United States 2010 Census: IT'S IN OUR HANDS

On the Census Bureau's Take 10 Challenge Map ( http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/ ) you can track how well your community is participating in the census by seeing what percentage of households have mailed back their census forms.  Insert your Zip Code and click Local View.
  

* The rates displayed are the rates achieved by Tuesday, April 27, 2010, prior to the cut-off for door-to-door non response follow-up operations. Final rates will be posted in the fall and will include late mail returns.

Open the door to a census taker and open doors for your community.

The Census Takers have begun going door-to-door to households that did not mail back their forms. 

Census takers are your neighbors – people from your community, hired by the Census Bureau, to go door-to-door and collect census information from residents that have not sent back their 2010 Census forms.  Please cooperate with the census takers to ensure an accurate count of your community. 

They also will verify that housing units indicated as "unoccupied" to us by the postal service or others are indeed unoccupied and vacant.

By being counted you are standing up for what your community's needs are. That's why census takers are so important. A census taker is a person from your community who is hired by the Census Bureau to make sure that your neighborhood gets represented as accurately as possible. The census taker's primary responsibility is to collect census information from residences that have not sent back their 2010 Census form.

•               The Census Bureau provides the census taker with a binder containing all of the addresses that Did Not send back a filled out census form

•               The census taker then visits all of those addresses and records the answers to the questions on the form

•               If no one answers at a particular residence, a census taker will visit that home up to six times, each time leaving a door hanger featuring a phone number; residents can call the number on the hanger to schedule the visit. Following the sixth attempt to contact you, the Census Taker may then speak with your neighbors, to inquire as to the number of people who reside at your address. 

 

The census taker will ONLY ask the questions that appear on the census form.

Do I have to talk to the census taker?  Yes.

 

Your participation in the 2010 Census is vital and required by law, (Section 221, ofTitle 13 of the U.S.Code). However, rather than rely on criminal charges, the Census Bureau is very successful in getting participation by explaining the importance of the questions we ask and how the information benefits our communities.

 

Your privacy and confidentiality is our priority:

The census taker who collects your information is sworn for life to protect your data under Federal Law Title 13. Those who violate the oath face criminal penalties: Under federal law, the penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.

 

When a 2010 Census Taker visits your home, please be respectful and courteous.