Census takers begin making home visits

Census takers in Nevada on Monday began tracking households that have not yet responded to the 2020 census.

The current self-response rate in Nevada is 62.3%. The Census Bureau will have to visit the remaining addresses to collect responses in person.

Households can respond now by completing and mailing the paper questionnaire they received, responding online at 2020census.gov/es or by phone. Households can respond online or by phone in one of 13 languages and find help in many more languages. They will not need to visit those responding households to obtain their response to the census.

Census takers will follow local public health guidelines when visiting. If the use of masks is required in the area, the census takers will use them. Census takers must complete a virtual COVID-19 training on social distancing protocols and other health and safety guidelines before beginning their work in the neighborhoods.

Census takers from local communities are hired. All census takers speak English and many are bilingual. If a census taker does not speak the language of the head of the household, the household can request a new visit from a census taker who does. Census takers will also have materials on hand to help them identify the home language.

If no one is in the home when the census taker visits, the census taker will leave a visiting notice with information on how to respond online, by phone, or by mail. People are encouraged to cooperate with the census takers and to ensure that everyone who was living in their household on April 1, 2020 is counted.

Census takers can be identified by a valid government identification card with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark and an expiration date on the identification card. To confirm the identity of a census taker, the public can contact their regional census center to speak with a representative from the Census Bureau.

The U.S. Constitution mandates that a population census be conducted every 10 years. The goal of the 2020 census is to count everyone living in the United States on April 1, 2020. Census statistics are used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and report how state, local and federal legislators will allocate billions of dollars in federal funding annually for the next several years.