In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Census Bureau adjusted 2020 Census operations in order to:
We adapted or delayed some of our operations to protect the health and safety of our staff and the public and make sure we counted the nation's population.
Online, phone and mailed self-responses continued throughout the data collection process.
March 12 - July 31, 2020
March 12 - October 15, 2020
Census takers interviewed households in person. New dates covered areas previously scheduled for "Early NRFU."
May 13 – July 31, 2020
The Census Bureau began soft-launching NRFU on July 16, 2020. All area census offices completed their work by October 15, 2020.
Many group quarters responded through our e-Response enumeration option.
April 2 - June 5, 2020
April 2 - September 3, 2020
Early operation to reach parts of Alaska which may be difficult to reach later in the year and whose populations depart for other activities. The operation was mostly completed on the original planned schedule, though some areas with year-round populations were enumerated when it was safe to do so.
January 21 - April 30, 2020
January 21 – August 31, 2020
Census takers interviewed households in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This operation was coordinated with the local Island Areas governments. Census takers used paper questionnaires to interview households.
February 3 - June 30, 2020
February 3 - October 15, 2020
Managers and staff commenced administrative, training, deployment and support activities for peak data collection operations. This included selecting and hiring field staff.
March 1, 2020
Phased re-opening May 4 to June 12, 2020
Census takers dropped off invitations to respond and paper questionnaires at the front doors of 5 million households stateside while updating their addresses.
March 15 – April 17, 2020
Phased re-opening May 4 to June 12, 2020
Update Leave operations for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, approximately 1.7 million households, were coordinated separately.
March 15 – April 17, 2020
May 22, 2020
Census takers interviewed 2,000 households in remote parts of northern Maine and southeast Alaska
March 16 – April 30, 2020
June 14 – July 29, 2020
Group Quarters that remain as part of our in-person group quarters enumeration efforts began in July.
April 2 – June 5, 2020
July 1 – September 3, 2020
We worked with service providers at soup kitchens, shelters, and regularly scheduled food vans to count the people they serve.
March 30 – April 1, 2020
September 22 - September 24, 2020
Census Bureau staff assisted people with responding online at places people gather (events, grocery stores, etc.).
March 30 – July 31, 2020
Through October 15, 2020 with limited capacity
Census takers counted people under bridges, in parks, in all-night businesses, etc.
April 1, 2020
September 23 - September 24, 2020
Census takers counted people staying at campgrounds, RV parks, marinas, and hotels – if those people did not usually live elsewhere.
April 9 – May 4, 2020
September 3 – September 28, 2020
Upon completion of the collection activities, Census Bureau experts ran and reviewed output from programs to unduplicate responses, determine final housing unit status, populate any missing housing unit data on household size, and finalize the universe to be included in the apportionment count file. The statutory deadline to provide apportionment counts is December 31, 2020. The Census Bureau delivered the apportionment counts on April 26, 2021.
By December 31, 2020
April 26, 2021
Census Bureau experts run and review programs to populate any missing demographic data for each household, run differential privacy programs to ensure confidentiality and run tabulation programs for each state delivery. The statutory deadline to provide redistricting data was March 31, 2021. The Census Bureau provided the redistricting data in a legacy format on our public FTP site on August 12, 2021, and delivered to the states and the public with the same redistricting data in an easier-to-use format on September 16, 2021.
By March 31, 2021
August 12 and September 16, 2021