January 4: 2010 is a Census Year
January 4, 2010
Each household will receive a Census form in the mail starting in mid-March. For the first time, every household will receive the short form, which is simple, straightforward and easy to understand. Short forms traditionally have had higher participation rates than long forms.
Failing to return the questionnaire not only shortchanges our local communities, but it also costs the taxpayer: the process of interviewing households that do not return their questionnaires is the most expensive component of the Census. Most non-responding households will receive a second questionnaire.
A special focus of Census 2010 is to improve outreach to “hard-to-count” communities and to expand efforts to reduce historical undercounts of minority populations.
The Census Bureau and its 12 regional offices, including Detroit, have signed up a record number of organizations that are volunteering to help spread the message that the 2010 Census is easy, safe and important.
The Census Bureau reported that the population of the United States reached 308,400,408 on January 1, an increase of 0.9 percent from last year. The bureau estimated that a birth occurs every eight seconds in the United States and a death occurs every 12 seconds.
The Census is mandated by the United States Constitution (Article 1, Section 2).