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2020 Census: Everyone Counts!

By April 7, 2020Connections
Census 2020

Don’t Know Who to Count on Your Census Form?

By now you received your 2020 census mailer and many of you already completed your form. Others are delayed by questions about who to count on their form.

Very simply, everyone who lives and sleeps in your household most of the time on April 1 is to be counted on your form, even if they are from somewhere else. For instance, residents who are here temporarily on a work visa are still counted. Regardless of immigration status, anyone who lives under your roof most of the time is counted in your household’s census form.

Not sure about who to count? Here are a few examples of whom to count:

  • Full-time residents, with a green card or not
  • Someone living here on a long-term visa and lives with you most of the time
  • Child who boards away at a private high school
  • Brother living with you on a work visa

But there are others in your family whom you do not count:

  • College-aged children who live away from home (they should be counted at college)
  • Child who lives with their other parent and visits you (they should be counted on that parent’s form)
  • Parents visiting from India or other international location (don’t count visitors)
  • Parents visiting from New York or other U.S. location (they count at their home address)

Want to know more about whom to count? Visit the official census website.

It is important to count everyone. Numbers from the census help determine funding for schools, roads, hospitals, and more. Census numbers, especially regarding children, help schools make plans for the future.

Census numbers also help local organizations get funding for valuable, often lifesaving services.