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FRISCO — The 2020 Census is upon us. The U.S. Census, which occurs every 10 years, is an official population count that includes related questions from which population data is counted. Invitations to respond to the census online, by mail or by phone will be delivered to residences by mail between March 12 and March 20. There are four questions on the census plus seven questions about each person living in an individual home as only one census document is required per household, according to a sample provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. There are no citizenship questions on the census. The first four questions ask a household:
- How many people are living or staying in this home on April 1, 2020?
- Were there any additional people staying in the home that weren’t included in the first answer? (i.e. people staying temporarily)
- Is the home owned or rented?
- What is your phone number?
The seven questions about each individual person are demographic questions regarding the individual’s name, sex, birthday, hispanic origin and race.
Juli Sutor, Summit County communications director, said that the self response window is from March 12 to April 1 and that if a household responds to the census by census day on April 1, no one will knock on their door regarding census information. From May through July, census takers will visit homes that have not responded to the census.
When responding to the census, Sutor said that one person should reply on behlaf of the whole household, which may include roommates, family members, or someone who is crashing on the living room couch.
“Anybody who is living under your roof should be included,” Sutor said.
Additionally, Sutor said that where someone lives for census purposes means where someone lives most of the time. For example, if someone happens to be visiting on April 1, they aren’t a member of the household. On the other hand, if someone is living in the house most of the time, like someone sleeping on the couch for most of the week, they are considered a member of the household. If someone has a second home in Summit County and happens to be there on April 1, they should respond to the census based on their primary residence.
In January, there was concern over Summit County’s response rate to the 2010 census. The response rate turned out to be higher than originally thought at 72%, but officials still hope to boost the response rate in Summit County this time around. Sutor explained why the census is important to respond to.
“I think one of the biggest things is it really does reflect people’s representation at all levels of government,” Sutor said.
Sutor said the census drives the number of house seats Colorado gets in Congress and affects the drawing of districts. She also pointed out that the census data helps guide the distribution in billions of dollars for federal funding in various districts around the country, including fire stations and schools.
“It is a really quick questionnaire and it is confidential and safe for people to respond. People’s privacy and all of their information is protected,” Sutor said.
Sutor explained that the census data employees swear a lifetime oath to protect people’s information and that individual information from the census isn’t shared with any other government agencies, data is only aggregated and published in large sets in a way that wouldn’t disclose individual identities.