Every housing unit in the Tennessee will receive an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census… if that home’s address appears in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Master Address File (MAF). Across the state, the work is ongoing to ensure that happens.

Local governments add 79,000 addresses to U.S. Census Bureau Address Lists

Address data is maintained by local governments and many cities, counties and development districts participated in a review of the MAF last year. The process, called the Local Update of Census Addresses Operation (LUCA) provided participating governments a chance to review the Census address file and submit corrections.

The results of that work are in and 79,000 new addresses across the state were accepted. though the LUCA program. For a state with estimated 2.99 million housing units in 2018, this represents a 2.6% increase in known addresses and goes a long ways toward making sure all Tennessean’s gets counted.

In-Field Address Canvasing is underway

The first major 2020 Census field operation is underway across the state. Beginning in early August, Census employees hit the streets to begin verifying addresses . Nationally about 65% of addresses were verified using “in-office” procedures that rely on data from the United States Postal Service, satellite imagery and local governments. The remaining 35% are verified in the field.

An interactive map showing areas of the state where canvasing operations will occur was recently released. The map show the percent of housing units in each county and census tract will be canvassed. In many areas of the state, at least 50% of the housing units will be verified.

In fast-growing Montgomery County, 49.7% of addresses will be verified in the field. Explore county and tract-level canvassing areas in the In-Field Address Canvassing (IFAC) Viewer.

New Construction webinar, materials coming soon

State and local governments have one last opportunity to submit new addresses for housing units constructed between March 2018 and April 2020. Over 37,000 housing units were constructed across the state in 2018, but only 19 of 95 Tennessee counties are participating in submitting addresses for those new units.

The deadline to register for the New Construction program has passed. If your county or municipality is still interested in submitting addresses, contact the State Data Center and we will help coordinate the submission of new addresses of your behalf.

19 Tennessee counties are registered to participate in the New Construction Program. The review kicks off in September with training webinars and will conclude by early December.