The U.S. Census Bureau officially launched its 2010 census efforts on March 30, 2009 by sending out more than 140,000 census workers to verify and update over 145 million addresses.
“Building on the achievements of the 2000 census, we have been testing and preparing for the 2010 count all decade,” said acting Census Bureau director Tom Mesenbourg, “and we’re ready to fulfill our constitutional mandate to count everyone living in the United States.”
The initial address verification process, expected to conclude by the middle of this month, has utilized hand-held computers equipped with GPS (global positioning system) capacity in order to increase geographic accuracy. A March U.S. Census Bureau press release states, “The ability to capture GPS coordinates for most of the nation’s housing units will greatly reduce the number of geographic coding errors caused by using paper maps in previous counts.”
“The primary goal of the census is to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place,” Mesenbourg said. “Because the census is used for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of more than $300 billion in federal dollars every year to state and local governments, it’s essential to get this first step right.”
Over the last several years, the Census Bureau has been actively working on updating its geographic databases and master address files. From implementing the Local Update of Census Address program where more than 11,500 tribal, state and local governments participated in a review of the Census Bureau’s address lists for their areas, to increasing the precision of the GPS mapping, many advances have been made to compile the most comprehensive listing of addresses in the nation.
This is the first census to include group quarters such as dormitories, group homes, prisons, and homeless shelters in the address canvassing operation.
Updates on new home construction will be made in early 2010 prior to the mailing of the census questionnaires.
Census workers can be identified by the official U.S. Census Bureau badge they carry. Census workers will not ask for bank or social security information. All Census Bureau employees – including temporary employees – take an oath for life to keep census information confidential.
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