Counting Down to Census Day: April 1, 2020

This website provides information and updates on the Census to assist communities in planning for a complete and accurate 2020 Census count in North Carolina.

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Why is the Census Important to North Carolina?

Ensure Fair Political Representation Empower Communities Financially Support Community Planning and the Economy

N.C. is projected to gain a seat in Congress 2020 Census data will be used for redistricting.

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News & Updates

Apr, 26 2021 - Carolina Demography

Census 2020: NC gains a 14th seat in the House of Representatives

The U.S. Census Bureau just released the first look at the results from the 2020 Census. North Carolina’s official population in the 2020 Census was 10,439,388*. This is an increase of 903,905 or 9.5% since 2010. North Carolina had the 6th largest increase among the states and was the 15th fastest-growing state.
Apr, 9 2021 - ABC 11

Census delays add suspense for NC voters, delay billions in grants

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The best picture of America isn't found on Google; it's in the U.S. Census.The latest iteration of the decennial project, however, continues to be held up as analysts play catch-up on the massive data operation that was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oct, 14 2020 - NC Counts Coalition

Press Release: SUPREME COURT GRANTS PERMISSION TO THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION TO END THE 2020 CENSUS COUNT

October 14, 2020 – On Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an order allowing the current administration to end the 2020 Census count. Data collection for the 2020 Census will end tomorrow, October 15, 2020.
Aug, 6 2020 - NPR

With No Final Say, Trump Wants To Change Who Counts For Dividing Up Congress' Seats

President Trump released a memorandum Tuesday that calls for an unprecedented change to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the country - the exclusion of unauthorized immigrants from the numbers used to divide up seats in Congress among the states. The memo instructs Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Commerce Department, to include in the legally required report of census results to the president "information permitting the President, to the extent practicable" to leave out the number of immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization from the apportionment count.
Aug, 6 2020 - NPR

Census Cuts All Counting Efforts Short By A Month

The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in a statement. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail. The latest updates to the bureau's plans are part of efforts to "accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts by our statutory deadline of December 31, 2020, as required by law and directed by the Secretary of Commerce" who oversees the bureau, Director Steven Dillingham said in the written statement posted on the bureau's website.
Aug, 6 2020 - The Guardian

Plan to shorten census deadline sounds alarm for disadvantaged Americans

The Census Bureau will end its efforts to count every living person in the US a month earlier than expected, a move that will probably lead to an undercount of communities of color, poorer Americans and other hard-to-count groups.  Such an undercount would be catastrophic for those communities. The numbers from the census, which happens every 10 years, are used to determine how nearly $1.5tn in federal funds get allocated and how electoral districts are drawn for the next decade.  The bureau will shorten the deadline to respond to the census by a month and will end counting on 30 September, it announced on Monday. In April, the agency said it needed until 31 October to finish the count and asked Congress to give it a four-month extension of the 31 December deadline to produce data because of the Covid-19 pandemic.