2010 Census is safe, easy, important – make it count

Diann Sanders/Plans, Analysis and Integration Office

It’s time for you to get ready for the 2010 Census.

This month census forms will be delivered to every U.S. residence. When you receive yours, just answer the 10 short questions and then mail back the form in the postage-paid envelope provided.

If you don’t mail back the form, you will receive a visit from a census taker, who will ask you the questions from the form. A census taker must follow-up, in person, to obtain responses at every address that doesn’t mail back the form.

The census is safe, easy and important.

The 2010 Census will ask for name, gender, age, race, ethnicity, relationship and whether you own or rent your home — just 10 simple questions that will take about 10 minutes to answer.

The Census Bureau safeguards all census responses to the highest security standards available. Your answers are protected by law and are not shared with anyone.

The census taker who collects your information is sworn for life to protect your data under Federal Law Title 13. Those who violate the oath face criminal penalties. Under federal law, the penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000, imprisonment for up to five years or both.

Census numbers are used to distribute taxpayer money, based on population counts, to fund schools, highways, hospitals, job training, unemployment insurance, health clinics, Medicaid and more than 170 major federal programs. Each person counted means $1,400 per year for your community.

Answer the census; you will save taxpayer money.

It’s critical that you take just 10 minutes to fill out and mail back your form rather than wait for a census worker to show up on your doorstep. From April to July 2010, the Census Bureau will knock on the doors of every household that does not mail back a completed 2010 Census form.

About $85 million in taxpayer dollars are saved for every one percent increase in mail response. The Census Bureau must get a census form to — and a completed form back from — every residence in the United States.

That’s more than 130 million addresses. This is why the census is the largest domestic mobilization our nation undertakes.