“Take 10” Turnkey Kit

Fact Sheet

Facts about the 2010 Census

· More than 130 million addresses across the nation will receive a census form in March 2010 either by U.S. mail or hand delivery.

· April 1, 2010, is Census Day, the official day of the population count. Responses to the census form should include everyone who will be living at that address as of that day. (It is not necessary to wait until Census Day to return the census form, however. Forms should be returned as quickly as possible.) People should be counted where they live or sleep most of time.

· Everyone must be counted. This includes people of all ages, races and ethnic groups; citizens and noncitizens.

· The 2010 Census language assistance program will help non English-speakers fill out and mail back their census form.

o For the first time in its history, the Census Bureau will mail about 13 million bilingual forms in English and Spanish to households in areas with high concentrations of Spanish-only speakers.

o Forms will be available upon request in five languages in addition to English: Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Vietnamese and Russian.

o Questionnaire Assistance Centers (QAC) will be available to assist those unable to read or understand the census form, and a Language Assistance Guide also will be available in 59 languages at all QAC locations. All Language Assistance Guides will be available to download or print at 2010census.gov.

o For those with visual impairments, the Language Assistance Guide will be available in large print and Braille. Deaf and hard-of-hearing persons who do not have access to Video Relay Service (VRS) can call the TDD number, 1-866-783-2010.

· Those who feel they may not have been counted can visit any one of 40,000 “Be Counted” sites or Questionnaire Assistance Centers. The Census Bureau established these locations as a resource for people who need help filling out a form and to ensure they are counted only once and in the right place.

“Take 10” Turnkey Kit

Fact Sheet (continued)

Facts about the “Take 10” Program, Mail Participation Rate and

Nonresponse Follow-up (NRFU)

· Completing and mailing back a form is the easiest and most efficient method of participating in the 2010 Census.

· Through the “Take 10” initiative, the Census Bureau and its partners ask people to “take 10 minutes” to complete and return their form by mail in an effort to surpass the Census 2000 mail participation rate of 72 percent, which was the national rate as of the April 2000 cut-off.

· About $85 million is saved for every one percent increase in mail participation.

· The Census Bureau saves $60-$70 per census form that is returned by mail.

· The Census Bureau uses a “multiple contact” mailing strategy to improve the mail participation rate.

o Studies have shown that sending advance notice of the arrival of the form will increase the mail participation rate. Most households who don’t respond will also receive a replacement form.

· During peak recruiting for 2010 field operations, nearly 500 Local Census Offices will hire more than 1.2 million people to conduct all remaining 2010 Census field operations.

· It is estimated that census workers will have to visit about 47 million homes during Nonresponse Follow-up (NRFU) operations; the process by which census workers visit addresses that did not return a census form in order to take the count in person.

· During NRFU, census workers will make up to six attempts to obtain data from households that do not respond by mail.

· Census workers will visit service-based locations, such as soup kitchens and shelters, to take a count of more transient populations in person.

· Census workers will re-visit every address that was previously classified as vacant or as non-existent to ensure that classification was correct. If the address is occupied on the return visit, census workers will take the count in person.

· From March 22 through May 3, 2010, daily mail participation rate data will be available at 2010census.gov in the form of maps and tables.

o You can view the Web-based maps in nine different levels of detail: national, state, county, city, consolidated city, municipality, congressional district, minor civil division and collection tract.