Census workers doing address checking in advance of count

The first field activity in advance of the massive undertaking to count every resident in the 2020 Census has started in Weiser, Washington County and across the country with employees conducting what is called address canvassing.  
 The effort will improve and refine the census bureau’s address list of households nationwide, which is necessary in order to deliver census forms in 2020. The address list plays a vital role in ensuring a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the U.S., census officials said in a news release.
 The Census Bureau needs the address and physical location of each living quarter to conduct and tabulate the census. An accurate list ensures that residents will be invited to participate in the census and that the census counts residents in the correct location.
 Officials also said the 2020 Census is using advanced technology to document new households. The Census Bureau created new software called the Block Assessment, Research and Classification Application (BARCA). It compares satellite images of the U.S. over time, allowing census employees to spot new housing developments, changes in existing homes and other housing units that did not previously exist.
 The BARCA software is used to compare the number of housing units in current imagery with the number of addresses on file for each block.
 Census Bureau official Deirdre Bishop said employees were able to verify 65 percent of addresses using satellite imagery. It’s a big accomplishment for the Census Bureau, she said, and also represents a savings to taxpayers.
 In 2010 the Census Bureau had to hire 150,000 people to verify 100 percent of the addresses in the field. For the 2020 Census, the bureau will only have to hire about 40,000 employees around the nation to verify the remaining 35 percent of addresses.
 Census employees have started walking through neighborhoods across the country checking addresses not verified using BARCA software. Employees will knock on doors and ask a few simple questions to verify the address and any additional living quarters on the property for inclusion in the census.
 Employees will introduce themselves as a Census Bureau employee, show their official government ID badge, and explain the purpose of the visit. People may also ask them for a picture ID from another source to confirm their identity.
 This operation is one of several activities the Census Bureau conducts for an accurate and complete count. The Census Bureau also partners with the U.S. Postal Service and tribal, state and local officials to update the address list. The address canvassing in the field will continue through mid-October.
 The 2020 Census officially starts counting people in January 2020 in remote Toksook Bay, Alaska. Following the count of people in remote Alaska, most households in the country will start receiving invitations to respond online, by phone or by mail in March 2020.
 The U.S. Constitution mandates that a census of the population be conducted once every 10 years. Census data is used to determine  the number of seats each state holds in Congress and how more than $675 billion in federal funds are distributed back to states and local communities every year for services and infrastructure, including health care, jobs, schools, roads and businesses.