• By Todd Luck
• Posted Friday, July 24, 2020

Fill out your 2020 Census and help Forsyth be counted

The 2020 Census is underway and you can help Forsyth County be counted by responding from your own home at my2020Census.gov. Census data helps determine the distribution of federal funds for local services and how many representatives states have in Congress.

The census is a constitutionally mandated survey that’s given every 10 years to determine the population of the United States. The individual information gathered is CONFIDENTIAL and NOT shared with other agencies.

The US Census Bureau has made operational adjustments for social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak, but residents are still encouraged to take the census as soon they can online, by phone at 1-844-330-2020 or by mail.

The Census is a short survey of basic information on who was living at your address on April 1, 2020. It takes ten minutes on average to fill out. Students affected by college and university closures should be counted where they live during school. There is no citizenship question on the Census.

Every address in the country was mailed an initial census invitation in mid-March and several reminder mailings since then. The mailings are addressed to the “Resident” there and come from the Census Bureau in Jeffersonville, IN. Your invitation contained your Census ID in it, but you can also use your address to take the survey.

Answering the census is important. The count determines how much money our county receives for numerous services like schools, roads, senior services, SNAP, emergency services, housing vouchers, Pell grants for college, job training, Cooperative Extension and many others.

Several dates have been readjusted for the Census due to COVID-19, with the self-response phase extended to October 31. Census takers will begin interviewing households who have yet to fill out of the Census in some parts of the country on July 16. Most Census offices will begin follow-up work on August 11.

Forsyth County’s self-response rate, as of July 15, was 60.9 percent.