 2020 Census is by forming a Complete Count Committee. These committees have two goals:
- Raise awareness about the importance of the Census to the community
- Motivate residents to self-respond to their Census form next March, especially those who are in hard-to-counts groups or areas.
About 80 percent of Tennessee households completed their Census form in 2010, but response rates were much lower in some parts of the state. A new interactive map shows the predicted 2020 Census non-response score across Tennessee.
Contact Faye Anderson, the Census Bureau’s Tennessee Partnership Coordinator, for more information about Complete Count Committees or to schedule a meeting with one of Tennessee’s Partnership Specialists.
Census tract-level demographics provide insight into what factors might drive higher rates of predicted non-response in an area.
New Construction Program
The New Construction Program helps ensure new homes and apartments built between March 1, 2018, and April 1, 2020, will receive a Census form.
State, county and municipal governments were invited to participate in the program earlier this month. Cities or counties that did not participate in the Local Update of Census Address Program can still participate in the New Construction Program.
Letters announcing the program were mailed to the highest elected official in each government, but interested communities can also register on the U.S. Census Bureau website.
55% of counties and 37% of municipalities participated in LUCA, the Census Bureau’s household address update program.