In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Census Bureau adjusted 2020 Census operations in order to:
Please see: Census Bureau Statement on 2020 Census Data Collection Ending.
Online, phone and mailed self-responses continued throughout the data collection process.
March 12 – July 31
March 12 - October 15, 2020
Census takers interviewed households in person. New dates covered areas previously scheduled for "Early NRFU."
May 13 – July 31
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
April 2 – September 3
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
January 21 – August 31
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
February 3 - October 15
Managers and staff commenced administrative, training, deployment and support activities for peak data collection operations. This included selecting and hiring field staff.
March 1
Phased re-opening occurred between May 4 and June 12.
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
Phased re-opening occurred between May 4 and June 12.
Update Leave operations for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, approximately 1.7 million households, were coordinated separately.
March 15 – April 17
May 22
Census takers interviewed 2,000 households in remote parts of northern Maine and southeast Alaska.
March 16 – April 30
June 14 – July 29
Group Quarters that remain as part of our in-person group quarters enumeration efforts began in July.
April 2 – June 5
July 1 – September 3
We worked with service providers at soup kitchens, shelters, and regularly scheduled food vans to count the people they serve.
March 30 – April 1
September 22 - September 24
Census Bureau staff assisted people with responding online at places people gather (events, grocery stores, etc.).
March 30 – July 31
Through October 15 with limited capacity
Census takers counted people under bridges, in parks, in all-night businesses, etc.
April 1
September 23 - September 24
Census takers counted people staying at campgrounds, RV parks, marinas, and hotels – if those people did not usually live elsewhere.
April 9 – May 4
September 3 – September 28
After collection activities are complete, Census Bureau experts run and review 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.
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 is March 31, 2021.