Help & FAQs

Questionnaires postmarked by October 15, 2020, and received by October 22, 2020, will be processed by the Census Bureau and included in the final census count.

The 2020 Census asked how many people are living or staying at each address. For each person, we asked about name, sex, age, date of birth, relationship, Hispanic origin, and race. We also asked whether the housing unit, such as the house, apartment, or mobile home, is owned or rented, and for contact information in case additional information is needed.

Learn more about the questions asked.

The Census Bureau is bound by law to protect your answers and keep them strictly confidential. All online responses are encrypted to protect your privacy. To learn more, please visit How the Census Bureau Protects Your Data.

We take our responsibility to protect your information very seriously. The Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 ensures that your data is protected from cybersecurity risks. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify you or your household. By law, the Census Bureau can use your responses only to produce statistics. If you responded online, all web data submissions are encrypted in order to protect your privacy. If you responded using a paper questionnaire, your completed questionnaire will be destroyed after processing.

Thank you for your participation! A census worker may still visit or contact you by phone to confirm address information, or ask follow-up questions about your responses.

No. Your information is completely confidential and protected by law and cannot be shared with any other government agencies, including law enforcement or immigration officials. Federal law (U.S. Code Title 13, Section 9) protects your privacy and keeps your answers safe and secure. By law, the U.S. Census Bureau can use your responses only to produce statistics.

The 2020 Census asks questions that collect information necessary for redistricting. Redistricting is the redrawing of boundaries for the areas that are used to determine where people elect their representatives to the U.S. House of Representatives, state legislature, county or city council, school board, and so forth. Law (Public Law 94-171) requires that the redistricting data be delivered to state officials within one year of Census Day or no later than April 1, 2021.

Apportionment is the process of determining the number of representatives in Congress. Each state's representation in the U. S. House of Representatives is based on the decennial census. The U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 2) established that the apportionment of the House of Representatives would be determined using a national census once every 10 years. The U.S. Census Bureau must deliver the apportionment results to the President and Congress by December 31, 2020.

No, your answers cannot be used to impact your eligibility for any government benefits, including any potential stimulus package. The Census Bureau is bound by Title 13 of the U.S. Code to keep your information confidential, and the answers you provide are used only to produce statistics. Learn more about How We Protect Your Data.